Toner and Probe

[Steve_T]

Hi wonder if anyone can help,

 

Thinking of doing a quick bit of labelling of our network sockets that are a complete mess (pre me) and want something better to the job than a standard Cat5e cable tester.

 

Came across one of these,

 

IntelliTone Pro Toner and Probe | Network Testing | Fluke Networks

 

Has anyone used one or an equivalent? Are they as good as they seem?

 

Does anyone have a recommended one for a cheaper price?

 

Thanking in advanced,

 

Steve

[cuester]

Hello,

 

Canadian IT guy here. I used one to track down what jack went to what jack in the com room after a school renovation was done with mislabelled jacks. It worked beautifully and made me consider buying my own ( borrowed from a fellow tech). As long as you know the com room where the jack should be run to this thing works great. I have even heard a complaint that it is too sensitive and works too well.

[Jamman960]

I brought something similar to this one: Cable Wire Phone Network RJ Toner Tracer Tester Tracker | eBay a while back. It came with an RJ11 plug on it along with croc clips, I just crimped some bare wires into an RJ45 connector and used the croc clips.

 

Toners are great for tracing cables when your not quite sure what path they take etc, very handy for tracing pairs in phone systems. Something like this: Peak Atlas IT Network Cable Analyser Free Delivery : Component Analyser : Maplin or the fluke equiv is probably better for labeling purposes though. You'd just need to stick the terminators into sockets then go back the patch panel and match them up.

[saundersmatt]

Hi,

 

I have the Fluke Intelliprobe that I bought from CPC.

 

It's absolutely invaluable and works really well, both for tracing patch points and patch leads.

 

Matt

[mbelld155]

+1 For the intellitone. Bought it and have not regretted it. Get the 200 model. Have used other toners and this is the best so far.

[m25man]

Intellitone is a digital signal generator/detector and works where the cheaper simple tone/wand systems get lost in the noise. Even when the cable is terminated and plugged in to a switch or node the Intellitone will trace the link.

 

I have both Fluke and BT in my kit but use the Intellitone as my first choice for the data cabling every time.

 

However, for tracing lost voice pairs over multicore (20 pair) the old BT toner is by far the tool.

[ChrisH]

Intellitone user here to.

[dgsmith]

You just need a tone tester - tons on ebay less than £20 - they are no frills but do the job. A tone tester doesn't need all other bits and fancy pieces if all you want it to be able to trace a cable from source to destination.

[Steve_T]

Thanks for the kind responses. Think i'll bite the bullet and buy one.