Cable testers and certifiers are dedicated hardware devices that can be connected to an end of a cable, or to both ends, to provide diagnostic functions.
Crimpers are tools used to insert the wires into the proper connectors at the end of the cable.
A butt set (also called a lineman’s handset) is a tool used to tap into the middle of a connection during a troubleshooting process.
A toner probe is a tool that can track where a wire is going. This is useful in large environments when you need to identify both ends of a wire and track cables (usually from a bundle of wires). The toner probe is usually made up of two different pieces:
- A tone generator: a battery-powered device that taps into the connection and sends a signal on the wire
- An inductive probe: allows you to hear the generated tone without even touching the wire
When building the network infrastructure in large environments using wiring blocks, you need to punch wires down into them using a punch-down tool. Punch-down blocks are usually placed inside the MDF or IDF to aggregate the wires coming from different network locations.
Protocol analyzers are powerful tools that gather packets directly from the network and present them for analysis. Protocol analyzers are generally used to troubleshoot application problems that require in-depth packet analysis.
A loopback plug can work with diagnostic tools that are specifically built to work this way or they can be used to trick the application into sending data out to see its response to data that comes back through the loopback. A loopback plug is also used when trying to troubleshoot hardware components (e.g., ports) to make sure that the data is going out and coming back in without problems.
When you need to perform detailed troubleshooting of copper and fiber connections, you can use specialized equipment, such as the following:
- TDR (Time Domain Reflectometer): for copper connections
- OTDR (Optical Time Domain Reflectometer): for optical fiber connections
Multimeters are an electrical meter that has multiple functions. Also called a VOM (volt-ohm meter), multimeters can measure parameters like voltage, current, or resistance.
When working with critical equipment and data centers, you should install an environmental monitoring system that measures different parameters in the room, such as temperature, humidity, water level, and power voltage.