Ekahau Site Survey Reviews

Our primary use case for this solution is to conduct wifi site surveys. It works in any environment.

We use this solution to improve wifi network performance or design proper networks. It is possible to eliminate issues such as co-channel interference or adjacent-channel interference. It can also locate devices that are causing interference.

The ability to perform dual-band spectrum analysis while conducting the standard wifi site survey is a tremendous time saver. The built-in battery allows us to survey longer without stopping for power.

I find the power button hard to access with just one hand. It really needs one hand to hold the device while the other pushes the button. It would also be improved if other mounting options besides the strap were available. Also, the strap should be easy release. 

It is very stable. Works as designed. 

In terms of technical support, it is hit or miss. They tend to rely on offshore support for the first level and the response time is painfully slow, considering I pay $1389 per year for it. Most of it is by email, which takes up to 24 hours to get a response (usually asking for more info). After this, another 24 hours before they respond again asking for something else. It can take three or four days to answer simple questions.

Prior to acquiring Sidekick, we conducted our surveys with a laptop, three external NIC cards, and two spectrum analysis antennas. It was just as effective as using the Sidekick with an iPad or laptop, but it was bulky and required power constantly in order to maintain the batteries.

The initial setup is relatively easy if you have already used Ekahau in the past. If not, the learning curve is steep. The documentation is not very strong.

We implemented this solution using our in-house team.

As a wireless professional, I need to conduct at least seven or eight small-scale surveys, or two to three large-scale surveys, in order to recover the costs.

This solution is not cheap. If you only need an occasional site survey, you are better off contracting a wireless engineering professional that has one.

The cost for the device and software runs in excess of $6500 plus $1389 per year in maintenance fees. Add to it the cost of an iPad and you are getting close to $10,000, and you still don't know how to use it!

We found that there is no other option like it on the market.

This is a professional tool. You have to know how to use it. 

Used in conjunction with the Ekahau Pro software and a professional wireless engineer, this tool will make conducting a wireless site survey a breeze.

• Planning.
• "What-if" scenarios.
• Spectrum analyzer integration allows reviewing measurements on the survey paths.
• iPerf integration allows conducting a throughput continuous test along the survey path.

Planning design allows us to provide faster quotes to the customer. We take a safety margin but in the end, we are very close to the quote and we save time and travel.

The SpecAn and the throughput data: We include them in the survey report that we give to the customer. That's a great added-value compared to what we were doing before. Also, during the project closure meeting, we can show all the recorded survey data and it supports our recommendations to the customers.

I wish we could have an "offline" version of Ekahau in order to give the customer some kind of interactive report where he could find all the measured values.

What I mean is that today, we can only give the customer a PDF or paper report. So they can't see detailed values as when you move the mouse over an AP. I expect to give the customer a kind of read-only file where he could explore the site survey.

I have used it for five years.

We have not encountered any deployment issues. Deployment is smooth and easy, in less than 10 minutes of time.

We did encounter stability issues with a previous version. The customer support team took my case with a very high priority and a few days later, a patch was released. Our current version is very stable.

We have not encountered any scalability issues, compared to my first years of use; I've added the SpecAn feature, the GPS.

New APs are added regularly for the predictive feature.

N/A: Initial purchase and yearly renewal are made through a reseller.

Technical support is 10/10. They're fast to answer and solve your issue.

We previously used AirMagnet some years ago. We changed because of the slowness of the software.

Initial setup is straightforward. The only option is for the GPS feature. When starting ESS for the first time, you need an internet connection to validate the licence.

An in-house team implemented it.

Choose the PRO + Spectrum version. The Basic version doesn't have the planning features.

It's a great product; regular updates make it dynamic and bring us new possibilities.

Importing DWG files that identify the types of walls, doors, glass, and other structural materials is valuable. The other useful tool is the ability to enter the exact model number of an access point to get accurate planning information.

We can do a predictive survey in half the time it used to take, now that we can import CAD files and identify wall types.

• Being able to import BIM files

I have used it for five years.

We have not encountered any deployment issues.

We have not encountered any stability issues.

We have not encountered any scalability issues.

Customer service is excellent; always there to answer questions or assist with an issue; very open to feedback on how to improve the product.

Technical support is excellent.

We did not previously use a different solution.

The setup was straight forward.

An in-house team implemented it.

ROI was less than a year.

This product is priced aggressively compared to other products; well worth the investment.

Before choosing this product, we also evaluated AirMagnet.

• Importing DXF/DWG floor plans
• Autoplanner
• Customizable report templates

Importing more than 200 floor plans of 50 buildings has been easily accomplished because layers could be deselected before importing.

The Autoplanner feature gave us the opportunity to sketch a channel grid as well as the raw placements of access points.

It provides easy reporting using our own report templates.

• Batch reporting for large projects with many project files

I have used it since 2008.

Technical support is excellent; quick feedback and appropriate solutions.

Setup is done very easily.

If in doubt, buy the Professional Edition to have all features activated (e.g., 3D planning). Have NIC-300 USB stick (multiple NICs recommended for several measurements in parallel) as well. Otherwise, you will not have the opportunity to measure SNR.

Before choosing this product, we also evaluated AirMagnet and NetPlanner.

From my experience, Ekauhau has always been very interested in improving their software by listening to users' demands and requirements. From my point of view, they successfully ease the complex process of designing wireless LAN on a professional level.

When you have a new site to plan, with ESS you can easily create a good plan to begin to understand the solution and the challenges. This way, you can create a Bill of Materials to buy what will work for your business requirements.

With ESS, we were able to understand what will be necessary to create a plan to support the company headquarters building with more than 2000 people in a high-density environment.

Today, ESS doesn't support mixed outdoor-indoor environments. We have port and railroad environments that can't be created and exported to the WiFi management solution because ESS can´t support it.

In the ESS, we don't have an easy way to select access points and then select an external antenna for it. This is a very common situation when you are testing what could be the best solution for an environment.

Anther important point is that Ekahau Mobile doesn't have GPS support. We can't do outdoor site surveys as easily as we can in the ESS.

I have worked with Ekahau since I was a Nortel Network Pre-sales Engineer, that is, more than 10 years.

I have not encountered any deployment issues.

I have not encountered any stability issues.

For some operations, such as report generation, it requires a lot memory (more than 16GB RAM).

Customer service provides fast answers.

Sometimes, it takes technical support time to understand a new feature request.

We previously we worked on a project with AirMagnet Survey. This tool was provided by the company that was supporting us on the project.

Initial setup was easy but only with the training course it was possible to get all of the tool's potential.

Implementation was done by an in-house team.

The ROI was quick because we can save money doing it ourselves and we could develop internal knowledge.

This is a professional solution that can be very useful for planning and troubleshooting, but it is not cheap. It can make sense when you are a WiFi Engineering Company or you have médium-large WiFi environments.

For small environments, I recommend Ekahau Mobile.

Before choosing this product, we did not evaluate other options.

• Planning a WiFi network: You can estimate the number of APs you need without error. It works fine!
• It is perfect for knowing the problems of a WiFi network. You can see the radio state.

With this tool, you can plan the WiFi network without error.

This tool needs too many of the resources (RAM) of your PC.

I have used it for five years.

We have not encountered any deployment issues.

We have not encountered any stability issues.

We have not encountered any scalability issues.

The customer service answers quickly and correctly. If you have a problem, they solve it.

I did not previously use a different solution.

The use of this tool is very easy. In addition, you have many tutorials on the Ekahau website.

Before choosing this product, I did not evaluate other options.

• Import Autocad layers into Ekahau

The speed, accuracy, and reliability has improved the way my organization functions.

I have used it for two years.

We have not encountered any deployment issues.

We have not encountered any stability issues.

We have not encountered any scalability issues.

Customer service is good.

Technical support is good.

We have replaced all AirMagnet kit with Ekahau.

Initial setup was straightforward.

The ROI is great.

Switch to Ekahau.

Before choosing, we also evaluated MetaGeek.

MetaGeek also has exceptional products.

Recent upgrades allows opacity view on the heat maps, allowing the floor plan to have better visibility. What I like is that Ekahau regularly takes the advice of real users and categorizes these point and adds them in product version releases. In other words, Ekahau really listens to their customers!

One area would be to allow several files to be opened and the ability to close only one of the files.

At present, if you have several files open, you must close the entire program to close the one file. A workaround is to open a new instance of ESS, but would be nice if you do not need to do this.

When a user has two surveys done at different times (Survey1 and Survey2), and at a later time, wants to open both of them at the same time, ESS allows a user to do that. However, the software does not allow you to close one of the surveys unless you completely close out ESS.

This is not a big issue, as I mention the workaround is to open up each survey in a new instance of ESS. IOW, to ESS and open it, then select open Survey1. Then open another instance of ESS and select Survey2.

It is more of a convenience feature. For example, if you have two MS Word docs open, you can to File/Close and close one of the docs. In ESS, you cannot do that yet.

3+ years

Deployment does take about 20-30 seconds, as it is a large program, so that's acceptable.

No.

From small to large surveys, Ekahau seems to function well. I have heard that very large surveys (e.g. 20-floor building) can cause issues, but I have not personally experienced that.

9 out of 10. They listen and respond to you, sometimes in a couple of hours. Excellent customer service.

9 out of 10. Customer service seems to link straight to technical support and issue resolution is fast and sometimes in less than a day.

Yes, easy setup with the wizard.

I have done both. Vendor team sent registration code, copy and paste and setup was fast.

Site survey software is not inexpensive. But it is vital for the WLAN professional. Call Ekahau and get a trial version and if pricing is an issue, ask them what they can do.

I have used trial versions of all leading site survey software. All have a bit of a learning curve. (AirMagnet, Tamosoft, iBwave).

Just a customer service story: I needed an AP listed for a predictive model that was not listed in ESS. I sent a request to have this one added to ESS and within three hours, the response came back with the file I needed to copy and paste into ESS to use this AP model! Three hours! Unbelievably responsive and outstanding customer service. Ekahau listens and responds to their customers!