About
Reviews (1)
02 March 2011
Versitile Date Verifier.
I am a telecommunications technician, primarily involved in T1 WAN installations. As such I make Ethernet, T1, and phone cables. This tester can test all these cables and more. The way that it displays the test results, direct numerical readout of the pin to pin connection or lack thereof, makes it easy to find and correct the fault.
I was called to a clients location to resolve a problem, their network had lost connectivity to the router. I connected the remote to the network drop out in the warehouse and took the main unit into the office to test the cable. there were a few open wires and a pair was shorted. I cut the ends off and reterminated them, but no change. Started walking it back looking for the damaged area. Since there were some shorts and some opens I assumed it had been crushed by a forklift or a pallet. After looking around a bit and asking the manager about recent work in the area. I was shown an area where a water pipe had been extended in the last few days, sure enough the cable was pinched behind the pipe against the wall. I spliced around it and tested again and the customer was up and running.
The only thing I would like to see is the ability to learn cables. I use T1 and T1 rollover cables a lot and would like to see a solid pass indication and a rollover indicator. Same for Ethernet crossover cables. Another feature I could use is a RS-232 serial cable tester, especially if it could identify DTE and DCE cables. The only other negative about this unit is that they have a pro model with 8 port identifiers and it went on sale right ater I bout this one. I would rather have it for the extra few dollars.