I am trying to decide which Lan Tester to go with. I a looking at these two. Test-Um Lan Scaper or the Fluke LinkRunner. Has anyone had any experience with these?

Mike Brown

I'm not familiar with either so I quickly looked at the spec sheets on them online. From what I see, neither will certify. If you're going to spend the money, I suggest you get something that also certifies. The better testers will connect to your PC via USB so you can offload test/certification results and print them out if you want to.

As far as I can see there's really nothing wrong with them aside from not certifying connections and some "features" I consider unneccessary.

I'm not sure why one would need a tool to tell them if a device is a hub or switch. If you don't know, you're in the wrong position......lol......you should have intimate knowledge of all network devices used in your network.

Also, testing for active links is rather moot. As a rule of thumb, speaking strictly from a security point of view, any/all connections not in use should be inactive (either physically disconnected from the switch or the port on the switch disabled). This would prevent anyone from just plugging into an open port and connecting to your network.

Thanks for the info. What I need the tester for is to test all of the drops in the four schools that I work in. Many of the drops are not functional and all are not labeled correctly. So I need a tester that can test the pairs and has a built in tone generator. I know I can get one of these for cheap but thought with the $300 budget I was given I could squeeze out as many bells and whistles as I could. I would love to have a tester that can certify. I know it would be more money than I have to spend but maybe I can get more money. Any recomendations on a tester that can certify? Thanks.

Mike Brown

You might save some money buy purchasing a separate tone generator and then a tester with a few less bells and whistles. Especially if you can avoid buying one with bells you won't use. I have a separate tone generator and prefer it that way.

As to brand names....that's a little hard to say. We have a WireScope 350 here at work but that's a real expensive unit. You can definately get a good tester, that certifies as well, for under $1000.00. Tell your boss it's well worth his time to have it as you'll likely need it frequently in the future.