Fluke NetTool
|
Great design; Easy to use; Good battery life; Detects common network problems quickly
Unreasonably high price for inline version
| Key Features | |
| Media Access: | 10BaseT and 100BaseTX |
| Identifies: | 10BaseT, 100BaseTX (full or half-duplex), Token Ring (4/16 Mbps), phone (tip and ring) |
| Cable tests: | Wiremap, cable length, opens, shorts, and split pairs. |
| Power: | Removable alkaline batteries, optional rechargeable NiMH batteries or optional AC adaptor. (Approximately 20 hours continuous use with four alkaline batteries.) |
| Dimensions: | 5 x 3 x 1.7 inches |
| Weight: | 210 grams (.46 lbs) |
Fluke Networks
Everett, WA
(425) 347-6100
Sending a network technician out to do battle in the information technology jungle without a network and cable tester is like sending a soldier to fight a war without giving him a rifle. Unfortunately, the high cost of portable testing tools has made it difficult for a manager to justify purchasing more than one or two of these essential items, forcing technicians to operate in a "first come, first served" mode. Can this battle be won?
Fluke Networks thinks so. Its latest offering, the NetTool, provides managers with a low-cost alternative to pricey test equipment. The NetTool is small in size and low in cost, but it isn't short on features.
We recently put the NetTool through the most grueling evaluation we could imagine: We dropped it in the hands of our installation and repair technicians for a few weeks. They didn't want to give it back.
NetTool is a cable, network, and PC configuration testing device wrapped up in a compact 3- x 5-inch package weighing less than half a pound. Equipped with a crisp, backlit LCD screen, the NetTool is fully menu driven. There are only six keys on the unit: four navigation keys, an Enter/Select button, and the power switch. Our field testers found the simple user interface to be one of the NetTool's best features.
The NetTool can be connected to the network or device under test in two ways: single-ended or inline. In single-ended mode the NetTool is plugged directly into a network jack using a standard Ethernet cable. The inline mode is a unique feature of the NetTool, and is extremely useful when troubleshooting PC problems on a switched network. The inline mode allows the NetTool to be connected between the device under test and the Ethernet wall jack, which allows the technician to monitor communications between the PC and the network, a task that is normally quite difficult on a switched network.
As useful as the inline mode is, it was also the source of our biggest complaint. Fluke Networks doesn't enable the inline port by default. To activate inline functionality, you have to pay an extra $600. Given that the hardware is already in place - all NetTools come with both ports, but the inline functionality is disabled in software - it seems unreasonable to require users to pay a hefty premium to gain access to this feature.
The NetTool excels at quick diagnostics. Pick it up, connect it to an active network jack, and turn it on. The unit powers-up in autotest mode - just push the Select button and wait a few seconds. Autotest gives you instant feedback on the health of the network by displaying the status of the port, the speed (10BaseT or 100BaseTX), and duplex settings. We could determine the health of a questionable network outlet in less than 10 seconds.
While the NetTool rocks at quick and dirty analysis, it doesn't lack in features when it's time to dig deeper into the problem. The main menu gives technicians a quick summary of network activity: problems detected, protocols seen, key devices discovered, and a dashboard "network health" display.
Need to find out if that pesky printer is visible on the network? Select "key devices" and wait a few seconds. The NetTool displays a list of TCP/IP servers, Novell NetWare servers, NetBIOS servers, printers, and routers. Use the navigation keys to choose "printers" and all printers currently advertising services on the network are displayed.
As pleased as we were with the NetTool's ease of use and performance, we were even happier with the documentation. Fluke has done an outstanding job of providing both an easy-to-use "quick start" guide and an extensive user's manual.
The quick reference guide is brief, to the point, and even humorous. We almost had more fun reading the documentation than we did using the NetTool. Both the quick reference guide and the user's manual are also supplied as Adobe Portable Document Format files on CD-ROM, making it simple to print additional copies.
While the NetTool doesn't have the extensive protocol decoding features of high-end analyzers, it is substantially less expensive, much lighter, and doesn't chew through batteries. This is a test tool that all network technicians should have in their kit. Highly recommended.
Robert Currier has been in data networking for more than 15 years, the last five as Director of Data Communications at Duke University. Currier is an accomplished writer, public speaker, and photographer. His credits include product reviews in Network World, features in PC Computing and photographs in the Chronicle of Higher Education.