On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 4:54 PM, Phil Brutsche <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I don't think any of them can tell the difference between Cat5, Cat5e or > Cat6.
A cable analyzer can't tell what the cable was actually sold as, of course, but it can tell you if the cable meets the performance requirements for a given spec. I'm not really sure what the CableIQ measures, but it doesn't appear to be an analyzer as I'm familiar with them. That would be something like this: http://www.flukenetworks.com/fnet/en-us/products/DSP+CableAnalyzer+Series/Overview.htm A real cable analyzer measures things like bandwidth, impedance, skew, return loss, and about six different kinds of crosstalk. I'm don't really know what all the measurements mean from a technical standpoint, but practically speaking, that is what "Category 5e" or whatever means -- that a cable meets certain performance characteristics. Fluke has a white paper on their website that is supposed to explain the difference between the categories of products, but what it says basically just boils down to "certification is better than qualification, and you need certification if you actually want to test to the standards". -- Ben ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
