EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Products => Computers => Networking & Wireless => Topic started by: JohnWW on August 23, 2020, 12:46:06 am
-
Hi all
Has anyone found a LAN cabling tester & certification tool that doesnt cost $10 000. I would like to test my own cabling work with out the need to hire something in.
Thanks
-
To what standard do you want to test? That is the most important question regarding the price of the Equipment :P
Sadly, new devices that can certify 1GBaseT really do start at >5000 Euro list price. 10GbaseT or Fiber testers are a couple thousands more.
If this is just a one off test, you should be able to rent a proper tester. Maybe the used market is also an alternative, but to reliably test the device needs to be calibrated.
There are three companies, that i am aware off, that make these devices and have good reputations: Fluke (never used one), Ideal Networks (I regularly use an older LanTEK II at work) and Softing (I occasionally use a FiberXpert). There are surely others, but i am not aware of them.
-
For fiber you can use an OTDR, It will test and certify with graphics. JDSU is one of the cheapest available (used one in telecom some years ago);
For ethernet, the cheapest one I can find and used as tester and certification was the Fluke Networks CIQ-100 Qualification Tester, also used by me in the telecom company. But it only goes to 1GBit and doesn't support fiber.
Fluke basically owns the market in terms of certification equipments for fiber and ethernet.
Since you say you want to test your own cabling, the CIQ-100 is more than enough for your personal uses, specially if you buy it with the remotes and cable finder - https://www.amazon.com/Fluke-Networks-CableIQ-Network-Tester/dp/B007SSX5PE?th=1 (https://www.amazon.com/Fluke-Networks-CableIQ-Network-Tester/dp/B007SSX5PE?th=1)
Of course then you have the simple, stupid ones that may inject noise to be able to use a cable finder, based in leds, but only test wiring.
https://www.amazon.com/Klein-Tools-VDV526-052-Comprobador-comprobador/dp/B004CI9NRM (https://www.amazon.com/Klein-Tools-VDV526-052-Comprobador-comprobador/dp/B004CI9NRM)
https://www.amazon.com/Network-Cable-Tester-RJ45-Measurement/dp/B07VK7SBDW (https://www.amazon.com/Network-Cable-Tester-RJ45-Measurement/dp/B07VK7SBDW)
https://www.amazon.com/Zoostliss-Network-Cable-Tester-Networking/dp/B06XZYXN63 (https://www.amazon.com/Zoostliss-Network-Cable-Tester-Networking/dp/B06XZYXN63)
https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Ethernet-Accurately-Configurations-TC-NT2/dp/B0000AZK08 (https://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Ethernet-Accurately-Configurations-TC-NT2/dp/B0000AZK08)
I have one similar to this last one, but is a different brand and the buttons are both round. Bought it around 2000 and still use sometimes. Have a problem that if you shake the cable, and the RJ45 plug on the cable is sh#t it will show an fail on the cable even if it is correctly crimped. That doesn't happen with the Fluke, so I could say that the plug they used is probably not a good quality one.
-
Kennards hire them out for around 250 per day, just add the cost on to your client if they want certification.
-
Perhaps just get two test PCs and find out experimentally how many meters of extra cable you can add before the link becomes unreliable?