Fluke OneTouch Series II Network Assistant

[TomHD]

Hello all,

 

I have been offered a Fluke OneTouch Series II Network Assistant (http://www.flukenetworks.com/findit/ja-jp/9824576) at a reasonable price (still not a few quid though!) and wondered if anyone here has one, has used one and if they are still relevant considering it has no gigabit capabilities. There's not much talk about them online either! The new model looks awesome but starts at around the £2500 mark and is out of the question.

 

Looking forward to hear what you guys think

 

Cheers, TomHD

[plexer]

If you can't upgrade it to support gigabit or to test fibre it's got limited use tbh.

 

Ben

[m25man]

I wouldn't bother if I were you, save your money and buy an LRAT 2000 instead,

http://www.flukenetworks.com/enterprise-network/network-testing/LinkRunner-AT-Network-Auto-Tester

 

It's my first choice when troubleshooting.

 

I also have the OneTouch AT, which is awesome but tend to use that for the more difficult problems as I can leave it plugged in and access it remotely with the cloud services. With all of the options added that was about £8k

[plexer]

I wouldn't bother if I were you, save your money and buy an LRAT 2000 instead,

Ethernet Connectivity Test - LinkRunner AT Network Auto-Tester | Fluke Networks

 

It's my first choice when troubleshooting.

 

I also have the OneTouch AT, which is awesome but tend to use that for the more difficult problems as I can leave it plugged in and access it remotely with the cloud services. With all of the options added that was about £8k

 

Have you used the webcam functionality? lol

 

Ben

[TomHD]

Thanks for the responses I will hold back on the Series II. I have contacted Fluke about the 5 day trials they offer so will hopefully get to try the LinkRunner, OneTouch or OptiView onsite

 

At what level can one justify spending the money on a Fluke?

[m25man]

At what level can one justify spending the money on a Fluke?

 

I couldn't begin to describe the amount of time my fluke kit has saved me but in my job I'm walking in blind unknown networks, Vlans, IP Ranges, VoIP I tend to ignore what told and try to discover the truth...

Most network faults tend to be self inflicted config errors, cable faults or the occasional duff piece of hardware.

 

In most cases I'm called in when everything has been tried and failed.

In most cases in goes the Fluke and an a few minutes later a logical conclusion is reached.

 

I doubt that any but the largest campuses can justify an Optiview even I drew a line there.

 

The LRAT is by far the best frontline LAN diagnostic tool you can have for wired networks paired with an Aircheck you have all bases covered.

 

I justify the capex against the time saved in a year checking for stupid faults.

Whilst I'm not wasting time chasing ghosts in machines I'm busy on more profitable jobs.

[TomHD]

Thanks for that insight m25man Certainly the OptiView is out of the question but if I get to play with one for a few days for free I won't turn it down. I'm certainly interested in the Fluke tools. You mention a LinkRunner paired with AirCheck covers all bases... Would a OneTouch cover the same bases? More bases? Or does it have different purposes? Cheers

[linkazoid]

We bought a LRAT after recommendation from EG!

 

I'd say its the tool that is most used in our office. Makes working with our VLAN'd network so much easier. We used to have to HP PCM+ to find where the the port was patched to, now we just plug this in and know in seconds.

[m25man]

I'm certainly interested in the Fluke tools. You mention a LinkRunner paired with AirCheck covers all bases... Would a OneTouch cover the same bases? More bases? Or does it have different purposes? Cheers

 

The one thing you quickly find with Fluke kit is that no one tool does everything... You will always find a use for the tool above and the one below the one you own in order to cover everything!

 

The LRAT and Aircheck are very similar tools to each other, one for wired one for wireless.

OneTouch AT combines many features of both plus a lot more, however its huge for a handheld tester.

 

If I had to choose, I'd most certainly go with the LRAT and Aircheck.

 

Fortunately I don't have to choose and therefore have them all... 😄