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My organization is looking for my help to find a possible solution for mobile phone CAT5e/6 or Fiber testing.

Our in house techs currently use a Fluke Networks cable verifier. Is there hardware to cut out the cable tester for our techs that already have a company phone, and use an application to test? We are just looking to the future and something to save costs since all of our techs have company phones.

Obviously some sort of hardware will have to be involved, through USB or 1/8th inch, similar to smartphone credit card readers. I am just asking if there is a similar method for cable verification.

I have found this so far:

https://pockethernet.com/

That one I am not so sure about, and they are not producing them at the moment it looks like. Any suggestions or comments are GREATLY welcomed.

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  • I don't think that such hardware exists. Since the output of the test is not that complicated, there doesn't seem to be much need for a cable tester to have some sort of USB or Bluetooth interface. Even if there was such hardware, there would still have to be two parts to it for it to work, so you probably wouldn't be cutting down the amount of gear your techs have to carry.
    – JTL
    Commented Nov 12, 2015 at 22:55
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    Damn, I'm sorry about that. We get a number of questions that have been thrown round the network, mainly because we've got issues communicating the fact that our scope is very specific to other sites. I can't actually recommend you another site to ask on because I don't know their scopes well enough. However, you could try asking in Hardware Recommendations Chat - there are usually a few people around there.
    – ArtOfCode
    Commented Nov 12, 2015 at 22:55
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    @Mike The moderators are for different sites, they are not inter-site moderators.. I'm so sorry that this has to happen to you. We seem to be having inter-site communication issues. Again, so sorry.
    – Rubydesic
    Commented Nov 13, 2015 at 2:01
  • How about a usb type C to gigabyte ethernet device? plugable.com/products/usbc-e1000 There is a micro usb 2.0 version : plugable.com/products/usb2-otge100 but it's only 100mbps You could also go for a usb 3.0 male to gigabyte device and use a connector from micro b usb 3.0 to a female device. You'l need a usb 3.0 capable device like a nexus 6p or the new upcoming devices to get the full speed.
    – Rudra Matroja
    Commented Nov 13, 2015 at 6:13

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The only professional tool I know of that somewhat fits this need is the Fluke Networks LinkSprinter. The general operation is that they provide the results to the cloud service (and/or email), but you can can connect to them wirelessly and view the results in a web browser. The 200 and 300 models also have an Android application.

Now, I will say that these are not certification testers, so if you need to certify cable results these won't suffice. They provide testing that is essentially a client test, connectivity and ability to get DHCP and ping devices.

However they do go a bit further as they can test PoE, provide information based on CDP/LLDP/EDP, and (in the case of the 300 model) detect link fault (open or short).

They also only do copper, so no capability to test fiber.

While probably not a perfect replacement for their current testers, if the majority of the work the techs do is validation of connectivity over copper these might work with the need to use a larger/more expensive tester necessary only on rare occasions.

These are also sold in 5 and 10 packs to help lower costs.

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