Isolating Physical Layer Problems
Tools for the job

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.