AirMagnet Survey Reviews

We use the AirMagnet Survey tool to predetermine where we need to place wireless access points in our buildings and within construction areas.

It's been about three months since we've used it, and we just purchased an OptiView XG tablet from NetScout that has that installed on it. It's very pricey, but my boss gave me the money to buy one, so I was happy about that. It cost us about $36,000, but we were able to afford it, so life is good. But we have not used that tablet yet. We're still using an older version on our laptops, so we haven't made the switch internally. We're hoping to do that in the new year.

The product takes away the guessing. It gives us hard evidence on how to engineer and determine where we need to place wireless access coverage or points for optimal coverage. We use the tool to help us engineer our wireless network.

It's been working for us, so I'm good. It does everything we ask it to do.

We've been using it for about five years.

Occasionally, it crashes or locks up. Every now and then, it just stops working and we reboot the system and then go again. It hasn't happened enough that we've opened a ticket on it.

We have not used technical support. We just reboot our system and move on. I'd be more concerned if it happened frequently.

We have never used a different solution.

It was straightforward and easy. The training piece is an ongoing issue, in that the software does have a lot of functions. Getting comfortable with all those functions has been time consuming. We only uswe the software maybe four or five times a year, so we just chalk it up to not using the software enough.

We evaluated Ekahau.

I would definitely say that as far as implementing, get a demo, run it, and make sure it will work in your environment. Then, if you're comparing it with another product, do your homework and run your tests. But, we found for our needs, the AirMagnet Survey tool was the best product.

• Planning module - I use it for wireless network deployment at the construction stage.
• Survey module - wireless coverage map and spectrum date integration is useful for checking the wireless coverage and performance.

Before using this product we performed a wireless project design with a rough understanding of how the wireless network should look like. Very often the final quantity of APs was not what was planned on paper. With AirMagnet Survey we can make a floor plan import. Now in v9.1 we have the possibility to even use the AutoCAD floor plan where the walls, doors, and window materials are designed by an engineer, and the survey can apply this characteristic by itself which decreases our time preparing the floor plans.

AirMagnet Survey then automatically calculates the required number of access points, which is quite close to the final quantity. After deploying the access points we make a coverage map report for the customer including data about interference, physical data rates, noise level, signal noise ratio coverage, user capacity, and throughput.

It helps us to fully support 802.11 a/b/n/g/ac standards.

AirMagnet Survey is very useful for designing and deploying wireless 802.11n/a/b/g/ac projects, in any company from small offices to large campus buildings.

We have been using AirMagnet Survey about five years, since it was from Fluke Networks and now it is a Netscout brand.

Yes, normally it happens with products from different vendors. We have had a problem with the reporting module, as it can't put the full size picture of a floor plan in the report. After we initiated several support cases these problems were solved with the new release.

A year ago there was a problem with huge floor plan pictures which was hanging up the software during reporting. It was solved with the release update.

Technical support is one of the important things that customers appreciate, and Netscout have some very qualified engineers who help very rapidly with every question.

Yes we used the Ekahau Site Survey, which is also a good quality product, but they are still growing and have lots of bugs. These guys try to do their best and it looks like they are good professionals on their job. We chose the AirMagnet Survey because it was recommended by Cisco, also we like the functionality of it and of course the main reason was the Russian localization of reports which is essential in our country.

AirMagnet is a very stable and time-tested product, as proved by the fact that the world's leading IT companies use AirMagnet Survey and if we look at the release notes we can see a lot of new features instead of bug fixes as in the Ekahau Site Survey.

Installation is very simple, you just need to register the software key on the AirMagnet web account, then download and install the software on your PC, every time clicking the "Next" button.

The price is not so high compared with other products of similar quality. My recommendation for customers is to periodically renew the support contract, because some software releases which contain new interesting features can be downloaded only if you maintain an active support contract. As this product now belongs to Netscout I'm sure they will develop it to be much more interesting and useful.

Yes, before purchasing we requested evaluation software of each AirMagnet product: AirMagnet Survey Pro, AirMagnet WiFi Analyzer, AirMagnet Spectrum XT.

Also we compared it with Ekahau Site Survey as it is the only quality product with the same functionality, but our purchasing decision was AirMagnet Survey.

My advice, before purchasing request an evaluation license to test it and then choose the product which is stable, useful, and very well known in the IT industry.

• 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.

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.

• Planning module: I use it for wireless network deployment during construction stages.
• Survey module: Provides a wireless coverage map and spectrum data integration. This is useful for checking wireless coverage and performance.

Before using this product, we did wireless project designs using a rough estimate of how the wireless networks will appear. Very often, the final quantity was not the same as it was planned on paper.

With AirMagnet Survey, we can make a floor plan import. We can use AutoCAD floor plans which include the walls, doors, windows, and materials designed by engineers. The survey can apply these characteristics by itself, which decreases the time necessary to prepare floor plans.

The solution automatically calculates the required number of access points, which is very close to the final quantity actually needed.

After deploying the access points, we make a coverage map report for customers. The report includes the data about interference, physical data rates, noise level, signal noise ratio coverage, user capacity, and throughput.

The tool helps us to fully support 802.11 a/b/n/g/ac standards.

AirMagnet Survey very useful for designing and deploying wireless 802.11n/a/b/g/ac projects, in any companies from small offices to large campus buildings.

We have used this solution for about five years.

No, it is very simply deploying.

Yes, normally it happens with any product of different vendors. We have had a problem with reporting module, it can't put the full size picture of floor plan in report. After we initiated several support cases these problems was solved with new release.

A year ago, there was a problem with huge floor plan pictures which were causing the software to hang during reporting. It was solved with the release update.

Special for existing customers they have an AirMagnet Account, where you can see all yours registered products and any documents for it.
Also if there is a new release, you can download it from there. As for me there is all nesessary and usefull information.

Technical support it is one of important things that customers appreciate. NETSCOUT has very qualified engineers who help very fast with every question.

We used Ekahau Site Survey. It is also a good quality product, but they are still growing and have a lot of bugs. These guys try to do their best and it looks like they are professional.

We chose AirMagnet Survey because it was recommended by Cisco. We like the functionality of it. Of course, the main reason was the localization of reports into Russian, which we need in our country.

AirMagnet is a very stable and time-tested product. It proves that the world's leading IT companies use AirMagnet Survey. When we look at the release notes, we can see a lot of new features instead of bug fixes, as is the case with Ekahau Site Survey.

Installation is very simple. You just need to register the software key on an AirMagnet web account, then download and install the software on your PC. This is all done by just clicking the "Next" button.

The price is not so high compared with other products with the same quality level. My recommendation is for customers to periodically renew your support contract. Some software releases contain new and interesting features that you can only download if you have an active support contract.

Because this product now belongs to NETSCOUT, I'm sure they will develop more interesting and useful features.

Before purchasing this solution, we evaluated the software of each AirMagnet product: AirMagnet Survey PRO, AirMagnet WiFi Analyzer, and AirMagnet Spectrum XT.

We compared it with Ekahau Site Survey, as it is only quality product with the same functionality. However, our purchasing decision was AirMagnet Survey.

Before purchasing the solution, request an evaluation license to test it. Think carefully and then chose a product which is stable, useful, and very famous in the IT industry.

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.

I am a consultant and I work with this product at a high level. It is used for spectrum analysis and wireless surveying.

The most valuable features are the survey, spectrum analysis, and reporting. 

The surveying features are in need of improvement, along with general usability. For example, they should import functions from other products that make things easier from a planner's point of view.

The antenna options should be enhanced.

It takes a little while to render the coverage maps.

The price could be lower.

The updates are few and far between, so they should release them more regularly.

I have been using AirMagnet Survey for ten years.

Overall, the stability is not too bad.

Technical support is a little bit slow to respond. I would say that they are about average.

This product is very expensive.

Our license is coming up for renewal and we're planning to have a close look at Ekahau. We will be comparing the two and possibly look to change.

My advice for anybody who is considering AirMagnet is to have a look at Ekahau Survey, as well. This is something that we plan on doing before our next renewal.

I would rate this solution a six out of ten.

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.