AirMagnet Survey Reviews

I use almost all AirMagnet features. For the survey, I use PRO. I use Planner for planning tools. I use WiFi Analyzer for troubleshooting, and XT for the troubleshooting, as well.

The predictive survey has improved the way my organization functions. I use their planner when making the walls. You can create a real-world environment and then come up with the plan for APs. Once everything is in place or if a real-world survey is needed, then the active survey or passive survey is used for that purpose.

For the WiFi Analyzer, if there is trouble in a wireless environment, I use it to see the signal interference, the co-channel interference, the devices, and those kinds of things.

For spectrum analysis, if issues are reported, to check the overall health of the wireless, I use Spectrum XT.

Before AirMagnet, most of the survey work was guesswork, depending on the expertise of the engineer. They used to place the APs, and then go back and do the survey. So, when AirMagnet Survey first became available, that became a lot easier. Before that, there was another tool called Ekahau Site Survey. With AirMagnet, you have all of the solutions, all of the tools, from the one platform.

The worst thing that is built into AirMagnet is, if your laptop crashes in the middle, all of the work you have done is gone. There should be an auto-save functionality. Currently, even if you stop the survey, save it, and your tool crashes, that thing is not saved. The auto-saving should be more reliable, so that your done part is not gone. Auto-saving must be a key factor.

On the survey side, they need to have more adapters to support. In the adapter, there should be more preset values. Because right now, the way the survey tool is designed, you have to set the specific power before you start the survey, but most of the vendors, with the current environment, they are going on automatic power and channel settings. AirMagnet lacks that capability. They need to have an option with the auto-channel and auto-power, so we can come up with more accurate surveys.

Another main problem I have with the tool is, in Spectrum XT, you have to select the band, like 5 GHz, lower, middle, Uni1, Uni2, Uni3 and extended. So you cannot have the whole thing on one screen. That is needed. There should be one screen which has all of the spectrum on the dashboard, so you can see the whole picture in one place, instead of having four screens open. If somebody's using a 10- or 12-inch laptop, a notebook, a tablet, then you can imagine opening four screens side by side, how small they will become.

They need to have a dashboard which will show the entire spectrum on one screen. They could add additional screens. If somebody wants to know further details of a screen, they could open up another screen, like they have in the WiFi Analyzer, which has different tabs. The first tab shows the main screen. Then, if you want to go and look into specific things, you go to that screen.

I've been using the Proxim adapters. They are not really roaming well.

Also, the USB adapter is not reliable with the users. For example, we have the AirMagnet tool on the laptop and everybody uses that USB. If the laptop is gone, you can't assign a license to a laptop. If that is gone, you have to redo the whole thing.

If AirMagnet can come up with their own adapter that is more compatible with their tool, I think that's more preferable. The reason is if you use this Proxim adapter, you get different results. If you use NetGear or some other adapter, you get a different result. The reason is the adapters don't have the same sensitivity on the wireless side. That should be standard, so that we are sure we are getting data that is reliable.

This tool does not work with the drivers of those USB adapters. The adapters and drivers should be more consistent. Changing the adapters should not change the result of the survey.

They need to change the way AirMagnet starts a project. It is exactly the same as when they started in 2004. They have not changed it. They need to change it according to the current wireless settings, according to current wireless environments. It needs to change, because if you look at AirMagnet 4 and AirMagnet 11, the start of the project, and how you build the thing and get to the survey screen, that is exactly the same. Between 2004 and 2016, wireless has changed a lot.

We have been using the solution since 2004.

There were stability issues. It takes up a lot of resources and it crashes in the middle.

It does a pretty good job with scalability, because this is all software which is installed on hardware. It doesn't have hardware. If you have hardware, you still have software installed on it. So, I think there are some tweaks on the software side that need to be more specific for some main vendors: Cisco, Aruba, Motorola and those vendors. If there are some presets for their main antenna patterns, that would be more helpful to do the survey.

I called technical support several times but most of the time, the people I talk to are not so intensively knowledgeable technically. For example, I have 12 years of radio frequency (RF) wireless experience and those people are just sales and support kind of people. So, I don't blame them. I rate technical support 10/10.

When I switched to AirMagnet in 2004-05, I also used Ekahau a little bit and at that time, Ekahau was also at the preliminary stage because wireless was not that popular. AirMagnet was more user friendly and there were more settings that you could tweak. There were more options compared to Ekahau.

I have pretty much stuck with AirMagnet since then.

The setup was easy. That's one of the reasons everybody is using AirMagnet. It is easy to set up, easy to operate.

I just got some of the reviews on the Ekahau tool I used because the other tools and other options available were not enterprise-type. On the enterprise side of wireless survey, Ekahau mostly provided survey tools and other things. But they were not intensive. AirMagnet is a one-stop shop for everything. That's why I'm still sticking to AirMagnet.

The integration with the spectrum analysis is a real time saver.

Being able to run multiple wireless adapters allows us to collect more data in different, more efficient ways.

Those features are valuable, as is the ability to generate reports out of it pretty quickly.

I'd really like to see integration with the cloud, being able to have a central repository for data. If I have multiple engineers working on a project simultaneously, it might be nice to have all of that automatically backed up into one comprehensive centrally managed project file online.

I would definitely like to see more ability to generate custom reports. The reports in there are great but don't always have the flexibility to allow me to bring in my own template and expedite our report writing process even further.

I'd also like to see if there’s a way to incorporate multiple adapters or even more types of wireless; maybe not just 802.11 but maybe an LTE survey or Bluetooth low-energy survey, multiple different wireless platforms. If it was in fact able to support a lot of other Wi-Fi services, that would be a great feature.

I have been using it for six to seven years.

It has not been entirely stable. There have definitely been some bumps in the road. In the past, various releases have had their issues, including the 8.8 release. It definitely had some bugs. That was, as I understand it, a complete re-build of the platform: new dates and structure - moving from a flat file to more of a database file structure for the data. So far, in the latest release, version 9.0, which we've been on for about three and a half weeks, everything's been pretty peachy.

I don't really have another alternative right now that I think is better. Scalability-wise, this is top of the line for the market at the moment.

Overall, the majority of their support engineers are exceptional. Especially when it comes to being able to react or assist us on something that's extremely critical through an ongoing project for us. Any time that we have engineers in the field burning money, AirMagnet, Fluke, now NETSCOUT, have always had engineers that are willing to tackle an issue in real time.

Our company has used AirMagnet exclusively since we launched about three years ago. Professionally, I used other products like Ekahau and Motorola Wireless LANPlanner.

We choose AirMagnet because we all agreed it was the best solution at the time. Then, a lot of our partner organizations required it as a standard, so we could all operate on the same page.

Initial setup is pretty darn straightforward. I've run into some issues with licensing. During an upgrade, it periodically tends to lose its license, which is an extra step you have to go through to re-download and install that license over again.

The more copies you can buy at once, the better deal you're going to get, which goes for just about any product out there.

Find a way to standardize, especially the adapters and the hardware being used. I just find that having consistent results in data is comparative. If you are using this for an organization like ours, where we have multiple engineers all working together, having a standardized hardware platform makes a big difference.

It's as good as it gets, in my opinion right now, and nothing is ever perfect.

We have a very disruptive environment for wireless internet. We use Air Magnet Survey Pro to help show our wireless coverage throughout the building. Once we have completed the survey, we move access points or make other necessary changes where it is needed.

We have had multiple issues with our wireless phone dropping from the network along with our RF gun scanners that are used to scan barcodes. We have used Air Magnet Survey Pro to help see how the access points overlap each other and the overall dbm.

When pausing during the middle of a survey, I often have issues when restarting because the survey tool can’t determine exactly where I am in the building when I click on the map. Also, when I get done completing a large survey, it often struggles to try and save all of the information.

I have used it for one year.

Overall, the software has been pretty stable; have not had any issues with the software crashing.

I have not had any scalability issues.

I worked with technical support when I was first learning how to use the software. They were helpful and willing to do some test surveys with me until I got comfortable. Since then, I have not had to contact them until I had to switch my license from one computer to another; overall good support.

I did not previously use a different solution. We priced out a few other solutions, but AirMagnet just seemed like the best solution for us.

Initial setup was a little confusing at first but, as I’ve mentioned, support was there to help me out.

When we were pricing out other solutions, AirMagnet came out with the best pricing. We purchased the one-year support and we are at the time to renew again, which we will be doing.

Before choosing this product, we tested out Ekahau and Fluke.

AirMagnet has a wide variety of products that fit in with the Survey Pro. The planner looks to be a great tool but unfortunately, I haven’t had the opportunity to test it out yet.

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 normally use AirMagnet products to meter voltage coming off any number of services at the venues that we go to, or generators in the instance that we're doing something that's a temporary powered situation; so, metering voltage, and then also metering amperage draw.

The biggest mission-critical function would be safety concerns. We are dealing with a lot of real sensitive electronics that can be damaged if the incorrect voltage is sent down to them; so, using the products to ensure the safety of our equipment that we have a lot invested in.

I would say some of our newer techs that are going out to job sites can be a little bit intimidated by the interface. A more user-friendly interface for the meters; knowing which setting to use, if I'm testing amperage, and if I'm testing voltage, which setting do I need to be on. Maybe there's a better way to identify if I'm looking to meter a service and what setting should I have my meter, it needs to be in this position. Or if I'm going to check amperage draw, which setting do I use.

We're talking about a multimeter product, like a voltmeter, and I think that the user interface on the screen and dial could be spelled out better for a novice.
But the physical features are in line with most of the other competitors.

I have been using it for the last five years.

It has been stable.

It definitely is tracking fine for what we're using it for.

We haven't used technical support for five years.

I think if anything we've switched to Fluke because it's definitely a more industry standard. Before, we had used some different products that were more economy-level kind of things.

Setup is straightforward. We were only involved in some of the real smaller, handheld products, like voltmeters and things.

We use commercial electric products, as well, that tend to be a little bit more affordable. But once again, if it is a mission-critical application, sometimes we would lean their way.

I would say that employee training becomes really important, so that everyone who's using the products knows how to use them safely. You know, you're dealing with electricity, so it can get a little dicey.

• The planner
• Latest data on AP and antenna propagation
• More accurate representation of attenuation than Cisco Prime

AirMagnet is one of two survey software tools that are recognized by the industry. We often are requested to use AirMagnet for surveys.

Compatibility with other adapters and drivers for Windows 10, and the licensing methods need improvement.

I have been using AirMagnet for four to five years.

Often, AirMagnet will crash and you will have to reboot your laptop or tablet to start it again. Data will be lost if you haven’t saved it.

Large sites are often an issue. It requires a lot of CPU and RAM.

Technical support is very good. We have Gold support.

We didn’t have any previous solutions.

Setup was very easy; a straightforward installation and almost fully automated.

Make sure you don’t go over one year without licensing. Otherwise, you will have to buy the full product. It’s a lot cheaper to keep it licensed.

We looked at Ekahau. We found it user friendly but it feels too simple. Heat maps aren’t granular. It’s great for the customer though, from non-technical point of view.

Definitely do the training and study CWNA or CCNP Wireless.