LinkRunner Reviews

I mostly use LinkRunner for the auto-test LAN option. We use it to diagnose wall plates, test cable lengths, and perform simple captures and pings. 

I carry the unit in my tool bag, and I am the only person who uses it. One of the other team members has the same title as me, does the same basic tasks, and carries the same tools. The other person who uses this is the department director. He's the supervisor, so he makes decisions, but he also does hands-on repair work.

LinkRunner makes troubleshooting faster. I can get information with LinkRunner that would otherwise require me to log into the switch itself. It allows me to access the information without going through any security hoops to log into the switch or having an actual laptop with me. When it tells me something, it's right, and I trust the information that it gives me. I don't have to question it or double-check anything.

I can't say that it has made us more productive. It's like asking a carpenter if a hammer makes him more productive. He needs the hammer, or he's not going to be useful. I need one of these for my day-to-day activities.

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. 

I like that the auto-test is customizable, so I can set up different auto-test profiles depending on the scenario I'm going into. I often want to know the port of the switch I'm connected to. I also want to test how fast I get DHCP. I also use the auto test for power requirements, so I know how much power is coming through the line.

I love the Link-Live Cloud Service. I try to make sure that it gets plugged into an actual network from time to time so those updates show up. I often forward results to my team to let someone else look at them and give me their assessment. It's a huge benefit that saves me time by giving information to my colleagues.

It's handy that LinkRunner has the user manual built into it. You often need to use this tool to look up an answer when a network isn't available.

LinkRunner is moderately challenging to use. The auto test is excellent, but all the other features require you to spend time reading the manual. It's not as intuitive as it could be. What you need to do or what it's trying to tell you is not very obvious.

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.

My older LinkRunner unit was faster, but it broke, and that's why I got this new one. I prefer the old one. This one starts pretty slowly, and you always have to turn it off because the battery drains quickly. You can never leave it on for any length of time. You always need to turn it off. Otherwise, it'll be dead in a few hours.

It has a USB you can use to add a WIFI card, but the WIFI card that NetAlly recommends causes it to crash constantly. I can't use it often because it just crashes. It also seems to make the product hot when I try to use it. The USB port doesn't allow you to fully insert the USB WIFI adapter either. It's sticking out in a way that makes me worry I'm going to break it if I don't remove the adapter constantly.

The USB port needs to be roomier so you can fully seat something into it. It would be nice if it actually had a small WIFI adapter built into it because the one they recommend installing is problematic.

I've been using LinkRunner for two years.

It's never crashed on me except for when I used the recommended WIFI adapter. It doesn't seem buggy or has any freak-outs. It's relatively stable.

I appreciate that it has an SFP. The closest thing to scalability is that it does normal copper RJ45, but it also takes an SFP to do a 10G connection. One reason we chose this model is that it has the SFP that can do 10G.

I've never contacted NetAlly support before, but I appreciate that they send me an email when there's a software update. The manual is pretty well done, so I've never needed to call support or check support web pages.

I used LinkRunner AT 1000 before. I switched because the old one stopped functioning. I believe the ethernet port on it was physically broken. 

Setting up LinkRunner was straightforward, and it only takes a few minutes. There isn't much to set up. You pretty much just turn it on. I took it out of the box and turned it on. I didn't need to talk to anyone or call support. I turned it on, read the manual a little bit, and that was it.

I don't know if ROI really applies here. It's just a tool that I need to have, so I'm going to have some version of it no matter what.

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

I shopped for it and chose the model. I mostly looked at other NetAlly products because I don't think there was a comparable product from any other vendor. 
I selected this model because of the 10G connection, but I also considered a more wireless-focused LinkRunner product. It was something in the AT 1000 or AT 2000 series. I don't remember the differences between them, but I picked this one specifically because of the 10G functionality.

I rate LinkRunner a seven out of ten. It has good value for the price. The battery is disappointing, so I can't rank it higher. Before buying LinkRunner, I recommend thinking about how long you need to go without being able to charge it. 

You will be disappointed if you're in the field for eight hours daily, expecting this product to be on six or seven of those hours. It's not going to last. If you want to use WIFI at all, choose a different model. Don't try to install a WIFI card in this one.

You also need to read the manual. They're not all the same. So even if you own multiple LinkRunner products, they're not very identical, and you should learn the differences between them.

I use LinkRunner for new deployment testing environments to validate solutions and to prove to us and our clients that we're delivering what they're looking for. LinkRunner provides us with all the relevant information we need, test results, and validates everything that we've done.

The tools are shared across our team, which is about eight people.

The number of bulk test tools that we carried is reduced from three bags to one tiny bag. That's an improvement. We manage only one or two devices in theory versus 10 different pieces of test equipment for 10 different results and variables. It's helped our company a lot.

LinkRunner generates a report that summarizes everything, so we don't have to pull all the results from different tests, put it together, make sense of it, and then talk to the client about it. We can customize a single report with a company's value-adds, which saves a lot of time.

NetAlly's free Link-Live Cloud Service is a highlight of our use case, especially because most of the other tools that we use don't have a cloud platform. It allows us to save test results. We've had situations where a client requested to see those test results because we didn't provide them originally. It was definitely a face-saving stage because we were able to pull the report easily from the cloud platform.

The solution's ability to simplify network validation and configuration of copper and fiber Ethernet networks is absolutely brilliant. It would have taken us an hour to run those tests on individual test tools with a dedicated toolkit. LinkRunner has one tool to achieve all this, so we can do everything within 10-15 minutes for the same amount of tests. There has been a huge time reduction. Running tests multiple times across different individual pieces of the network reduces time as well.

It helps us streamline workflows. There are specific tools for test reasons or validations, so if we did this with any other tool, we would've spent many hours doing individual tests. Because we're doing it in one go with LinkRunner, we save a lot of time. We have a one-panel view, which allows us to see everything, cleanly summarizes it, and points out where the problems are. It's highly relevant and highly useful, especially for a network engineer.

We use LinkRunner's AutoTest feature a lot. The AutoTest feature shows us the connectivity status. It picks up the DHCP IP. It saves us a lot of time because we don't have to manually configure things.

The AutoTest feature on its own is just a part of the puzzle. It's one piece that allows us to make sure we have physical connectivity. It's more time-saving than anything else. The AutoTest feature alone doesn't meet all of our needs, but together with the AutoTest performances, iPerf, etc., it works very well.

LinkRunner is easy to use and saves a lot of time. It's programmed so that all the usual tasks are automated, which means we don't have to select variables, values, etc.

LinkRunner's speed in providing results is very good.

The solution automatically uploads test results to Link-Live Cloud Service, which definitely saves us time. The only downside is that we have to manually select "Upload It." I wish that piece was automated more than anything else, including graphs. I couldn't find that feature, but it's been pretty straightforward to use other than that.

The solution has definitely reduced troubleshooting time. About 70% of our time and effort has been reduced.

Our networking staff is more productive because of this solution. They have time to focus on other things. 

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.

I wish they had software that could create continuous streams of traffic. I'm not sure if that's possible with LinkRunner, but it would be very helpful in some of the test case scenarios that clients are looking for, in regards to the quality of service.

I would like to see automated cloud updates so we can automatically upload test results instead of manually doing it.

I have been using this solution for less than a year.

We haven't had any issues with stability.

The scalability is questionable, but I'm open to being corrected on that. Right now, we're starting to see 25 Gig and 50 Gig throughputs, and even 100 or 400 Gig throughputs. It would be nice to see testing tools that can do 400 Gigs. 400 Gigs might be pushing it, but I would like to see at least 100 Gigs because that's slowly becoming the norm.

I haven't needed to contact technical support.

We used various tools and applications to replicate what we were doing. They were all Linux-based tools or specific cable test-run tools. We put them all aside thanks to LinkRunner.

I had to make one call to the partner, but everything else was straightforward. It took less than ten minutes to get the solution up and running. After that, we took it out to client sites and used it for different testing results, AutoTest performances, etc., over a period of days.

The solution hardly requires any maintenance. The firmware updates come from the cloud platform. 

We have absolutely seen ROI with the time and effort that our engineers are saving. 

For one of our projects, we had to do tests on every single individual network device. Doing that without LinkRunner would have taken at least five times the effort. LinkRunner immediately saved us that time by one-fifth. 

We have also saved time because the information is consolidated into a report. The cloud solution formats it into a graph. It's presentable and easily extracted. We got a lot of time back, which we could use for other projects.

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.

We approached a lot of vendors in regard to various solutions. We were trying to get a 10 Gig capacity throughput because it was a requirement that the client absolutely wanted to test. Not many solutions delivered that.

We also wanted summarized and collated information instead of needing to use ten different tools to achieve the same result. LinkRunner meets all of those needs.

I would rate this solution eight out of ten.

It's not a ten because of the scalability piece. If I wanted to step it up with other interface levels, the scalability would be limited. I would like to see the addition of a couple of simple tests and a traffic generator feature.

I work for one of the biggest port operators in the United Kingdom. I'm a network analyst/engineer, and I use the LinkRunner on a daily basis to check network connectivity from areas around where I work or from the switches in the LAN room, whether it's to check VLAN info to determine if the port is live, or end-to-end testing of the cables.

The end-to-end testing of cables [is a benefit] when you're working on a campus-wide network and you want to detect if there's a fault. If you're working on the OSI layers, and you're starting right down at the bottom on the physical layer, it can rule out if there's an issue with that quite fast, and save a lot of time being wasted trying to troubleshoot things with IP addresses et cetera, when it's detected a problem with the cables being crossed or unterminated.

The most valuable feature is the end-to-end testing with the "dart," as they call it, where you can test for faults in the cable or if they've been terminated properly.

Its ability to simplify network validation and configuration of copper and fiber Ethernet networks is good. The checking of the termination on copper is good. I haven't used it much for fiber, to be honest, but I use it to locate physical problems with a cable. It's very good because it also gives you the distance, which wires are crossed, and which ones are damaged.

Troubleshooting with it is also good, with physical faults on a cable. It is good as well for VLAN information and IP information.

The AutoTest feature is the one I use the most. It will provide me with the VLAN that's being presented, the switch hostname. It didn't use to provide the actual port number, which sometimes is imperative if you're trying to troubleshoot something. It will do an IP test, so it will tell you the default gateway address and the IP address it's getting. And it will do a few tests where it goes out to Google, so you can see if it can get to the actual outside public network. And that all gets uploaded to the portal, which you can access through a PC when you get back to your main office.

That Auto Test information is essential because I go to a lot of remote sites. You want to leave knowing that all that info, the comprehensive information, is uploaded back to the portal. You don't want to get back and find there are bits missing.

The fact that results are automatically saved to NetAlly's Link-Live cloud service is very important because if there are a few of us with LinkRunners, and we're assessing the network connectivity at different areas within the campus, we can have them all uploaded and it's all stored centrally. And we can access other people's results as well. Definitely [it's important] instead of trying to get that info at a later date, it's all there within minutes. The automatic uploading of test results definitely saves time and helps with the management of test results.

It's reduced troubleshooting time by about 20 percent because of the features I've mentioned [like] the centrally uploaded data, and because of the scope of things, it can look into like DHCP, IP connectivity, VLANs being presented, and physical issues on a port.

Where it does fall short, though, is getting the port numbers off the switch.

Also, for ad hoc additions, moves, and changes of wired connections, it was a bit hard to pick up at first because it's not straightforward how to label each test you are doing on it. There is a section on there where you can add notes to each test, which I discovered later. Having said that, once you get your head around that, it is good.

It's quite easy to use but the interface for the web portal could be made easier.

Also, the battery life is not very good on a LinkRunner G2 at all.

I've used it for the last five or six years.

Performance-wise it is good, apart from the battery. The battery indicator icon might say there's a third of a battery-full on there, but then you do an AutoTest, it looks good, you're trying to upload it, and bang, it disappears.

It is limited because of the battery life. And in fact, at Networkshop in 2017, I spoke to a LinkRunner member of staff and I explained the issue with the battery. They said that I needed to buy a better LinkRunner, a more advanced model, which I thought was a bit strange because even after having it for a few weeks, the battery would just die on you.

I don't use it extensively. There are a lot of features on it that I don't use, like the web browser. I usually just use the port testing, the AutoTest, and the dart with the end-to-end cable testing. I'm satisfied with the way things are.

The company decided to go with LinkRunner's NETSCOUT, as opposed to Fluke, for some reason. It might have been the price. I don't know because I'm not involved with the purchase of them.

Setup of the LinkRunner G2 is quite straightforward and it's also straightforward if you have one transferred over to you from another department, or another user leaves and you take that on. It was just [a matter of] taking the device off that name and putting it under your own. You got a code sent through and then it was just a case of putting your email address in and then accessing the portal again.

It takes half an hour, if that.

LinkRunner G2 has made our networking staff more productive, but we were using Flukes before that and Flukes had higher battery life. I'd be lying if I didn't say that hasn't caused issues.

Once it's on, it's fast at providing results, but it does take a while to power up and get established.

Make sure you learn how to put notes onto each AutoTest you do so that you can decipher what's what when they're in the uploaded portal. And also keep an eye on the battery as soon as you get it, and if it starts failing, contact their support. I feel that the battery on mine, and on others in the workplace, was substandard.

I give it a five out of 10. If it weren't for the battery, it would probably get a 10 out of 10. But because of the battery, it's infuriating and it's not reliable.

My company has been spinning up a lot of offices, so we use LinkRunner to verify that the copper and fiber cables are installed correctly and will meet multi-gig needs. We also use it for general troubleshooting that occurs with the various built-in tests. We have two devices shared by four or five junior and senior network engineers.

LinkRunner makes the configuration of the copper and fiber Ethernet networks a lot simpler. The kit comes with modules that you can plug in, so it will do pair matching and everything else on the screen. We can ensure that everything has been terminated properly.

It also uploads to NetAlly's cloud, creating a record of all the tests that have been run. We can easily see when something new is tested by a technician in the field and add the test to the documentation. We know when something has been added and whether it meets the installation requirements. This is crucial for us and it's easy to access the data after it uploads. We can sign into the cloud, or it'll email us the results after each test.

The client integration is a huge time saver. Older products from this vendor required us to hook our device to our laptop via USB and manually transfer. At the end of the day, everything is automatically uploaded to the cloud. We're getting the testing done faster, which saves us at least a day per location.

I like that LinkRunner is an all-in-one device with a touchscreen interface. I 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 me when a test completes or fails and why.

We don't have to worry about carrying multiple devices. When we’re going into a situation to deploy or troubleshoot, we don't want to take a whole bag of stuff. This comes with a little strap so we can wear it on our hips.

AutoTest is another feature we use. It provides a power rating and does the basics post on IP. It has thresholds to tell me if a DHCP request takes longer than expected or the DNS takes longer to resolve something based on thresholds we've set. AutoTest is critical for troubleshooting because it helps diagnose network issues. If it's an issue with a DNS server or DHB server, then it is not traditionally a network issue.

Overall, it's easy to use. When I hand it to junior technicians, they can figure it out in a few minutes and test whatever they need. The results display quickly after the initial boot and testing. The unit also has a built-in camera, so we can snap pictures of the wall plates and other field items when we're troubleshooting or looking at a new install.

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.

I'd also like to see NetAlly add the ability to test 40-gig fiber.

We've been using LinkRunner for about a year.

The OS is pretty stable. I think we've only had one crash, and that may just be because Android OS is running multiple test apps at once. We don't always remember to close them, so it's running a lot in the background. The device itself is sturdy, but I've only used it with a protective case, so I don't know how well it would handle a drop without it.

We were using a different NetAlly device previously. It was a LinkSprinter. We switched to LinkRunner because it does 10-gig fiber and 2.5-gig copper. LinkRunner also has cable mapping built into it. 

LinkRunner is a single device, which is an advantage over LinkSprinter. We don't have to pair it with our phone to get the features. With LinkSprinter, we plug it in, and it does the AutoTest. We must pair it to our phones to launch additional tests. We don't have to worry about keeping our phone connected, so it's more convenient.

There is some setup, but it's relatively straightforward. You need to register the device on the portal if you want the results emailed. You go put in the last eight digits of the MAC address for the device and connect to the network. It talks to the cloud, and the cloud is listening to that MAC address.

NetAlly does that for most of their tools, so it's the same portal if you have multiple NetAlly products. If you already have an account set up, you only need to add the new device to the portal. 

I can't give a dollar amount, but anything that saves time is worth the investment. It pays for itself if we look at our usage throughout the year and the time saved.

The price was fair. We bought LinkRunner with a bundle. One of the bundles came with the wireless tester as well as a bunch of other modules and adapters.

We took a cursory look at other solutions to see what's out there. LinkRunner seemed to be the most straightforward and feature-rich option. I can't recall the name of the other vendor, but it was a much larger device. LinkRunner fits in your hand. The other device is more of a tablet with modules and everything else. It was more unwieldy.

I rate LinkRunner ten out of ten. Even though it has some room for improvement, it's still the most feature-rich solution out of all the ones I've used.

We use it for general connectivity issues and trying to determine throughput on fiber and throughput on the wired part of the network. We have a lot of excess network traffic and we are trying to determine if it is inherent to a particular run of fiber or a particular network switch. We've been chasing activity around campus for most of the year, including VLANs and things of that nature. A lot of it was pretty simply explained and it was really easy to see on this device.

The AutoTest feature is really important because it saves time. Instead of chasing something down the old, manual way, with a ping test and a tracer, and a tone-tester loop-back process, AutoTest saves me something like eight to 10 hours every week.

In terms of network validation, and copper and fiber Ethernet configuration, I can't imagine life without LinkRunner devices. The minute I got the 10G, everybody was fighting over it. They had never used such a device before and it was just breathtaking for them to very quickly see the validation you can gain from these devices. Without one, it's a manual process where you're chasing your head in circles.

When it comes to troubleshooting, I don't even know how to measure its value. It gives you the information you need, when you need it, very quickly. When you're dealing with a school, like we are, you don't have a lot of time. When technology breaks, learning stops, and that's the core product. I can't imagine not having something like this to help me and my team track down intermittent issues. The amount of time it saves me on troubleshooting varies but I would estimate it's several hours a week, on average.

The speed of the device means that, for what we're looking for, it usually takes 30 seconds to a minute.

Another benefit is the automatic upload of test results to the Link-Live Cloud Service. Over a period of a month, that feature saves me several hours. I can look back on a particular activity at the time it happened and know what we tested and what we found. It has demonstrated its value that way very easily.

You can very easily see the VLAN structures and which port is involved on the switch. A lot of detailed information comes back.

It's also helpful that I have both my devices connected to email. Every time they're used I get an email that shows me the test results—fail/pass—and the details around it. When I get back, I review where I was and recall all the details without having to scribble them down on a piece of paper.

If the results were not automatically saved to NetAlly’s free Link-Live Cloud Service, it would lose a lot of effectiveness. Without that, you would have to depend on the memory of the device or walk around with a notepad and scribble things down, and hopefully you'd be able to read what you wrote when you got back. Having that automated process is very important, and knowing it is there even made it easier to make the purchase.

Also, being able to do a packet capture is important. 

AutoTest largely gives you a snapshot of what the network is looking like on that particular leg. It helps trace down if we have connectivity. We have a unique setup in the way we structure our VLANs, so it's just important to know which port on a switch is tied to which VLAN structure. When you're out, you're not going to necessarily log in to the switch and automatically start looking. You need to know, "Is this on this VLAN or that VLAN?" Given that they're not necessarily marked clearly, the LinkRunner device makes it a lot easier to really quickly say, "Okay, I need to move this port because this one is dead. Where is another VLAN for it?" You can very quickly determine which of the ports will work.

Also, on very long runs at the end of a building, I am able to do a more in-depth cable test to see if we've got a mismatched pair or a loose wire that needs to be punched down. You can very easily tell when you've got an intermittent connection. 

And, of course, the performance of it is pretty handy too. You can start an analysis of what's going on and look at what outgoing port you're going at.

I've been using LinkRunner for about a year. It was actually the first purchase I made when I got here. I had a couple of LinkRunners, not the 10G but the wired and wireless combined one, the AirCheck G2. I also have that here. I used that at my previous school for a couple of years.

We've never had any issues with the LinkRunner.

I've never had to use their tech support, which is a good thing.

In the school where I'm now working, they didn't have any testing devices before I arrived. They did whatever they could, but there was no intelligent testing available. They would just look at the network activity on a switch, which isn't really helpful at all. 

I went with LinkRunner in my current job because of my prior experience with it. 

Getting it set up was very easy, almost seamless. It was almost plug-and-play. There was just not a lot to it. Within 30 minutes of utilizing it and doing a few tests, you see that it's very user-friendly. Most users adapt to it very quickly and find what they're looking for.

We have seen value from the product from day one. It's worth every dime we paid for it, 100 percent.

The area where the product could be improved is by having a lower cost so that I could have more than one. The price is competitive, but everybody would always like to see the price go down. I'd buy another one if it were cheaper.

We use it to test customers' networks, either fiber or Category 6 cable. We run BERT tests to analyze the fiber or cable.

For example, next week I'll be using it at a customer who is stating that they ran a bunch of data cables and they're hiring us to validate the cables and make sure there are no problems with it. Their IT department is saying when they installed the network, everything slowed down. We'll go in there and use LinkRunner.

The effect on how we work has been huge. It takes the guesswork out of everything. If a customer says that they're having issues with speed and they're blaming it on the cable, we can completely nip that in the bud and show them exactly what the cable and/or fiber is doing. It takes those variables out of the equation, so they can look in other places.

When it comes to troubleshooting, it's excellent. It's great. Although I haven't done that much troubleshooting with it, it takes speculation out of the picture. If there is a bad cable or bad fiber, it will tell you. We can use it to troubleshoot and verify or certify the cable.

LinkRunner has made our networking staff significantly more productive. It cuts down the time they spend, per job, by a couple of hours.

Among the best features are the

• touch screen 
• menus, which are pretty easy
• and the reports, which are great.

In terms of network validation, the tool makes it very easy to run a test.

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. It's also helpful when you're with a second person. Once the second guy goes to the next jack or the next fiber, you hit AutoTest and then that guy plugs it in and it tests. It saves a lot of time and gives you a lot of information, depending on what you're testing.

The speed at which it provides results is excellent. It's extremely fast and efficient. It's not a time-waster.

I also love NetAlly’s free Link-Live Cloud Service where the test results are automatically saved. It's like a backup. It's always there. Later, you can get on your computer and get the results, and you can print them out. It's much easier than transferring the data from the unit to a thumb drive or connecting it to a computer. It makes things more efficient and easier.

I would like to see better documentation on how to use the unit. I watch a lot of YouTube videos about it, but I'd rather have a paper manual. That would be better instead of flipping through a file.

I've been using LinkRunner for over a year and a half.

This is my second unit. I had issues with the first one, it just wouldn't turn on.o they sent me a new one. Since then, everything has been fine.

The tech support is great. If you're not familiar with any of the types of tests, you call tech support and they'll walk you through them. They'll ask you, "What do you want to do?" When you tell them, they say, "Oh, go here, here, here," and you're testing away.

You can call their support anytime and someone will answer. They're very knowledgeable and will help you. We use the tech support for education about the unit. If someone forgets how to do something, they're able to call and support will walk them right through it.

Positive

I used a Fluke in the past, and then it became part of the independent company called NetAlly. I still use the Fluke product to this day. The LinkRunner 10G has many more functions than the Fluke LinkRunner. We switched to stay up with the times.

There was no setup. I was able to use it straight out of the box.

It's a little bit tough getting used to at first, but once you get the hang of it, and once you start using it more, like anything, it gets easier. The difficult part, at first, is knowing where to find each test and how to use the tests. 

There's a lot more that I still need to learn about it. I've had it for over a year and a half and there is still a ton I can learn. It just takes time. Right now there isn't a lot of time during the day to sit down and play with it. Once you do learn something, it takes a while to retain it. But there are now certain tasks that I constantly use it for and I have them down pat.

Compared to what I paid for it, it's paid for itself three times over. It's just a great tool. I was getting value from it almost immediately, and definitely within the first three months.

The first time we used it to test things for a customer who was having problems, it turned out it wasn't the cable, it paid for itself right there. It validated the investment on the spot.

It's worth every dime. It's a valuable tool in our toolbox. All our customers are impressed when we pull it out. We use it and give them the results.

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

We use it as much as possible. It's brought out to validate any type of cabling. It's a great tool. NetAlly is a great company, from my local rep to tech support.

Typically, I use it for identifying fiber connections to make sure that we have solid links in both directions. I like the bandwidth (iperf) built in testing. If only carrying the LR10G, you can use the JuiceSSH to access switches.

It is a good tool for what we are using it for. We're probably not using its full capability. We just use it for testing fiber connections when we're setting up new switches. It does that very well, with indicators. We typically do trunking, and it does not give much information on the trunk. It just lets us know that it's making a valid connection, and for my portion of my job, that's all that is required.

I use the AutoTest feature. If you are in a Cisco environment, it can give you information all the way to the port level, such as if it is a trunk port and which VLAN it is. It can test all the way out to the internet if that port allows DHCP. This information is absolutely important to us.

It reduces troubleshooting time. It saves about four hours on the job.

It makes our networking staff more productive. It has saved about 15 hours per month.

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

I do like that the test results are automatically saved to NetAlly's free Link-Live cloud service. It is pretty slick.

There is a cool feature with it where if you purchased the separate probe, you could do a tone test of cables, but you do have to purchase that probe separately.

They should allow firmware updates even if you don't have an AllyCare contract.

The AutoTest feature has got a bug in previous software. Make sure to run version 2.0.1.3 release-keys, should be available from LinkLive. When you're in the middle of auto testing, if you need to stop it and restart it, you have to swipe down and refresh the screen before you can hit the start or stop again. Update to 2.0.1.3 release-keys.

If you have a Cisco environment or Cisco ecosystem, it does CDP very well. It will tell you the exact port you're plugged into on a Cisco switch. However, if you're using something else, such as Ubiquiti switching, it does not pull the LLDP information. It does not give you any information other than the MAC address of the switch.

It is relatively easy to use, but in terms of the physical form, it is bulky. Being a field engineer, it is not something that you want to carry along with the charger. The charger is almost the same size as the device. They could have done a better job with the form factor and the battery life. They could have made one charger for all of their devices so that you only have to carry one charger, or they should have provided the ability to use a USB or USB-C on all the devices so that you could plug a device up to a laptop for charging.

I have been working with LinkRunner for about six to eight months. It is being used extensively. I use it on every job.

It seems to be pretty solid. I haven't had any issues with its screen, buttons, and things of that nature.

I didn't interact with them for LinkRunner. It was for another device. I was having trouble with the battery, and they did replace the battery. I didn't have to have an AllyCare contract. It was under warranty, and they did replace the battery. The customer interaction was great, but I am not pleased with not being able to update firmware without an AllyCare contract. I would rate their support a nine out of ten.

Positive

Since I have been working with this company, they have been purchasing LinkRunner. We were using Fluke previously, and the price was the reason for switching. It is still a high cost but nothing compared to what Fluke costs.

It is simple. You just take it out of the box and go with it.

I am not sure if we have seen an ROI.

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.

My advice would be to be aware of AllyCare. There are no firmware updates unless you have that contract.

I can't say that I absolutely love it, but I find a feature here and there that is growing on me. It works pretty well to do one thing. I haven't really done much else with it. I did an iPerf test or a bandwidth test, and it did work quite well.

It works for troubleshooting. It does work well with the apps that are on the Android platform, but there are bugs and quirks to it.

The automatic uploading of test results to the Link-Live cloud service saves us some time but not on LinkRunner 10G. I've got Air Link that does it automatically anytime the device is connected, but for LinkRunner 10G, I believe you have to have a NetAlly or an AllyCare contract, which we do not have.

I would rate it a six out of ten.

We do structured cabling and we use the LinkSprinter to do certified cable runs and for throughput testing through switches.

This simplifies the solutions that we offer by being able to have all the tools available in one small form factor that you can carry around just about anywhere. The LinkRunner has improved our IT functions due to the ease of use, portability of the unit, and its ability to do logging and diagnostic troubleshooting.

Among the features that I've found the most valuable with the G2 is that you can have your results uploaded to the cloud and have them emailed directly to you. That way you can look at the results later on during the day.

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. Also, when we're trying to diagnose and troubleshoot issues further, outside of the site, we can have visual results of what we tested earlier during the day to help us figure out what's going on with the environment. The auto-saving of the information allows us to streamline our processes and save a bunch of time on troubleshooting and diagnostics.

The LinkRunner, as far as troubleshooting goes, provides very quick and useful diagnostic tools. If you're trying to connect to a switch, it tells you all the information at a moment's notice. It has definitely reduced troubleshooting time inside network cabinets and allows us to get our work done efficiently and effectively. The solution has made our IT staff more productive by saving us time within those IT closets and allowing us to get in and out of the scenarios and get the client back up and running.

Having a unit that can perform all the tasks needed makes the life of an IT professional easier. You have a simple device that is easy to use. The user interface is great, and it has all the streamlined power tools to make an IT professional great at whatever tasks they're trying to accomplish. The ease of use of the LinkRunner G2 means that any IT professional or beginner IT professional would be able to pick it up and use it, 100 percent, without any issues.

The speed in providing results is something that they have done very well with this product. I have no comments as to any ways they could improve it.

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.

I am our market relationship manager and I have been using the LinkRunner G2 with LinkSprinter for about two and a half years now.

I have not noticed any issues with the stability of this product. Anytime there has been an update for the LinkRunner, we have always applied it, but we have never had any issues with the stability of the product or battery life.

The technical support is something I have not actually had to use with this product. It is a very straightforward product and requires little to no documentation to use or maintain.

Before we used the LinkRunner we did use some Fluke solutions.

The initial setup was straightforward. The most complicated step, which was not bad at all, was setting it up under a NetAlly account where you can receive your emails. Other than that, it was a straightforward process and it wasn't hard at all.

The only deployment and maintenance time that we have spent on the LinkRunner was the initial setup and time for charging of the unit. There is no other maintenance required.

You get what you pay for whenever you're looking for a network troubleshooting tool. And if you're going to be using it to streamline your processes and cut down on time in the field, you need to choose a product that is going to be easy to use, simple, and something that you can rely on. NetAlly has that.

The cost of the LinkRunner is something that I can justify by it being a simple-to-use unit and something that allows us to perform our job functions quicker and more easily than we have ever done before. So the price is well worth it.

I have not incurred any costs using the NetAlly, other than the purchase of the unit.

We did consider different companies but decided to go with NetAlly for the price and the bang for the buck.

For others who may be interested in the LinkRunner product, you may not use all the features that you have on the LinkRunner units. However, technology is growing every day and you may use them in the future in your IT career.

The biggest lesson that I have learned is that these products are specialized for networking administrators and any IT professional. Not having it in the tool shed was a huge, grave mistake.