AirMagnet Survey PRO Reviews

We use AirMagnet Survey, for site verifications after the wireless system has been installed. We conduct pre and post-install surveys with it.

We have reduced the use since now our customers require Ekahau, a competitor. AirMagnet doesn't currently support Wi-Fi 6E. We use it for certain customers who don't require Ekahau.

The AirMagnet Survey allows you to see the list of APs in the live view. It only supports certain adapters, which can be limiting, but it's also beneficial because these adapters are more comparable to real-life devices like laptops. With Ekahau, Sidekick needs to be used for full features, but I find the Sidekick too strong, which can hamper results. Therefore, I prefer AirMagnet's approach because the adapters provide more realistic readings.

We're not using AirMagnet primarily for predictive analysis—it's mostly checking signals in real-time. The vast majority of our usage is in hotels or small and medium-sized businesses. Every time they make changes or have a problem, we run through them. Occasionally we work with large ones, like the 1.2 million-square-foot Walgreens facility at their main distribution center in Madison. That was much larger, but it's rare. 

After AirMagnet is installed on the system, we can survey the average three-story hotel in 45 minutes. It probably takes three or four hours to finish the analysis and write up a report. The general managers at a hotel don't really care about much of the information we provide. They only want to know what the problem is and see the heat map showing where the dead zones are. We tell them if there's a bottleneck and have the metrics to back us up if anybody asks.

We typically run settings at -65 dB as the low end and -25 dB for the signal-to-noise ratio. It's a little better than the industry standard, which is -67 dB and -20 dB, but it ensures we have top-of-the-line signal coverage when we're doing the survey. My company does engineering and manufacturing, but there are 25 of us in the IT department, and three are level five. We can do anything and assist if needed. 

Most of our guys are level three, so they're good to run around and do stuff on their own. Sometimes, they might need some help with some higher-end stuff. They're doing a lot of intermediate work, such as running cables or fiber optics, so they don't typically have the higher-end tools that the three of us use, like the nXG and OptiView XG tablets. They have a lot of cable testers, including some higher-end ones.

If they're assisting us or going out to do a quick survey for us, we usually will log into their laptop, set it up and make sure that everything's calibrated properly for them. After everything's calibrated and set up, they have no problems doing the survey themselves. I'd like some of them to get a little bit better at it, but a lot of that comes down to how many times we are contracted each year to perform heat maps and pull metrics for facilities. Usually, that's only seven to 15 times a year. More often than not, the three of us with all the tools can take care of those jobs on our own.

The addition of the AirMapper software on the nXG and our AirCheck G2s has helped a lot because we're mostly not drilling down into the data. Local managers only need to see the coverage on their end and whether there are performance bottlenecks. These things are easy enough for us to ascertain with iPerf. 

We can go in and spot-check with those devices quickly.  The only time we bother using the full versions of the software off of a laptop or our OptiView XG tablets is when they want to pay for a full-blown survey. 

Our clients use the solution for Wi-Fi coverage in particular premises, say in stores or in businesses.

We would like to get more details and extended capabilities for the solution. The clients want a list of rogue SSIDs, heat maps, etc.

We use the solution for Wi-Fi and networks. 

AirMagnet Survey doesn't cover certain devices in the system. 

I mostly use it for designing wireless networks, especially for large corporate customers.

The predictive survey is the most valuable feature. I use it quite often.

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 heat maps are quite good, and some features are easy to use.

The throughput should be more advanced in the future. They need to add more versions of WiFi than just one.

The solution is primarily used for wireless design; it's a wireless design tool.

For example, if you're going to design a wireless internet network. That's what we used it for. The process is: you take a blueprint and you walk around that office or what have you with AirMagnet, the software. And it has an antenna, almost like a wireless antenna. You just walk and set your parameters. It's pretty simple.

The solution as a whole has been quite valuable for us. That's why we've used it. The heat mapping, the signal with noise, all of these are great. 

Some people who aren't as technical as me, some of our project leads, really liked the graphical interface of it. You can take some of the more technical stuff off of it and just represent items in very ways. For example, green means good, red means bad.

Customer service is great. 

The initial setup is very simple.