This study is designed for graduate technicians working in laboratories or quality test offices, as well as academics and industrial researchers in optical communications and optical sensors and students attending postgraudate courses on optical engineering. It aims to provide a survey of the methods for fiber optics experimental characterization and includes details of each technique, including basic concepts, critical aspects of their practical implementation, and estimates on the accuracy and repeatability of the results obtained from the measurements. The discussion also covers commercially available field testing equipment.