Essential IT Tool for Wire Tracing

For anyone working in the IT industry, you know how frustrating it is to have to try to find the other end of a cable. Regardless if it's phone or network, it could be a very long cable that is wrapped throughout the building.

Well, some time ago we bought a tone generator and probe. We bought it elsewhere at the time because we didn't carry them at all. But we now have several models to choose from.

The one we bought was the Greenlee Classic Tone and Probe Kit. On the one end, it allows you to plug in to either a jack or use a coupler to attach to a cable. The other device goes to the other end so you can figure out which wire you've plugged in to.

I luckily don't have to do all that much with wiring, but there have been enough times, even at home, where I can't figure out what the wire is that I'm trying to use that I consider this an essential tool. Without it, one could easily spend hours trying to find that one elusive cable - and I've done that. How many hours wasted does it take to cover the cost of this simple device? For someone in the IT industry, not many.


If you don't have one of these in your tool kit already, I strongly suggest adding one. Spending a few hours tracing cables isn't all that productive and is time that could be spent doing something much better, like watching TV or forwarding email jokes.