sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Wiring - Telecom Carriers - Trunks & Services Cabling Telephones Systems Wiring Cat 6 Cable Certifier or Qualifier

We are trying to make decision on which Cable Test Equipment to buy.

There is a Byte Brothers RWC-100(Real World Certifier)

or a Fluke CIQ-100. One uses Dgital technology, the other Sine wave.

Byte Bros is less expensive, I just need to test cable to a point where we can tell IT co or customer, "This cable is good"' If there is Electrical interference, will these pieces of equipment tell me that and where it is?

The Fluke is great, but, as you know, expensive. the Byte Brothers equipment works, and works well. We have both. I tend to use the Byte Brothers only because it's easy and handy to use and it provides accurate readings every time. The Fluke can be fooled, but it is a Certifier and if you need that for certification purposes, then the Fluke is the way to go.

Rcaman

The Bytes just like the Fluke also certifies. Even gives you a handy print out you can download through Excel and print the results of the test. I would go with it honestly. Better bang for your buck and I haven't had one fail us yet thankfully.

Ive used the Byte Bros tester for years and its a great tester for the price, I paid around 500 for mine about 5 years ago.My only complaints are the cable connection is serial plug and an RCA plug, kind of a pain. I think the newer units have a usb, maybe.My other complaint is theres no numbering flexibility but mines an old one so they probably improved. I like that you can do live network testing.

The BB RWC is not a certifier in any way shape or form, it's a fancy Validator at the best.

The Fluke CableIQ is also not a certifier, it's a cable qualifier.

I wouldn't touch or recommend the BB RWC to my worst enemy. It's result are not based on any standards and you have to use a gigaswitch to even run their so called certification tests. With out the gigaswitch it's just an over price cable mapper.

Neither of these will tell you if and where any electrical interference is.

A testing device that will give results regarding interference will be quite expensive. The Fluke DTX-1800 is a good example of an overpriced "Certifier" that will test for crosstalk and some interference. NONE of the "Certifiers" will properly test a twisted pair cable for power influence, RF interference or EMF interference. Some will do one or another, but none will do all. To do that you need to sweep test the cable. A sweep test will reveal all abnormalities in the cable.

We happen to own a sweep generator and scope. I have had to drag the equipment out one time in 40 years to prove a cable. A Fluke instrument certified the cable and the cable would, intermittently drop data. I found a high power influence induced on the cable by running a sweep test.

If you have a Sidekick, hook up a CO line on one end for each pair and shoot it with the Sidekick. You'll see, very quickly, if you have power influence, noise, crosstalk or faults.

Rcaman

Thanks again for everyones replies.

Anything that normally interferes with data transmission will show up with the Byte Brothers CIQ. You can call it a qualifier if you want or a certifier..I can tell you this I had a situation where a Fluke certifier passed a cable but any pc connected to it flaked off and lost connectivity. I did not install the cable or certify it but I did test it with my RWC and it failed. I climbed up in the ceiling and found the cable laying across a light ballast. I attached it higher up off the light, retested it with my CIQ, it passed, and the pc never had another problem related to that cable run.

I owned two RWCs, one did print outs and one did not. I also owned a T3 innovations Net Prowler which was a great tester that did network sniffing and ip conflict testing, pinging ports, port beacons, wire mapping, data speed testing and print outs of all tests.

Which model of Fluke Certifier did you have this problem with?

I assume it was one of the DTX series don't know for sure, I didn't certify it myself, the installing company did. I do know that the company tested the cables but with no active switches or hubs connected. I tested to an active switch.