AirMagnet Survey Reviews

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.

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. 

If you're using AirMagnet, it's a special use case. As long as they really walk you through it you should be fine. However, you do need some direction and training. If you don't have very much practice with it, it is difficult to troubleshoot.

It'd be nice if it was cheaper, however, you get value for your money.  

I've dealt with AirMagnet since 2014. It's been a while.

It's definitely pretty stable. It has never crashed on us. It really just depends on your laptop or whatever device you're using it on. The solution itself, however, does not crash or freeze and there are no bugs or glitches. 

As far as scalability, that I don't know. We've never used it like that. I don't know if I can talk to that. 

We had the software and then we had two licenses to use it on two separate laptops, which means two separate antennas. If that's what you mean by scalable, then yes, it's extremely scalable as you can use up to six antennas for one software license.

Their customer service is great if you get the gold package or whatever the highest support package is. That is what we have. It's not just decent. It's excellent service. We are very satisfied with it. 

The initial setup is extremely straightforward. One of the things, now years and years ago, was that it might have been a bit difficult to implement, however, these days, it's very easy.  Today, as in this version, it has an extremely straightforward setup.

I don't handle the buy-side of the solution. I'm just one of the engineers that use it. I'm pretty sure we quoted it, however, that was a while ago. I know it's not cheap. However, I cannot speak to exact pricing.

I've used every version they've had since 2014, just as it increments up. We have the latest. Whatever the latest version is now is what we're using today.

It's really simple to use. I had a guy who's never used it and once we went through half a day with it, he could do it. He couldn't troubleshoot with it, however, he could definitely do tasks and he could use it for the purposes we needed.

While there's other software out there, it really just depends on your projects and your budget. We had a large budget. It's a pretty big project, so we chose AirMagnet due to the fact that I'm familiar with it. I knew that the support was excellent. 

It's good for any project you have. You just have to have the budget for not only the software but also the support package. With the support package, even if you don't know how to use it, they'll show you how to use it.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten.

For us, for what we used it for and for the majority of my career, I've found that it offers everything. There are other versions and other flavors of AirMagnet you can get. I've just never needed it. There's the spectral analysis and stuff like that. I've never needed that part of it. However, for others, just know there are options.

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.