Hello World!
So, I have had my trusty little pocket tester for almost 3 years now. During that time it has exposed my dodgy crimps more than I would like to admit. It is an invaluable tool to any IT/Networking technician who has to troubleshoot many issues in a short amount of time.
Before I do get into the details, a Raspberry Pi behind NAT and use of the scapy library is capable of achieving a similar result… but is very hacky and to maintain ethics I wont cover how to setup such a device.
So, the LinkSprinter 300 comes in around the £350/$400 mark and is the first in a line of network testers from NetAlly who now own the rights to the design. Offering a low power WiFi access point to review results on the go, or once setup it can send reports to the Link-Live cloud service.
The main tests this unit performs are as follows: PoE, link to switch, DHCP, link to gateway and finally link to internet. These options can be tinkered with a little, such as customizing the domain to try to reach when checking internet (Default is Google.com).
Once you connect to the access point or use the cloud service, the reports are more detailed. Such as showing link speed, link type, switch model and interface, VLAN and more. Whenever I create a new cable and it passes a continuity check, I always opt for this as a second test tool… sometimes identifying a poor crimp on a certain pin can be problematic. But if I don’t see 10/100/1000 then I know the cable wont work on certain NICs. Don’t get me started…
That’s it, there isn’t much to this little device. But it packs a punch and makes a technicians life much easier.
“One ought to design systems under the assumption that the enemy will immediately gain full familiarity with them.” – Claude Shannon
AACYBER 