It wasn't my tester or my test. I believe it was an Agilent Wirescope. I was looking over the shoulder of a guy using it. When I said that's kind of odd, why would you get different responses, how can you rely on a tester that is doing that? Then I asked some of the same questions posted here. Are the batteries good in the remote end? Have you ever calibrated it? Do you keep testing it until it tests good then you accept it? He just dismissed it and said 'well, it can do that because of the cable connections, you know, if it moves a little in the jack. It'll give you different results.'

On one test he indicated there was a 'kink' in the cable. Then he said it was a far-end or near-end termination fault he wasn't sure.

So I said 'well okay'. I just don't see the point in a tester like that. Why don't you plug a PC in and see if it works? If it doesn't, Then you know as much as the your tester is telling you: Something is wrong.

I posted this because I wondered if anyone else would not think this was kind of odd and just accept it like this guy in the field did.