LinkRunner AT Network AutoTester vs. Spiceworks Connectivity Dashboard

The tool was recently used to help identify a hardware issue. We were having connectivity problems which was identified with the LinkRunner that has the SFP to test fiber connections. We were able to show the vendor on sight that the link was good and that it was the vendor equipment that had the issue This resulted in them replacing the physical equipment to bring services back online.

hassle free of IT resources is plus point. Monitoring the external resources related to Websites, service provider links or any hosted applications is a great feature in Spiceworks Connectivity Dashboard. Alert reporting on monitored resources is at ease. Integration with custom devices needs to be improved. devices integrated with snmp protocol is not reported with full details which needs to be rectified by Spiceworks Connectivity Dashboard.

Incentivized

• Identify the exact switchport a given line is plugged in to.
• View the length and viability of any category or fiber optic cable.
• It acts as a premade packet capture device, simple enough to walk someone through deploying while I'm offsite.
• In the event LLDP based identification of a port fails, it has the ability to blink a switchport allowing for manual identification.

Incentivized

• Monitoring Applications
• External resources monitoring related to ISP
• Alerting mechanism via email and dashboard monitoring

Incentivized

• It could be updated for Mgig or 10Gb.
• Some devices should have SFP+ modules capabilities
• Could be combined with other tools

• Integration with custom devices needs to be improved
• providing more insight of device is required when added to monitoring list
• the feel and look of dashboard needs some improvement
• Agent is resource hungry, to be made light weight for systems

Incentivized

The network tester is one of the easest devices I have ever used. It does have capabilities that other testers simply don't have. Being able to identify the switch port it is plugged into, the address of the switch, the switch name, along with the VLAN has helped on so many occasions

There is little to no competition in this field. If you need to do any type of advanced network monitoring/identification (or use 10G) then you're going to own a Fluke. While Ideal does have a couple of devices that appear to be the closest competitor, the differences are still extremely evident.

Incentivized

Spiceworks Network Monitor being a free tool, can easily be overtaken against any other product which is cost involved and most of the features are available which are provided by any leading network monitoring tool available in the market. Few of the features which are not present in spiceworks tool (like autodiscovery of resources) needs to be added which will give a great competition for the product. Alerting features, response tickets, sending alerts via email is one of the great features in the product

Incentivized

• Drastic decrease in diagnosis time.
• The certainty coming from the diagnostic process with the Fluke leads to less guessing and quicker fixes.
• With multiple departments involved in the process of connecting devices to the network, the Fluke helps us to quickly certify a switch closet worth of cable and create error free documentation.

Incentivized

• if on premises cannot be deployed on Linux environment which needs windows license requirement
• competitive price makes easy for decision
• lacking in auto discovery of devices is the most negative point for ROI

Incentivized