Comments on: Wake on lan network tester

By: LAN cable Tester

LAN cable Tester — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 07:53:16 +0000

Cable tester traces the continuity of cable to ensure high speed in a network.

By: BaaZ

BaaZ — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:46:57 +0000

What is the link to the guide building the ethernet card tester, the link is not working.

OR

Could someone please tell me which wire of the WOL to connect where?

By: Thecapking

Thecapking — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:56:38 +0000

We bought these linkchecks from smartronix for $20, tells you if the drop is active and the speed. They are tiny and work well. http://www.amazon.com/Smartronix-Linkcheck-Ethernet-Tester/dp/B000RGI6R6

What I really want is something that will pull an IP to see what VLan the drop is connected to without a laptop.

By: Cybex

Cybex — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 05:21:02 +0000

I would like to ask a question about the possibility of creating just an active port tester. This project got really close to the mark in regards to downsizing the original hack but then got diverted into the WOL project. I need to come up with a small LED (light/no light) port tester. I don’t have the luxury of putting a tone or pulse on the opposite end, besides if I could do that I would just look at the switch lights. I know the RX pair has insignificant power to light an LED but I was thinking a battery hooked to an LED with a in-line circuit that could be closed by the small voltage present on the RX pair. I am not very knowledgeable about any of this but I am trying to learn. The original project would work but for my requirement I do not want or need the presence of a MAC. Although I guess I could use a read-only patch cable between the tester and the wall port… I would still like to cut the unnecessary components in order to make a smaller and sleaker tester.

By: drew

drew — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 03:02:49 +0000

BEHOLD! a cable tester is 10 bucks on ebay, and works thru a LAN as well.

By: ChRoNo16

ChRoNo16 — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 01:38:04 +0000

Wonderful idea, beats the hell out of Fluke testers, mainly because of cost. Spent about a dollar at radio shack to make one, works awesome, defeats bringing laptop and is small enough to fit most anywhere, even those tight behind the desk spaces!!!!

~ChRoNo16

By: trilly

trilly — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:22:02 +0000

>> via a normal and a bistable relais and a normal one.

i meant just a bistable and a normal one. sorry

By: trilly

trilly — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 18:13:24 +0000

shouldnt be too hard to turn on just one device via a normal and a bistable relais and a normal one. just wire it up so the WOL 3.3v triggers the normal relais which then gives the bistable one a jolt and resets the NIC to 0v. the bipolar relais would be switched everytime a magic packet is arriving.

no need for a serial protocol. theres no way of sending back things to the pc in an easy fashion anyway.

By: chic

chic — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 15:30:59 +0000

the comment about the anti static back was quite correct, so hows about an inside out antistatic bag? insulates the NIC’s bits from itself, throws a conductive/protective sheath over the whole lot.

By: ex-parrot

ex-parrot — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 00:20:13 +0000

by itself, this hack is a bit of an inelegant solution. however, by utilising the WoL pin it suddenly becomes uber-useful. I will definitely be using this and writing it up.

By: Atlantis

Atlantis — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 23:25:01 +0000

HI
so id played a little bit around whith the wol function and hey guess what EVERYTHING! could be turned on whith this funktin.
After the magic packet is sended the signalline(pin3)is up to 3,3V.
To reset these 3,3V the card has to be disconnected from power.
So if the card is disconnected everytime the WOL packed is sended it would be makeable to make some kind of a "serial" protocol so more devices could be controlled over just one card/mac all over the world ;)

If there is a interest on that i try to make a litte project out of that
So if anyone is interested just mail me

Atlantis

By: trilly

trilly — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 22:21:08 +0000

any more thoughts on how to use this for remote control of other things than pc's?

my dad's a tech freak and our house has rj-45 wall plugs, so it would be really nice if i could WOL my TV or some other device. :D

By: acidrain

acidrain — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 21:49:17 +0000

Regarding the link in #11 to geeks.com and the continuity tester:

We use one of these at work. The continuity tester is nicer in the fact that it tests for shorts and cuts along all 4 pairs, but it can't do that unless there is a "transmitter" at the other end. The device is simple, just some resistors and LEDs at the receiving end, and a battery with some logic to charge the pairs in order. (and ours has LEDs at that end too). We spent $99 on ours, but it looks very similar to the one on the geeks page. If you plug in the transmitter at the drop, it will light if there is some network device at the other end.

The best part is you can get an inductive wand, plug your transmitter in at the drop, and go back to your wiring closet/server room with the wand, and wave it over the cable bundles. It will sound a tone the closer you get to the cable, or you can stick it in an empty RJ45 jack and it will sound really loud. Makes it easy to map your wiring or find a specific jack if you are unlucky enough to be in a place that wasn't properly mapped to begin with. The wand will set you back about $180 (probably less, we paid more out of convenience in a large order). Both the continuity tester and the inductive probe were made by Tempo. The wand is a 200GX Inductive Amplifier with a LAN Toner 2 AT8L, the continuity tester is a 468R and 468T.

Cool hack though. It will just tell you the active drops, it doesn't tell you WHICH drop it is. Just that it is live. And it doesn't tell you if the wires are all correctly set. This only tests the send and receive pair, not the extra 2 (used for Power over Ethernet and I believe gigabit ethernet, maybe CDDI too)

By: w00tbike

w00tbike — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 17:28:31 +0000

yeah ok.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/tools/6c20/

By: MRE

MRE — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 10:55:40 +0000

eep.. it looks like the voltage swings are 3 volts for old school low speed ethernet, and down to the milivolot p-p for Gigabit.

and before anyone says “Yeah, but the card link lights do it…” those are simulated by the ethernet processor and at best are synched to the frame, not individual bits. Precisely why the card is not such a bad choice for such a project.