In a network outage, we used the Fluke Networks Etherscope to troubleshoot wireless issues and hardwired connections. It’s great for a junior admin to run several preconfigured diagnostics tests while a more senior admin is consoled into the switches running. It’s one of many tools that help with quickly identifying problems with the network and fixing them.
Pros
Wireless Performance
LAN Health Audit
Copper and Fiber tests
Cons
Battery life
Touch screen is slow to respond.
Operating System is slow.
Likelihood to Recommend
We used ours mainly to test the wireless. Wireless could be several different things so the preconfigured tests on this device allowed us to quickly eliminate certain areas and allowed us to focus on the real problem. It’s easy enough a PC Technician could use it.
VU
Verified User
Supervisor in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)
We have used the Fluke Networks Etherscope across our entire District to test and verify network drops, performance and connectivity issues. We have used it to verify info on our wireless network as well. Our IT department is responsible for not only connectivity at each site, meaning desktops, notebooks and Chromebooks but we are also responsible for site to site connectivity. When we have receive calls or emails that staff and students are having connectivity and network performance issues we use the Fluke Networks Etherscope. It is a great resource to isolate local network drop issues. We often use it to confirm and verify our connectivity over the WAN links. During critical times of the year, meaning online testing we can't afford to have network disruptions either at the local level or the district WAN level. The Fluke Networks Etherscope lets us solve problems both on our copper wired network and our fiber trunk feeds pretty quickly.
Pros
The Fluke Networks Etherscope can test network speed performance on copper and fiber networks
The Fluke Networks Etherscope can detect network switches and also available and active ports.
The Fluke Networks Etherscope can check for bandwidth between two points quick and easy.
Cons
The Fluke Networks Etherscope does not accommodate testing or working with 10 GB networks.
Hopefully the Fluke Networks Etherscope will continue to expand it's support of Wireless networks and the new technology that is coming out.
While not being a major issue, it would be nice to have the ability to print out summary reports direct from the Fluke Networks Etherscope.
Likelihood to Recommend
Fluke Networks Etherscope is really in it's element when troubleshooting and diagnosing connectivity issues. It is an excellent tool for example if you have an end user or even an entire room (lab) of computers that have lost all connectivity or are experiencing serious performance issues, mostly speed. You can start at the end user (or one of the lab computers in a lab environment) and begin to test and sample the network infrastructure. It can locate line breaks, or identify the location of even a bad connector. It does work very well in a wireless environment as well, but is just a bit more cumbersome to get it exactly where it needs to be so you can see results that actually show you what may be causing the problem.
