I am a 5-year user of AirMagnet Survey Pro and Spectrum-XT. We currently own 6 Survey Pro Licenses
I have utilized demos of Ekahau, but with the project start to delivery passing the 30-day window, I need to decide between these two solutions.
It is tough to get a full handle on whether we would want to switch over to Ekahau.
I would love an independent comparison of features and pros and cons of the two.
Ekahau is for a quick diagnosis with a drive test in-Bulding. Airmagnet Survey is for design, coverage analysis with predictions, Co-channel interference Ekahau is used to view the layout of an installed design, Airmagnet is used for this and as a design tool to install a new solution.
I have been using Ekahau for about 3 years now. Prior to that was AM. I am glad I made the switch. Ekahau works. I have done a large number of surveys in hospitals, estates, offices, warehouses, and open air outdoor venues.
The comments made by others on this board that it is not suited for design are just wrong. I do fantastic predictive designs as well as surveys. The full licensed product does everything AM does and it does it better - I have never had a laptop destroyed while using Ekahau, but I have twice lost a laptop while using AM (and they were not able to figure it out). Drivers became corrupted to the point where the only recovery was a full OS restore. Not something you want to do while in the middle of a short billable engagement. This was two different laptops as well.
I use Ekahau with 3 external NICs and 2 WiSpy Spectrum Analyzer antennas. I am able to scan 2.4 and 5.0 at the same time for both usage and spectrum issues. I can track down co-channel issues.
I have some experience in AirMagnet and a good experience in Ekahau. Now, as we are begining to think in Heterogeneos Networks (Wifi, LTE, LoRa, Zigbee, etc...) we are evalueting IBWave. I have some high density people environment with more than 2000 people in a building with Ekahau, indutrial plants as mines, etc.... It works very well in predictive mode (green field) and measured mode, after implementation to fix the plan to real life (with interferences that comes from your neighbors). You can contact me in my email claudio.rosa@vale.com
I'll try not to be biased here:
I'd recommend first asking what the folks at Cisco, Aruba, Ruckus, Aerohive and Extreme are using. And what they recommend to their customers. The answer should be clear. Google "Ekahau Testimonials" to see what they think.
Next, ask around your peers. If you have 6 copies of AM, you're a power user and I'm sure you know people who do similar things. I'm willing to bet most of them have already switched over to Ekahau.
Lastly, go on Twitter and ask the recognized industry leaders about their recommendations.
AirMagnet used to be the industry standard 5-10 years ago. Today, Ekahau is the de-facto tool.
I see no reason to switch over Ekahau, what I would like to know is if the customer already has a Master Care support from NetScout in order to get updated software every time they release a new update.
Here is the link to our data sheet
enterprise.netscout.com/content/datasheet-airmagnet-survey