Managing an Ethernet Network System can be very disheartening depending on the size of the system. Most systems are housed in a central location with cables running wild as if Hulkamania was in full effect. (You’d have to say your prayers and eat your vitamins to find anything.) Being able to get accurate cable lengths or even seeing which cables run where can be a nightmare. T3 Innovation has developed the new CB300 Cable Prowler to make this task a lot easier.

                First and foremost, the T3 Innovation CB300 uses TDR Technology to give accurate cable length for each pair. It also tests for opens, shorts, split pairs, reverses, and miswires. Verifying that a PoE device has available power is a cinch with the Cable Prowler by using the load test that checks for a voltage drop. The Cable Prowler can even give a link speed and show what speed the link is capable of for speeds up to 1Gbps. Whether you are working with a sloppily or beautifully installed network, finding where devices are plugged into on the hub or switch can be quite difficult. However, with the link light feature, it will blink the active port with a steady blinking light to save time using the guess and check method of yesteryear.

                While those features would be considered the meat of this tester, it also handles the potatoes as well. It can send tones on select pins, it supports 20 network / coax ID mappers, internal memory, has 3 different languages (English, French, Spanish), and supports up to 8 ID remotes for network and telephone cables. All of this is housed in a slick handheld unit that has a full color graphical display.

                Once again, T3 has set the standard with its ability to blend cutting edge technology and intuitive design.

--Sam McFadden--