Background of this test:

Troubleshooting in cabled and wireless networks is always a question of the tools used. You need tools to read the error counters from switches and routers and to run log analyses on different OSI layers. You need up-to-date documentation to determine the path of specific communications through the network, and you have to be able to record packets on both the various wireless LAN interfaces, and in copper conductors and fiber optics. Lastly you also need to be able to measure and check cables. In the Series II OptiView Integrated Network Analyzer, Fluke Networks has launched a device onto the marketplace which claims to cover all these tasks.

On the other hand, every troubleshooting tool of today normally has to come to terms with whether or not it still has a right to exist in times of open source software. Is it still worth purchasing a tool like that? Who can be charged for operating a tool of this type?

ComConsult Research has examined the OptiView in the lab and in productive networks for its practicality, and tested then extent to which an integrated tool of this type provides advantages in the daily work of troubleshooting. The new product analysis presents the results and several interesting features of OptiView and assesses the device when solving typical network errors.