Dropped $300 on a Fluke meter and it still didn't fix my intermittent network issue

I was chasing a flaky connection at a dental office last week and figured a high end ethernet tester would nail it down quick. Still took me three hours with a cheap tone generator to find the real culprit was a bad punchdown in the patch panel. Anyone else ever buy expensive gear thinking it would save time but it just made you feel dumb?

3 comments

3 Comments

blake_cooper29d ago

Fluke stuff is great but it won't fix bad termination or a loose cable end. That three hour waste is a classic lesson. Next time start with a simple tone and probe on the patch panel ends before you break out the fancy tester. I've seen more intermittent issues solved by reseating a punchdown than by any $300 tool. The expensive gear just tells you there's a problem, it won't tell you the cable got nicked behind the wall plate.

joel_young29d ago

Reminds me of a time I was helping a buddy with his home network. He had this fancy Fluke he borrowed from work, spent an hour on it showing all kinds of crosstalk and length issues. I walked over, looked at the wall plate, and saw the screw was crooked. Tightened it up, pushed the cable back in, and the whole thing cleared up. The expensive tool was just telling us what we already should have checked first. Sometimes the simplest things get overlooked when you have a screen full of numbers to stare at.

averywright29d ago

Man that Fluke will show you a problem exists but then you're still hunting like a detective with no flashlight lmao. Dropped $400 on a nice cable certifier once and spent two hours staring at it before realizing I just needed to reseat a keystone jack that was slightly loose. The expensive gear is great for making you feel professional while you're still chasing the same gremlins a $20 toner would find in five minutes. At least you got a solid meter out of it though, that thing will probably outlive your career and your grandkids can fight over it in 30 years.