NF-8601S TDR LCD Network Cable Tester Multi-Functional Wire Tracker for RJ45, RJ11, BNC, Metal Cable,PING/POE

Product works as advertised and came on time

For the price this is a great tester. I have been using this one for over a year and it does a great job mapping cables and the toner has a strong signal (note that other analog probes will not work with this, you have to use the included probe.). The tone is so strong that it worked loud and clear when my other analog toner would not reach the telco room from 4 floors away. Seems to be able to tone when plugged into a switch. One thing I always do with an unknown cable drop is check for POE first. I had a previous toner fry its port when I plugged it into a bad POE line. Just wish it had multiple ID remotes, just having 2 remotes will save on the back and forth walking when trying to ID a cable. If you lose the remote then try to contact the seller for a replacement. The length tester is only accurate if you calibrate to the particular cable you use because of how tightly the pairs are twisted. Length test does not work well on short cables (less than 20 feet I think). Having DHCP and ping tests option is a huge time saver since I don't have to pull out a laptop each time to check for internet connection. Most other brands charge way more just to have these features. Most can't even tell you an IP. This tester does it all for way less, has a bright color display, and rechargeable battery.

My 20 year old cable tester was beginning to drive me nuts. It would tell me cables were ok, but once plugged in I would see problems. It was very easy to use and boy has it tested thousands and thousands of cables for me over the years. But the false positives meant I needed to replace it. My old unit only handles connectivity ensuring that plugs are connected right, there's no break in the cable etc. This unit has so many features - including a POE that I'm looking forward to trying out - even though the warning sticker tells me POE+ (48v) vs. the old 24v stuff - the sticker says not to try more than 20v and that just makes no sense to me. So one star off for that. However, the number of features in this relatively small unit is huge. Length, measuring where breaks are and you can easily locate where the cable goes to on the patch-panel or switch. It would have saved me lots of time during past diagnosis issues. Particular about being able to detect breaks in individual wires. Another feature that I hope will really come in handy is being able to detect which exact wire is broken or mis-wired. My old unit was only about pairs - this goes a bit deeper and that will definitely be helpful. The display will guide you to which wires are "crossed" or missing - of course it won't tell you which end of the cable the fault is at. Being able to locate a wire among hundreds is a great feature. I haven't tested how easy it is to tell one cable out of 20 if you have a bundle, but if you have everything in a patch-panel it should be very simple to see which port a cable goes to. The unit comes with a very large carry bag - seems made for a "big brother" of this unit. But at least I know where to keep it when it's not in use. A few minor cons: These are rechargeable units and there's no charger in the box. It's just a standard Micro USB charger that cell-phones used to use - they're cheap and easy to get so if you don't have an old charger from the old phones around you'll have to spend a few more bucks. Next because it's rechargeable ONLY if you don't use this unit for a long while it will be "d-e-a-d" and if you're not careful it will die on the job. I did find I could use it while charging so keep the charger with you in the case. Just one wire. Both units were almost 100% charged on delivery - at least according to the units themselves. The manual is a bit chinglish and because of that a bit fun to read. It's really important to realize the main unit has 3 RJ45 plugs - and depending on what feature you are looking to use, you must be using the right plug (you even have to use the RJ45 when testing RJ11 in some cases). I'll definitely learn that as time goes on, but my testing proved that I didn't always guess right which port should be used. A little light or indicator on the plug would have been REALLY nice to show which one is active. Things I'll NEVER use: ping No way I'm going to push 100 keys to get IP address and everything else right to see if layer 3 works.

This review is about long-term reliability. When the unit was new and worked it worked great and was a good value. I had no problem with it. After ~2.5 yrs I found the unit unresponsive and could not get it to show any sign of life again, even after replacing the battery. My use was only ever occasional, and it had sat (in case) in the back of the car unused for quite awhile before I found it dead. It was unsurprising initially, as I expected that the battery would have run down. Attempting to charge it had no result, with no light or any sign of life. Then replacing the battery made no difference, and attempting to contact the company through website was unsuccessful as well so I have had to give up on it. As long as it works it will probably do well for you, but be warned that it may not last.

The tester has a graphical screen which is very easy to navigate. This tester has more features the the "yellow" units costing 8x as much. It also takes into consideration the type of cable being tested (Cat5e, Cat6, and cat6A) due to the different characteristics of the cables. I tested the cable length on a known Cat5e cable length of 90 feet using the built-in factory calibration against a "yellow" brand microscanner. This unit measured more accurately at 92.2' of length. The "yellow" unit measured a low of 94' and a high of 96' feet. It displays cable pair wiring correctly and easy to read. Port flash, mapping, pinging a device, POE, toner all worked great. POE voltage measurements measured the same as my Fluke 87. My only concern would be the built-in lithium battery. I would personally prefer regular replaceable alkaline batteries. Overall, I would recommend this unit to anyone looking for a network cable tester without spending a ton of money.