How can I tell if the firewire port is working?

I made a topic in the movie/video section, but if I rewind even further.

How can I tell if my firewire port is working or not

in the "about my mac" option I can see my firewire port and if I click on it it says Firewire 800mbit/s etc etc
if I go to System Profile and select network it's red, probably because nothing is connected. I don't think it turns green when I hook up a device to it since my camera is not a network device.

Is there a program that says: "Your hardware is busted or is working fine"
Or can I trust Apple's judgement and when it is showing in the About my Mac section it's working.

I suppose you can take it into an apple store and have them look at it. No harm in that I suppose. I don't know of a program that would be helpful, sorry.

Do you have another firewire device such as a hard drive, camera etc. available. If so, try plugging that in and see if it functions properly.

Try another cable and what Slydude said.

I send the cable back and hope for a refund.
They said the cable I bought might not work on a Mac. How's that possible?

Now I must find out which cable does work on a Mac.

That sounds a bit odd to me. I have been using Firewire cables for years. As long as i made sure to get the right kind of connection (Firewire 400, 800, 4 pin etc.) I've never seen a cable that worked for the PC and not for Mac. Not saying there isn't but I am definitely skeptical.

I ordered a Belkin cable in the Apple store.

Sending back the other cable today. I've no clue why it didn't work though. too bad I couldn't test anything with another firewire device.

The Belkin cable worked

Thanks for the replies guys