I was wondering if you can verify/certify speeds on Cat5,5e, etc cables using either 2 PC's or one PC and a loopback?
Those ridiculously expensive verifiers basically just measure packet flow and speed, from what I can tell, so this shouldn't be too hard to do with a computer or 2.
What am I missing?
There is much much more to what a cable certifier does than I can explain here..
Packet flow and speed are not really a part of the certifiers job.
Lets take a look at what a Fluke DTX series certifier does.
It tests everything to the following standards.
TIA Category 3, 5e, 6 & 6A per ANSI/TIA-568-C.2
TIA Category 5 (1000BASE-T) per TIA TSB-95
TIA Category 6 per TIA/EIA-568B.2-1
TIA TSB-155 (DTX-1800 only)
ISO TR 24750 (DTX-1800 only)
ISO/IEC 11801 Class C, D, and E, Ea & F(Ea, F and Fa DTX-1800 only)
EN 50173 Class C, D, E, EA & F (Ea, F and Fa DTX-1800 only)
ANSI TP-PMD
IEEE 802.3 10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T
IEEE 802.3an 10GBASE-T
It support the following tests
Wire Map
Length
Propagation Delay
Delay Skew
DC Loop Resistance
Insertion Loss (Attenuation)
Return Loss (RL), RL @ Remote
NEXT, NEXT @ Remote
Attenuation-to-crosstalk Ratio (ACR-N), ACR-N @ Remote
ACR-F (ELFEXT), ACR-F @ Remote
Power Sum ACR-F (ELFEXT), PS ACR-F @ Remote
Power Sum NEXT, PS NEXT @ Remote
Power Sum ACR-N, PS ACR-N @ Remote
Power Sum Alien Near End Xtalk (PS ANEXT)
Power Sum Alien Attenuation Xtalk Ratio Far End (PS AACR-F)
In the end, all of these test can be traced back to a common test standard. WHy is this part important? It allows you to compare results between different manufacturers equipment.
The final reason is it provides a hard copy of the tested result for certification and archiving.
Standard NIC don;t have the hardware circuitry to even do the basic tests the testers can do.