DataShark Network Cable Tester - Cable Mapper, Check Continuity - Test Patch Cords or Installed Cable Runs

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Great

This simple tool was just what I needed to slap my diagnostic process back on track when a router went belly-up and a portion of the home network seemed to remain dark after replacing it. All I needed was a reminder that when I last thought hard about the topic, I figured I wanted CROSSOVER cables connecting house to office and router to router. More than enough time had passed for me to forget all about the distinction. (That put me back on the trail of reconfiguring the Apple AirPort using the Windows version of the administrative software, and overcoming -4 and -6375 errors; but I digress. If thats part of what youre up against, know that it can be done.) When I plugged the tester in to a wall plug at one end, and the dongle in at the other, and saw the dongles lights displaying in a scrambled sequence, it was a forehead-smacking reminder. While I was at it, I double-checked every store-bought and homemade Ethernet cable within reach, just to reduce the risk of other nuisances and surprises in the near future. Holding the tool in my lap and tugging at a suspect homemade patch cable where it entered the RJ45 connector, I was able to see how different stresses caused intermittent connectivity failures. A note for the unwary: When I first turned the tool on, I got nothing. It felt so light that at first my suspicion fell on whether or not the 9V battery had been included. The designer apparently worked in environments where lost and stolen 9V batteries are a real problem, because he elected to secure the battery compartment with a Phillips head screwdriver. After rummaging through my toolbox for that screwdriver, I was able to open the compartment and establish that the battery was in fact there. Was it so cheap it had already gone dead while the box sat on a shelf? No; it had been stuffed into the battery compartment still wrapped in cellophane. Probably a good idea, but an even better idea would have been to tell me what to expect. I had to debug the tool before I could debug my network. The tool needs few instructions, but comes with none. You wont find any more on the manufacturers website. The blurb on the box and these reviews are the most documentation youll find. It looks and feels cheap. Id much rather have a tool with some heft and a dozen or so neatly labeled ports, buttons, and LCDs, along with the manual required to understand them; something with winking and blinking lights, to impress my friends and confound my enemies. For several times the price, I could get one. To use every five years or so? Once a year, if I tell everyone I know that I have such a thing? I couldnt convince myself that would be a good investment. This saved me more than what it cost, in heartburn and wasted time. Im just lucky the electrician who helped me before retired, or I would have gotten him to come over and tell me what this tool told me, for several times as much. If the tool works the next time I need it, so much the better.

Its simple and works really well. Tells you which lines are not terminated properly. Great product especially for the price.

Works as described. Helped me troubleshoot an issue with an Ethernet connection that was daisy chained. Ethernet clearly needs single ended terminations and cannot be daisy chained. Good learning experience for me. Just wished I knew that before I decided to go cheap on the cables and not run a dedicated Ethernet line for every connector. Costs a little more and requires more connections for the bridge, but no other way to get it done right.

This tester works great for the money. I tried to test my Cat 5e runs with a laptop and my router, but I had enough issues with the connectors that I needed one of these to figure out what I had done wrong. I had a couple of connectors that I cut the wires too short to get a connection and a couple where I did not get the wires inserted in the right order. You really dont need more than this to verify data runs. Save the money versus the more expensive testers and use a multimeter to test your Coax runs. You can test Coax by checking continuity (or resistance) for a open circuit between the center wire and the outer wire on one end. Then short the other end (an alligator clip works) and test for continuity. You dont need any special adaptors to test coax with a multimeter.

I was having all types of problems with my modem/router connection. My interface box contained 5 unlabeled cat 5 cables that spread out thru an interface board to five locations in my home; but I didnt know which went where. New router worked well if direct wired to modem but didnt work thru cat 5 outlet. Tested connectivity of each outlet against each of the five cables leaving interface box with this device enabling me to map and label the interface box to the cat5 outlets. At the same time I was able to determine that one of the cat5 cables had an open number 2 pin. After working on this problem for almost a week I was able to fix it in about a half-hour. Highly recommend it.

What I got was a device with the right part number, but which was completely different- and inferior, in my opinion, to what I had ordered. The device shown has indicators for both cable ends on the main unit, making it easy to track the pin correspondence of the two cable ends (had one before). The one I recieved (see picture), although providing for smaller telecom connectors in addition to RJ-45, has the indicators on two horizontally separated units, making it necessary (for me) to run fingers down both units to track testing. I would guess Greenlee improved the unit without updating descriptive material. Functionally, it works, but not as easy to read as the both-lights-on-master-unit device.

The case could be better. It does not hold the test unit and small test link jumpers. The unit runs through a test light sequence, each corresponding to a wire checked. Once you know the sequence you can see if a light is not energized, equating to an issue in the cable. For a basic and inexpensive tool it does well.

Great for running network cables through my house.