Pros: Good basic network tool kit. It will get you through most basic tasks of making cables.

Cons: It is lacking a few tools that would be nice to have like pliers and a tester that reads from both ends of a cable.

Have needed one of these for years. Finally pulled the trigger on this and I received what I expected. The action on the crimper is good and the accessories do what you would expect. The line tester is fool proof.

I bought this kit because I was planning to run some Ethernet lines through my house and I needed the tools to do it. This kit had the two tools I really needed, a crimper and a punchdown tool, and was inexpensive. Since I'm using them for what is pretty much a one-time job, I was looking for low cost over super-high-quality.

Overall the kit is pretty decent. The crimper, stripper, and punchdown tools all seem well made and the included RJ45 connectors are shielded, which was a nice surprise, though they are sized for Cat-5 cable and I'm running Cat-6, so I can't use them for this project. The kit includes additional odds and ends that will prove useful, like cable ties and an RJ45 coupler.

My only complaint with the whole kit (and the reason I deducted a star) was the cable tester. This wasn't the reason I bought the kit in the first place, and I wasn't really expecting much from this tester, but it seems to have worked for about 5 tests before crapping out. I had a bunch of old Ethernet cables lying around and I wanted to see which ones were good, so I started testing them. One of my cables had a broken clip, so I cut it off and repaired it (manly for practice, as I haven't crimped a cable since taking data communications classes in college some 15+ years ago). After fixing it, I put it back on the tester and the thing got stuck on the "1" light. I tried some of the other cables that tested fine before and they also got suck on "1." Despite this, I plugged my repaired cable in to a switch and successfully connected a computer to the network, so my fix appears to have worked. Not the end of the world, though the tester would have come in handy when I start to terminate the cable I pulled.

Overall, it's a pretty decent kit, I just don't recommend buying it for the cable tester alone.

Only one issue with this kit, the crimping tool is just sad. the fingers that punch the pins down do not line up correctly with the pins on the connectors. Also, most of the time you are unable to close the tool. It took me more time to fiddle with the tool that it would take me to actually get any crimping done. The other parts of the kit are decent for the occasional user. I certainly would not want to use this on a daily basis. Giving 2 stars because the other parts of the it was fair. I did return this and got a full refund.

Update: The seller requested I test a different kit than the one I ordered and this is that review. The crimping pliers in the first kit are mentioned above and the new pair seemed similar to those. However I did not have the problems with the new pair that I did with the first. I crimped four pairs of cable ends and they worked as they should. I also had no issues with them randomly wanting to close. Although I would not recommend this kit for everyday professional use, it is adequate for my purpose where I have to either make or repair network cables every now and then. If I had received this kit first, I would not have needed to return the first one.

Good kit for testing and making Cat 5 cables. Tester works and crimper looks well made. I haven't used as yet but will be making a few in a couple of months. If I have any then other then good results I will update my review.