DX Spectrum vs LinkRunner comparison

Broadcom and NetAlly are both solutions in the Network Troubleshooting category. Broadcom is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.8, while NetAlly is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.0. Broadcom holds a 3.8% mindshare in NT, compared to NetAlly’s 17.3% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of Broadcom users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of NetAlly users who would recommend it.

DX Spectrum

Read 117 DX Spectrum reviews

197 Views
55 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

LinkRunner

Read 20 LinkRunner reviews

2,398 Views
256 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

DX Spectrum

LinkRunner

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 11, 2024

DX Spectrum and LinkRunner are competing networking tools. Despite DX Spectrum's competitive pricing and excellent customer support, LinkRunner stands out with superior features.

Features: DX Spectrum is known for its intuitive design, comprehensive reporting tools, and competitive pricing. LinkRunner offers advanced diagnostic capabilities, superior features, and efficient performance.

Room for Improvement: DX Spectrum could enhance the speed of its reporting functions, streamline its interface, and expand its feature set. LinkRunner could improve its user-friendly interface, reduce complexity in deployment, and lower its initial cost.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: DX Spectrum has a seamless deployment process and responsive customer support. LinkRunner, while slightly more complex to deploy, is commended for its user support during the setup phase.

Pricing and ROI: DX Spectrum is recognized for its cost-effectiveness and solid ROI. LinkRunner, though requiring a higher initial investment, provides substantial ROI through its advanced capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed DX Spectrum vs. LinkRunner Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

DX Spectrum vs. LinkRunner

June 2025

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Helped 859,129 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

DX Spectrum

Ranking in Network Troubleshooting

6th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

117

Ranking in other categories

Network Management Applications (7th), Network Monitoring Software (21st), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (17th), DX NetOps (1st)

LinkRunner

Ranking in Network Troubleshooting

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Network Troubleshooting category, the mindshare of DX Spectrum is 3.8%, up from 3.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of LinkRunner is 17.3%, down from 23.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Network Troubleshooting

Featured Reviews

DickBaker

Network Design Engineer DTCC at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

An all-inclusive monitoring solution that adapts to emerging technologies

The product helps to correlate events. The solution's most valuable features are its integration with Broadcom tools and scalability. DX Spectrum needs better documentation on its complex features. I have been using the product since 2005. I rate DX Spectrum's stability an eight point five…

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Jesse_B

Manager of networks and infrastructure at a government with 5,001-10,000 employees

Impressive ease of use, gives comprehensive results in seconds, and saves a lot of time and resources

I've found the VLAN test feature to be most valuable. That's because not many devices do VLAN tests. Normally, I have to send a center technician to check a line and see if it's alive. If it's working, then I have to send a network technician out to log into a switch and see which port it's on and on which VLAN that port is. That's two persons and two separate visits. This device does all of this in a matter of seconds, and that has saved me a lot of time, troubleshooting, and resources. Its ease of use is very impressive. LinkRunner allows me to have my technicians run tests that are normally too complex and require a network specialist. AutoTest works with just one click. AutoTest does a lot of testing that would normally require a network specialist to log in to a switch and check out VLAN based on a port. My technicians don't have to log in to the switch anymore. They can just do AutoTest and information is provided online. So, I no longer have to send a specialist. I can have my technician run these very complex tests. It saves me on resources, time, and site visits. When it comes to troubleshooting, based on my experience, it has given very useful and very helpful information, especially for my field technicians. It has reduced my visits and the amount of presence because it gives a very comprehensive report on your network tests. It tests multiple variables and multiple parameters and gives a very informative report that makes it easy to pinpoint what is the root cause. There are many tools in this one solution. It's basically a bunch of toolkits or tool sets in one device, which makes it very powerful testing equipment.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The quick notification of issues, quick alerting because timeliness is always valuable, it's very important for us."

"The most valuable features have been the interface and the ability to do equipment management."

"It does correlation so instead of producing 20 alarms if a site goes down, it only creates one."

"It is easy to understand and determine when and/or where the network is failing."

"Spectrum is great for root cause analysis. It has excellent correlation event management. Spectrum's stability and scalability are also amazing."

"The fault management is perfect."

"Scalability is a highly rated feature of this solution. It is better than some of the other tools that I've used in terms of scalability. We scaled it to tens of thousands of devices."

"It helps our NetOps group actually handle alarms in a way that lets them see the bigger picture of those alarms, and how they might affect our services. It helps us communicate information about the network state better to services that might be impacted by a specific network condition."

More DX Spectrum pros

"Having the results sent directly, via email, from the LinkRunner itself makes it really great for logging different things that you're trying to document within your organization. You can have a paper trail of what your organization has as far as infrastructure goes."

"I like the fact that I can tell the equipment to stop at a certain point during the test of a cable, to see whether or not there is basic connectivity. I can stop it before it starts pinging the outside world, such as Google or, perhaps, our core network switch. Those basic results—do I have a basic connection and power—finish up fast and I can move on."

"I like that LinkRunner is an all-in-one device with a touchscreen interface. You don't have to pair it with a phone or anything else to get the full functionality. The built-in tests are one of the most significant advantages. It will pull an IP, ping the gateway, ping out to the intra, and report everything on the screen. It will tell you when a test completes or fails and why."

"The AutoTest feature makes it easy for you on both ends. It's an excellent feature, especially if you're by yourself. You plug one end in and you hit AutoTest. It sits and waits for you to plug in the other end and it starts testing."

"The LLDP decoding is better than on some of the other devices that we've used. Specifically, it goes beyond the minimum of the LLDP data to decode, and it shows the LLDP port descriptions. That makes it vastly simpler to identify which port you're connecting to on a switch that's patched back to some other building, rather than having to figure out an SNMP index or something else."

"The auto-test feature is vital and does 90 percent of what I need on its own. It's fast and I can get there in just a few clicks. It does a good job and tells me everything I need to know. LinkRunner works pretty quickly and always seems to be accurate."

"It is fast in providing results. It is pretty accurate."

"Performance testing is the most valuable feature. It gives a brief summary of the information we're looking at, such as latency, jitter, and the available throughput."

Cons

"It doesn’t give you performance metrics: You need CA eHealth for this."

"The upgrade process could be smoother. More of the steps around upgrading could be automated."

"DX Spectrum is stable. However, now and then there are some issues, but overall it is good."

"The price of DX Spectrum is not competitive when compared to other solutions, such as SolarWinds. The high price has caused us to lose many deals."

"There should be better integration with other Broadcom products, like network performance manager. Currently, for every part of a product, you need a separate server environment. You have something for Spectrum, you have something for network performance, and you have something for NetFlow. There are a lot of islands and server farms with different technologies. They should be redeveloped to get one platform for all."

"Technical support for this product is not so good. It needs improvement."

"DX Spectrum needs to incorporate faster support."

"We want to make our own choice for the AIOps solution and do not want to be forced to use the Broadcom OI solution by default."

More DX Spectrum cons

"It runs tests quickly, but it takes a while to boot up. It's somewhat disappointing that LinkRunner takes some time to turn on. When I arrive in the space, I usually spend the first two minutes waiting."

"It doesn't turn off automatically, but the toning function goes to sleep. It seems to stop toning after five or six minutes if you don't find the cable. It could be up to ten minutes, but if you don't find the cable that you're trying to tone quick enough, you'll have to go back and restart the tone. So, it doesn't turn itself off, but while toning, it turns itself off."

"It is very stable. That being said, there is one feature that is not quite as stable as the rest of the product. You can leave it plugged into a location where you're doing some work and connect to it remotely by a program called VNC... sometimes that function breaks down, if you've been running for a couple of days... if you're remotely controlling it, you're probably not right next to it. That can be modestly annoying."

"Being really nitpicky about the LinkRunner G2, I wish the form factor was a little bit smaller. However, I'm sure that the size of the unit is compromised by the fact that the battery is large. If that were to mean having less battery life, I would not change it."

"It does take a little while to boot up if it's turned off."

"One of the things I'd like to see in future versions of LinkRunner is a wireless dongle embedded into the product so that I don't need to have a separate wireless dongle. It should be built into that."

"A feature that I would like to see is the ability to send a tone down the cable. That would be great. I have to use a separate tool for that. If I'm trying to troubleshoot a cable that is not plugged into a network switch, I need the ability to tone."

"One area where LinkRunner could be improved is the battery life. Depending on which tests are run, it gets a decent six to eight hours. However, sometimes we need to do back-to-back shifts to meet a deadline, and we need access to an outlet to keep it plugged in and charging. It takes about an hour or two to charge."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is very high."

"It’s a great tool, but an expensive one. Learn how to use it properly."

"The price is good enough to expect an ideal solution. It's expensive."

"It is very pricey. With the current trend of enterprises moving towards cheaper and more modern looking solutions like ManageEngine, SevOne, ServicePilot, and Paesller."

"DX Spectrum's pricing depends on the license number. It is affordable."

"Spectrum is expensive."

"The solution's pricing could be better."

"In general, the license cost will be about 30% of the total TCO for this tool (hardware/support team, OS costs, and OS management)."

More DX Spectrum pricing and cost advice

"It's an expensive device. Don't expect it to be cheap. But the pricing is good. It certainly seemed in line with anything else I was looking at at the time."

"I didn't have to buy it, but if I was going to have my choice, I wouldn't buy it just because of the price point. It works pretty well to do one thing. For the cost, it is definitely not worth it. There are other products out there that can do the same thing for probably 70% less. I am not aware of any additional costs."

"It was difficult to sell this to my management because the price is really high compared to other testing tools. However, we've seen a pretty good return on investment considering our outcomes and the time we have saved. The first year has been great."

"The cost of this device is very expensive, especially with the NetAlly Care on top of the costs. It is not for personal use and would be very expensive for smaller businesses."

"The price was fine. You pay for the unit, and there are no licensing or maintenance fees."

"It's expensive but you definitely get what you pay for. I would buy another one if I had to."

"It's reasonably priced in my market. It provides good value for money. The device is competitively priced as compared to other solutions. It gives you a lot of functionality and saves you a lot of time and resources. I see it as a good buy and good value for money. I stand for it."

"I would buy another one if I had a chance but they're too expensive. If they made it a bit cheaper, I think a lot of network engineers and network administrators would immediately jump onto it."

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

Healthcare Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about DX Spectrum?

The solution's most valuable features are its integration with Broadcom tools and scalability.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DX Spectrum?

The price of DX Spectrum is not competitive when compared to other solutions, such as SolarWinds. The high price has caused us to lose many deals.

See all answers

What needs improvement with DX Spectrum?

I would like to see improvements in making the interface more user-friendly. Many people find it not simple to use. One of the common customer complaints is about the alarm notifications. Currently...

See all answers

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Comparisons

Zabbix vs DX Spectrum

Compared 14% of the time

DX NetOps vs DX Spectrum

Compared 11% of the time

SolarWinds NPM vs DX Spectrum

Compared 10% of the time

Nagios XI vs DX Spectrum

Compared 8% of the time

ThousandEyes vs DX Spectrum

Compared 5% of the time

More DX Spectrum Competitors

NetAlly EtherScope nXG vs LinkRunner

Compared 31% of the time

LinkSprinter vs LinkRunner

Compared 24% of the time

IxChariot vs LinkRunner

Compared 24% of the time

AirCheck G3 vs LinkRunner

Compared 14% of the time

OneTouch AT Network Assistant vs LinkRunner

Compared 8% of the time

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

DX Spectrum

June 2025

Download DX Spectrum product report

Buyer's Guide

LinkRunner

June 2025

Download LinkRunner product report

Also Known As

CA Spectrum

No data available

Overview

DX Spectrum is a complete event and fault management system for network operations teams. The tool provides powerful capabilities for managing your dynamic, complex IT infrastructure, which includes physical, virtual, and cloud environments.The technology allows you to manage and optimize the infrastructure and the professional services that operate on top of it. DX Spectrum is a unified platform that helps your company enhance network service levels while lowering monitoring costs.

DX Spectrum has intelligent event correlation and root-cause analysis capabilities. It can pinpoint the precise components that are causing issues with availability and network settings. Reports and dashboards can be customized with role-based views. Change management solutions can also be used by teams to govern, track, and remediate changes across network devices.

DX Spectrum can identify multi-technology and multi-vendor stacks, as well as new software-defined networks (SDNs). It supports Multicast, MPLS, VPN, and VRF, among other routing protocols and technologies.

DX Spectrum Features

DX Spectrum has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Service management: DX Spectrum assists personnel in discovering, modeling, visualizing, monitoring, and managing the links between infrastructure and the business services it supports.

Fault detection: DX Spectrum offers unique solutions that automate device discovery and root cause analysis, allowing for faster issue detection and resolution.

Change management capabilities: DX Spectrum gives administrators the visibility and control they need to prevent erroneous modifications from causing network performance problems and outages.

Comprehensive visibility: With DX Spectrum, managers can receive comprehensive insight across physical, virtualized, and cloud environments, as well as a variety of technologies, platforms, and suppliers.

Customization: DX Spectrum provides administrators, users, and customers with pre-packaged, easily configurable dashboards and reports that may be adjusted to their individual needs. For maximum performance and visibility, it is intimately connected with other solutions within the DX Service Assurance and DX Service Management systems.

DX Spectrum Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing DX Spectrum. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Reduce symptomatic alarms and hasten resolution with DX Spectrum’s root-cause analysis and robust event correlation. Automatically map the relationships between your network infrastructure to find the source of service issues for faster resolution. Whether it's a network configuration or availability issue, our network fault management system pinpoints the exact component responsible for the issue.
DX Spectrum supports network access from wireless wearables, mobile phones, tablets, and laptops. Provide network operators with the tools they need to manage their wireless networks, decrease outages, and make them as stable as their wired networks. For wired and wireless networks, DX Spectrum offers a unified view.

Fault and event management can be integrated across the Agile Ops, Network Operations, and Analytics portfolios. Fault, inventory, and topology knowledge are combined with performance, application, and log monitoring and a unified view across a full-stack NetOps solution. Additional connections include business service and service desk management.

Reviews from Real Users

DX Spectrum stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its robust root cause analysis and its event correlation tool. PeerSpot users take note of the advantages of these features in their reviews:

Umair A., Enterprise Solutions & Services Head at Duroob Technologies, writes of the product, “It covers networks very well. It has all the capabilities that you're looking for when it comes to monitoring. Spectrum is great for root cause analysis. It has excellent correlation event management. Spectrum's stability and scalability are also amazing. If you have a CA Service Desk, then it can be integrated so that if you have open tickets they can be closed automatically.”

Itarchit, an IT Architect at a comms service provider, notes, “The most valuable feature is the event correlation mechanism. I also like the product's multi-customer approach.” He adds, “We haven't seen a better product. Overall, I am happy with this solution. Based on the current market, I would rate DX Spectrum a nine out of ten.”

Broadcom

LinkRunner AT 3000 & 4000. Next Generation Copper and Fiber Ethernet AutoTester. Fast and comprehensive validation of network links and powerful copper and fiber network connectivity troubleshooting. Tests from 10Mbps to 10Gbps, PoE, VLAN, switch port, path analysis, packet capture, topology mapping and so much more!

NetAlly

Sample Customers

National Informatics Centre India, Banese, Olympus, AlphaServe Technologies, Sicredi

Philips Healthcare, HCA Healthcare, University of South Dakota, Memorial Hermann, Baltimore County Public Schools, Aaramrak.

Buyer's Guide

DX Spectrum vs. LinkRunner

June 2025

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