AirMagnet Survey Review

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.