Necessary network tools

[Malak]

Our fluke is obsolete, VERY old. We are planning on getting a new one, but we are looking at other uses. We have looked at flukes like Etherscrope which cost $10k for one unit, but we looked at those because they have multiple uses built into one tool.

I believe it would be cheaper to have multiple tools, and less costly in the case that one breaks. To that end, I have broken up the requirements into 3 main tools. One to check cables(cat5e, coax, etc), one to check fiber, and one to check wireless.

I have found a suitable cable checker, and even a fiber checker. Wireless is where I'm having an issue. The cheapest solution from Fluke is one of their all-in-one tools, what I don't want. Unfortunately, Fluke is all I know. Any other good companies that design tools like this, or even specific examples of wireless testers? Looking for hardware, not software.

 

[nweaver]

what are you trying ot "test" on wireless?

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: nweaver
what are you trying ot "test" on wireless?

Check for any problems, signal strength, whatever. It'd be used for troubleshooting signal problems more than anything I imagine. Testing signal strength as I walked around would be great.

 

[nweaver]

for wireless, I would tell you airopeek (wireless sniffer, card dependant, somewhat expensive for the flakey software) and netstumbler (free :thumbsup)

If you have a cisco wireless setup, a cisco WLSE is one of the best investements you can make.

 

[Malak]

Yeah I think I looked at airopeek. One of the other guys here talked about Netstumbler. We may just try that and see how it works. They were also looking at a device that wraps around a PDA so you can turn your PDA into a wireless tester, that looked interesting. I don't recall the name, the product names were things like Bumblebee and Yellow Jacket.

 

[spidey07]

ekahau site survey suite

air magenet

 

[Malak]

Currently looking at Madge WLAN Probes, anyone have experience with these or similar products?