netAlly LRAT-1000 LinkRunner at Copper Ethernet Network Tester

This thing is great! It tells you what port the line is plugged into on the Cisco switch. You can identify jacks from the patch panel by plugging in the identifying sticks (probably just reading resistors). You can store up to 50 reports on test's you have done and then upload them to your computer. Nice case that stores everything neatly. Battery life is good and the device boots up quickly, I think around 3 seconds.The toner is neat. It has traditional capabilities but it also has a digital tone that the LRAT will produce on a line. The only thing is, if you don't have the line terminated, you're SOL until you terminate it and plug it in to the LRAT and generate a tone. Frankly, it doesn't bother me, I'm still using my old Tempo toner that I inherited from another installer. Love that thing.One minor thing I don't like is that after you put on the protective case for the LRAT you can't store it in the case with the harness. You just have to store it without the harness. Also, the protective case makes the LRAT seem too big, but the case will still zip up. I don't get what the second harness if for. I'm assuming it's for the actual equipment case itself, but there's nowhere to clip it to other than the handles. No stars off for this since it's an amazing device.

Not cheap, but this thing will save you money and time. I walked into a plant that had new cable runs installed and knew very quickly which runs had what issues. Made dealing with the contractor a whole lot easier and sure beats stumbling around with a laptop. Like all Fluke gear we have, this one is rugged, easy to operate, and easy to maintain. It boots in 3 seconds (takes slightly longer to turn it off), battery lasts a long time, and it will stay charged while stored. It is not a network analyzer, but it identifies shorts, breaks, crosses, switch connectivity, switch port info, and general connectivity to your (programmed) IP's on your WAN. You can also test patch cords in seconds.The kit I got comes with one WireView wire mapper terminator and it has been handy. I have not found the need to get more than one but you might. Also in the kit is a RJ45F-RJ45F connector, charger (bulky), and software. I installed the software to setup the auto-test function for my WAN (which is small) so I can take this tester to any site and run tests to all other sites on the WAN. Handy. Wish I bought one of these years ago.

I purchased this product to disagnose network issues at customer sites. I have ran every one of my cables and installed all the switches and firewalls/routers so I know mine are correct as i have tested each cable as I completed them, but at a customer site I have no idea what has or has not been done.I opened the product and started using it after the recommended 4 hour battery charge. With a basic knowledge of networks and cabling it is very easy to use and does not require much documentation (in fact I have not even reviewed the documentation outside of the basic info on charging the battery). I tested it on my DHCP network and it was able to obtain an IP and DNS along with routing out correctly and I was even able to do simple "ping" type performance tests to sites I entered into the unit. I also tested it on my non-DHCP network and after entering the IP address, subnet, gateway and DNS's it also was able to connect and route and perform the same tests. The most impressive thing to me is it can determine within a few inches the length of the ethernet cable (I use CAT5 RJ45) and even has a feature that you can determine where the cable is connected on a specific switch or hub. This is done through the included tone probe and then a nifty feature that, once you have located the cable bundle going into the switch or hub via the probe you can put the unit in a mode that flashes the Link, 10/100/1000 and on some switches the full/col light all together. This makes it very easy to determine which port the cable is connected to. You can then place the Wireview Cable ID connector(includes 6 of these in the extended kit that I purchased) on that end of the cable and then place the main unit in cable disagnose mode and it will even tell you if your pin outs from end to end or correct or which ones are dead or crossed. It also determins the connect speed of the cable/switch 10, 100 or 1000. I wish these were around 10+ years ago when I wasn running cables and crimping ends.It is pretty pricy, but with a few uses and the time savings it will more than pay for itself and considering you can do most of the basic cable, switch, routing and performance diagnostics, you can save yourself a ton of money over having a networking company come in and diagnose your issues on your network. Again you do need a basic knowledge of cabling and networks to use the product sucessfully.I would recommend this to anyone that has the basic knowledge of networks and cabling as a great time saver in diagnosing issues unless you have personally ran all of your cables and tested them when you installed them and they have never been touched, pulled on or accidentally cut at your site (like this doesn't happen regularly in the real world).Another great product from Fluke.