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

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

Needed to trace some preinstalled LAN cables to set up my home network. Worked like a champ and determined the cables were good to boot. Also comes with a case for storage, battery and two patch cords. Just what the doctor ordered and at a decent price.

Works great. Allowed me to check each run of CAT6 in new construction to make sure they were correctly connected. More importantly, it allowed me to find a cross connect error and fix it. The device only tells you what type of error you have. You still need a VOM to identify the location on the cable run.

This target has saved me some time and trouble. I made a few cat 5e cables and used this to test them. Of course I mucks up one of the cables and this saved me the time of using the cable and then ending up troubleshooting.

Our teams really like them and found them handy to have in their kits.

My apartment is wired for multi-room internet access, but it just wouldnt work. I suspected either I had a bad cable in the mix, or the wiring of the jacks was hosed. So I picked up this tool to find out what the problem was. More on that in a minute. The device comes with a transmitter/receiver (one unit), a smaller receiver, two patch cords and a 9v battery. If you just want to do a quick cable check you can just use the main unit, plug one end into the output, the other into the input and turn it on. It will cycle through all 8 wires, and then repeat until you turn it off. This is very important if you want to put the transmitter in one area and use the small receiver in another. It has a slow speed and a fast speed. You can also test a cable by plugging one end into the output of the main unit and plugging the other end into the small receiver. Same principle - lights are sequentially lit in order from 1 to 8, and you very that the receiver lights come on in the same order. The patch coords are used if you want to check out a network jack. You plug the cord in the transmitter and then into the jack. You can use the other patch coord the same way on the other end of your jack. Easy peasy. So back to my problem. Using this device I found that the wiring in my jack had 2 wires crossed and one wire disconnected. I opened up the outlet, switched the wires and seated the other, and all was good! I now have direct internet access throughout the apartment without having to use wireless. This is important for my DVR video streaming, and works perfectly. Very glad I ordered this unit. In 10 minutes I had my problem solved. Definitely an essential tool to have in the kit.

Does exactly what it says it will do.

I used it to test my cable connection. The tester shows that everything is fine, whilst in real life the connection is not strong enough to pass through data.

Horrible product do not buy

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.