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.
Fluke NetTools
Company: Fluke
Ph: 02 8850 3333
Price: ERP AU$2,046.
Rating:
10%
8%
