AirCheck G3 vs SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager comparison

"AirCheck G2 gives me an overview of which channels are used by the access points or who delivers the Wi-Fi, which gives me a clear picture of what's going on."

"AirCheck made a lot of children and caregivers quite happy. While I might not have resolved everything, I have reduced the problems that we had every night. During the day, they would do visible checks and not always rely on the monitors, but every night, they had at least three or four of those alarms. I was able to reduce it to once or twice a week since those appliances are still limited in their wireless capability."

"It is a pretty rock-solid device that is well-built."

"The airCheck is the real-time spectrum analyzer to see clients that could be connecting to our network, not just rogue networks out there, but rogue clients and other interference in that particular spectrum."

"It has made our networking staff more productive. We spend less time because the device helps us by identifying the issue and providing a solution for the customer. Prior to not having this device, we would have to guess when an issue arose. Now, we don't have to guess. This can easily save us hours per call."

"It is portable. It is rugged. It comes with a nice case. It has been dropped, but it doesn't break. I don't have a crack screen or anything like that. It has pretty good battery life."

"The one-button AutoTest feature is an amazing tool. It works well. It tells you whether or not you have shorts in your network, your PoE+ is running low on voltage, and shows you your link speed."

"AirCheck has a feature that lets you play a tone so you can track down a rogue AP based on the RF signal. That's a cool feature. It can also help you identify interference like microwave ovens or Bluetooth devices. I also like the ability to link it to your online account. It sends a report via email and saves it on the cloud."

"NCM also helps with vulnerability assessment and remediation."

"The scanning features have proven to be highly valuable, particularly due to the comprehensive information they provide."

"SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager improves the mean time to repair significantly, bringing measurable benefits to customers."

"We push all our configurations to the servers with ease and the logs capture almost all the transactions needed for an internal audit."

"The features we find most valuable is the configuration backup automation, the configuration compliance, the security vulnerability detection and upgrading devices."

"The network performance monitoring of SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager is a vital feature"

"Compared to other vendors, like NetBrain, managing the solution is easy. They made it very user-friendly."

"The tool is useful for security purposes."

"A feature I would like to see is the ability to charge the device via a PoE outlet. Usually, I need to charge it at home. It would be good to leave the device plugged in and charging at a PoE source at the customer site after a quick look at the network when I have moved on to other tasks."

"The biggest improvement would be an easier upload over wireless to Link-Live. Currently, the device has to be patched into the Ethernet. The wireless upload has been giving us some issues."

"The only thing that would be an improvement would be the ability to do MPO/MPT testing, which is another mode of fiber, along with more options on the SFP to do that testing."

"It would be nice if I could import an AP list with a MAC address. When it looks at access points, it should tell me the AP name instead of the MAC address. When you get a MAC address, you could eventually find out where you want to go. However, a lot of times, if I just have an AP name, I know that's in this area or that's over there. I would like that function because AirMagnet, which is the precursor of this, had that ability where you could basically import a list of APs and MAC addresses, and then it could display those instead of just a MAC address."

"NetAlly has been behind the curve on visualization, Wi-Fi design, and heat maps for a little while now. They're perfectly aware of this deficiency, but what they offer is good enough for a lot of people. It's not suitable for larger shops, but it works in a pinch. The AirMapper and subsequent AirMagnet integration is an afterthought."

"If it was capable of downloading MIBs onto the device, then we could identify the manufacturer. Sometimes, when I am troubleshooting, there is a Mac address. For example, there is a rogue device and it just gives us a Mac address, which is fine. It gives us something, which is better than nothing. It would be nice if it was able to download a MIB where we could associate it with that Mac address and the manufacturer."

"The solution doesn't have much functional information online."

"The battery life needs improvement. For example, when you are doing an Ethernet test, that seems to drain the battery pretty quickly."

"Our experience has shown that most of the problems we've had with SolarWinds NCM are related to software issues."

"When we run the SolarWinds NCM jobs at the cellular line, it runs in the morning. They're just not finishing. We're getting false processing."

"The third-party plugins available in the solution could improve. I have received some issues with the templates."

"Its look and feel can be improved. They can also put in more effort into building the THWACK community and use the information about various customer issues and requests to build the new releases."

"The Network Configuration Manager needs to improve the access control list compliance."

"The solution could improve by being more secure."

"Releasing a product compatible with operating systems other than Windows would be advantageous."

"Further improvements in automation are needed. Currently, there are limitations in performing tasks without logging into routers directly, and we expect more comprehensive device control."

"For a few thousand dollars, you save yourself a ton of time. It's a great deal."

"The upfront cost of the solution is around $4,000."

"The overall cost of the solution, compared to the time saved—the number of man-hours devoted to other means of troubleshooting—is incomparable."

"The price is fairly expensive, if you are a single individual. For me, it's well worth the cost of the unit. Depending on the nature of the work that you're doing, the upfront costs can be expensive. Typically, what happens in an environment is a department might have one device as opposed to technicians having them individually."

"Pricing is on par with the rest of the industry and the licensing is decent."

"Because I work in a big company, it is a no-brainer. If I were a consultant, I would still buy it, but it would be a huge investment. Overall, it's a good tool to have."

"I'd always love a lower price, but as compared to some of the other tools, it is fairly reasonable. I personally bought one. So, I must have thought the value was there because I'm spending my own hard cash on it, not just the company's. You can get support. I don't have support on my personal device. We did buy support for our company devices. It is reasonable. It is not super expensive or astronomical."

"If you find a feature you need, you have to call them and add it, but you should be able to use the product. You spend money on and invested in multiple devices and can't even use half of the features. They should negotiate with large enterprises who buy large numbers of units to provide NetAlly support for all of them at a nominal fee."

"Pricing is reasonable and competitive."

"Additional costs beyond the standard licensing fee are inevitable."

"The price of the solution is high compared to other solutions."

"Available at a moderate price"

"You have a base license for 50 devices, and then you can add more licenses as you go."

"With a minimal bundle, we pay about $3000 a year in licensing costs. If you have multiple devices in your network, you must buy the bundle, which is 100% identical for your infrastructure. If you have 15 devices, you need 15 licenses, for example. That's one bundle. You don't pay for anything over and above that."

"We have to pay additionally for its support and maintenance."

"In Africa, the cost is a major factor in decision-making for many companies. As a result, some companies may choose cheaper solutions, even if they are open-source, over more expensive ones, such as SolarWinds Network Configuration Manager. However, as an engineer, I believe that the functionalities and services offered by SolarWinds justify the cost. Nonetheless, many companies in Africa may still view the prices as unaffordable."