There are two primary categories of physical layer analyzer products.
- Cable testers
- Handheld network testers (hybrid)
Other common tools that are used for trouble shooting at OSI Layers 2
to 7 are Protocol Analyzer and Network Management Tools.

Cable
testers are used to test cables for opens, shorts, split pairs, and other
wiring problems. After the cable installer has terminated a cable, the cable
should be plugged into the cable tester to verify that the termination was done
correctly.
Handheld network analyzers were created to bridge the skills
gap between the senior network support staff and the Help Desk staff. They
generally include the most commonly used features from the other testing tool
categories, but do not eliminate the need for these other categories. The focus
is to validate or troubleshoot end-to-end connectivity up through Layer 3.