AirMagnet Survey Reviews

The most valuable feature is the predictive survey. The antennas' RF patterns are reflected correctly on the drawing when preparing predictive heat maps.

The predictive survey creates heat maps which are accurate and save a lot of time. The results are accurate enough to rely on when considering quantities and locations of wireless access points.

This is very helpful, especially when you need to know the required number of access points to price a project. You can rely on the results and the location of access points without an actual survey.

The actual site survey will be useful for fine-tuning. It will be shorter because you will do the survey when you already know the location of access points. You will not have to start from scratch.

The user interface needs a lot of improvement. The auto-placement of access points is not accurate.

User interface:

The UI is missing lots of simple features like multiple selection and modification of objects (access points and walls), undo, re-do, and stable zooming.

After a site survey, it is a hassle to point the access points to their correct location on the drawing. Reports are very basic and bad. Modification and formatting is very tiring. The results depend on the drawing and the site survey without considering the areas excluded from coverage.

Auto-placement:

Auto-placement of access points (for predictive survey) is a basic feature in AirMagnet. You cannot use it because the number of access points will be excessive. You should place access points on the drawing manually, one-by-one based on specs, RF pattern, wall attenuation, obstacles, and your experience.

We have used this solution for three years.

The software crashes frequently which requires you to restart your PC.

AirMagnet has no issues with scalability.

Customer service is good.

Technical support is good and fast. I have contacted technical support couple of times and they know what they are doing.

We used Ekahau, as per a client request. I started using AirMagnet afterwards.

It is easy to setup the software and to start projects.

In-house

For technical support, you need an annual license, but it is not worth it.

I evaluated Ekahau.

If you are going to do predictive surveys, then doing tests and passive site surveys to check wall attenuation is a must. You cannot depend on the default values of concrete and bricks.

• Ability to delete and redo sections in the middle of a survey.
• Ability to click and walk a straight route to the end without multiple clicks.
• AM Survey can be programmed to automatically collect information at specified intervals, so rather than having to walk, stop, click, walk, stop, click; you walk a steady speed in a straight line and click once at the end of the line, and Survey evenly spaces information for that entire path. Now say you finished half of a survey area and you accidentally click across the building, I can take that path of information out, go back to the start of that one line or row and do it again. Some products would force you to resurvey the entire area.

It allows me to easily verify WiFi signal strength and faults associated with the constant changing warehouse environments.

If anything, the rendering speed when doing or looking at large surveys could be faster, but I understand that sheer volume of information is the issue. So with a faster Laptop processor, more memory will help that. I use AirMagnet for very large high density warehouse installs and maintenance. One million plus square feet with multiple floors and/or open mezzanines. While you can do these in multiple sections where rendering isn't an issue, sometimes you want to see the big picture all in one place. It's these large, high density areas that can be slow at rendering information. A high-end laptop with lots of memory improved this greatly. I don't believe this is a big problem for most organizations, but my environments were taking 10+ minutes to render. After upgrading to a new laptop with 16G of memory, rendering was down to one to two minutes.

Nine years

No problems.

No problems.

No problems.

Excellent.

Excellent.

Yes, NetStumbler, Ekahau, and hand drawn survey with a laptop.

Setup is straightforward. Overall setup can be straightforward or complex depending on the users knowledge of WiFi. Under educated users can setup, use, and get good information, but setup can get very complex for advanced engineers to troubleshoot advanced issues.

In-house.

I think a basic version with no access to advanced setting at a low cost would generate more interest from small companies.

Know how to create or obtain scaled diagrams.

I was able to conduct pre-implementation surveys for floors using the production access points to see where potential dead spots were going to be. No matter how accurate the results and my reporting, there were still quite a few challenges with translating this to building contractors and electricians that did not see the benefit of accurate access point placement.

The software itself is pretty basic actually. There is a lot of detailed information that is provided; however, I would state the most valuable information would be the SNR and RSSI information received to optimize access point placement.

Even though I was using an approved USB wireless adapter (Proxim Orinoco), I had many problems with getting the software to talk to the adapter and successfully start capturing data.

The “support” for OS X through Bootcamp or some other virtualization software is almost false advertising. I understand why the product does not work with OS X natively, but stating that it does work by using virtualization software and installing Windows should probably be avoided.

The licensing model is very strict and based on the hardware MAC address of the capture adapter (which is why I purchased the Proxim USB). While I understand the need for software security, in order to change the MAC address to a different adapter, a service ticket needed to be entered with Fluke Networks to have a support engineer make the necessary changes for me. On two out of three occasions where this happened with my organization, the response time was unacceptable and caused a significant loss of productivity. I do not know how this model now works with Netscout, however.

The product would frequently crash and this was on different laptop platforms. It was even advised due to frequent crashing that surveys should last between 5 and 10 minutes and that multiple surveys should be merged together to form a complete picture of a survey area. It would be great if there was a switchable “feature” to perform this action for me, so I wouldn’t have to remember to stop a survey before the program crashed.

The program did seem to work well with multiple floors as well as multiple surveys within a particular floor. The most complex survey was a HQ building that was comprised of 54 floors and I had all of them added to one survey file (for vertical stacking and wireless “bleeding”).

Other than having technical support change out the adapter MAC address on the license for me, I did not have much experience with technical support. There was one ticket initially that only confirmed what the software told me upon startup that the USB endpoint protection software that my company used would have to be removed to allow the program to identify the adapter correctly and start.

AirMagnet Survey PRO was the first survey solution that I used.

Application setup was straightforward. I ran into a lot of discrepancies with our corporate laptop image, so I had to use a bare-bones machine with no other software on it.

I believe pricing is a little high and the company, Fluke, at the time was not willing to work with our organization on a discount, which was disconcerting. We ended up purchasing only 25% of the licenses we originally wanted and sharing the Proxim USB adapters between engineers. I have already mentioned my response issues with the licensing. Note: Both of these issues might have changed since the Netscout acquisition.

Before choosing this product, no other products were evaluated.

Make sure you are not using any custom software on the platform you are installing this onto. Disable all security, whether it be endpoint protection or other. Be patient with the software and find an “order of operations” combination that works for startup and surveying.

The primary use is wireless network surveying.

The benefit is with the ease of use of the software, I am able to show the customer, "Here is what your wireless coverage looks like." It is set up in a fashion that non-technical people can understand it.

It is reliable and easy to use (user-friendly). The heat mapping, passive network surveying, and doing the heat mapping of a building's wireless network allows me to see what level of coverage an area has.

Printouts are JPEG printouts. The AirMagnet software is proprietary. I can't send my customers a file, because it is AirMagnet file, even for building projects. I can only send JPEGs or screenshots of heat maps.

We used to have issues with the software freezing up. With the latest versions in the last couple of years, the technology of the notebooks' processing capability has helped us get over the hurdle of the software freezing up because of the data input in large buildings.

I have not used the technical support.

The initial setup was fairly easy to do.

Call the manufacturer directly and talk to them about their product.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor:

1. Technical functionality
2. Competitive pricing
3. Government pricing discounts.

I liked two features the most:

• Multi-Floor Planner: We use it for multi-floor heat maps or for more than one heat map in one document.
• Planner: We use it for active site surveys. This feature is also very good.

It has helped us a lot in a very big hospital project with five buildings, each with more than 10 floors. We had to do an active survey on site and also provide the heat map. It helped us in giving us the best results.

Last year, we had a project where the client was using Cisco 1700 series AP and they asked for a heat map. We have to select the exact model in the list provided in AirMagnet and, at that time, Cisco AP 1700 series was not present in the list provided. We have to add the device manually by adding its path and details. If the available list of APs is updated, it will be very good.

I’ve used AirMagnet for almost two years.

No stability issues were encountered while we were using it.

No scalability issues were encountered while we were using it.

Customer service is very good, supportive and quick in response.

We did not have any previous solution.

The initial setup was straightforward.

We have our in-house team and I am involved in the team for the deployments.

ROI is always the best satisfaction that we get after the 99% accurate results.

I definitely recommend this product because of its features, flexibility, accuracy and ease of use.

The whole program itself benefits me. We use all of it when we're doing our surveys. The surveys, just the software in general, all of it works great. We've done hundreds of these surveys and with very few issues and problems.

The software is pretty much the same as it was three years ago. I wouldn't say there has really been anything that we've added to the software that's any different than when we first started.

Better integration of the Spectrum XT. Instead of just having the basic information of your spectrum analysis alongside Pro, I'd like to see the full report, and actually be able to highlight over where I walked and what I saw at that point in the walk. I'd like to be able to arrow over a certain area and say, "okay, this is what was going on in that area as far as Spectrum XT."

Also, another good thing would be to have a notes page that as you're doing your survey, you can take notes and say, "in this area I noticed that there was glass features", or to be able to notate in certain areas as you walk around.

We've been using it for about three years now.

It does crash once in a while, but it just seemed like it was maybe the computer we were using wasn't processing fast enough. We did some things with the computer, and it ended up being okay where it wasn't really crashing it anymore. I don't know if the software that was doing it. Maybe it was more our PC.

We did have scalability issues. We were running tons of these reports and they would all back up and build up in our computer. We ended up moving it to a new computer because it just couldn't handle that amount of information. Once we did, it seemed like it worked fine. Now we archive a lot of the data off the computer and keep it off the computer. It seems to run pretty good.

It's been a long time since we've called techncial support, but I do remember it being a good experience and them handling what we needed. I would say it's probably an 4/5.

We didn’t use anything previously. We started off with AirMagnet. It was required by our customers that we had to use Fluke AirMagnet. It was like a specification. That's why we started with AirMagnet and we're still using it today.

Setup was pretty straightforward, but it does take a fair amount of time to understand everything that you're doing. That's the only thing I can say. There's a lot of great features in there, but unless you play around with it for quite some time, you're not going to know what those features are. As far as a basic survey goes, you can be up and running and doing one of those in a day, but to really give the customer a real good insight onto either design or maybe some issues with the current install, you have to know where to find that information in the software and provide that for them.

It's all there, but it does take a little bit of time. As you go through multiple projects, you start to learn where those features are.

It was a very specific requirement from our customers. We didn’t look at anything else. That's why we got that software. It was because a customer had asked us to do several of their sites, but the idea was that it would have to be done by Survey Pro and Spectrum XT.

Nowadays, it almost seems like you can get by without having to purchase the software and have somebody run the scan. In a lot of cases, you can just download the stuff off of Cisco's website and use theirs. You're pretty much going to get the same results. I guess my advice is don't spend too much money. You don't need it as much as you used to. Customers don't even require that we even do these walks anymore. What they've done is through the years, they've realized that they can almost have their own IT guys do it and run just any old brand software off the web for free or for really, really inexpensive, and they can get the same results.

We are using the multi-floor planner, which is very useful for us to create heat maps. We are also using the AirMagnet site survey. It's really helpful for us to know in which areas we are losing the signal and in which areas the signals are very good. So, this is very nice for us.

We have created lots of plans through this AirMagnet tool. It's very good.

Whenever we are doing the site survey, it will catch most of the areas. However, for example, if we are creating the plan after doing the site survey, in some areas, it will show some signals but actually the signals are not there. The client will ask, "It is showing the signal here, but actually the signals are very weak. Even though it is still showing the green light." So, that is the only concern and the problem area. It will show the signal, but actually there will be less signal. That is the only part which can improve.

There are some requirements for new access points for Cisco. Right now, as to what access points we are using, we are not getting the same model more or less. It should have some updates. They should include those new access points, i.e., whichever access points Cisco or any other vendors are making, so they should be there. They should include them in their upgrades and updates, so that we can easily give those specifics to access points and we can start our work. But as of now, what I have found is that there are some model numbers that I'm not able to get the model number in AirMagnet. (I forget the exact model number, actually.) Hence, what we did was, we created it manually. We manually created the access point. Thus, if AirMagnet can upgrade the new model number for the access points and can include it in the updates, it would be really helpful for us (mostly for Cisco).

It should work faster than the current version that we have and should include some more features that can help us. It would benefit us, if we could have some more features. This is totally up to the developers, so as to include the specific features in a later version and how they can build up some new features that can help us. That would be good.

I have used the AirMagnet solution for the last year, i.e., for more than a year or so.

In regards to the stability, things are okay. I didn't find any problem with the software as such. Everything was fine. As of now, it's fine. I didn't find any difficulty other than that. It's a good software.

As for the scalability, it's okay because we are doing at a time up to 15 access points with the controller support; so based on that, it's fine. There's no scalability problem and we can do more access points also at a time.

We were doing at least 3-4 surveys before when our project was here and it was a big project. So we are doing at least 3 to 4 surveys per day and it was good. It's all good. There's no issue with the scalability. It's fine.

The last time one of my colleagues opened a ticket for some installation, as there was some problem with the installation/re-installation, we got proper support from the technical guys. There's no issue with support.

Personally, I didn't use any site survey software before, but I don't know about my colleagues. Maybe they used something else. Once I joined this company, I started with AirMagnet itself. Before there was some Snyder solution which was a free software that we used. However, comparing that to this tool, AirMagnet is a good and reliable solution. It's not giving us fake results; it's in real time.

The setup was simple and very straightforward. There's no complexity as such. It's simple.

As I mentioned earlier, the only thing is that we are not able to find the new devices from vendors like Cisco and Aruba; access points. We need them to include those access points and it would be really helpful for us. The rest of the things are okay. It is a good solution. My advice is to include only the newer version of the access points in the AirMagnet tool, so that it will be really helpful for us.

It carries out wireless surveys and records wireless signal strength. That's what we use it for.

The software really does what it has been doing for years now. It records the wireless signal strengths and that's mainly it. It doesn't really improve our process. It just does what it's supposed to.

Since it crashes 1 out of 20 times, it would be great if they could make it more stable.

We use it on a daily basis, and it crashes 1 out of 20 times.

It seems to be something with the software, or with the Windows' configuration.

We have used technical support. They obviously continue working on improving it. Their support is good.

We haven't really used any other solution because there really wasn't anything out there like AirMagnet. It had no other competition at that time.

The setup was pretty straightforward.

The more you use, the better you get at it.