AirMagnet Surveyor 2 Standard Edition review

AirMagnet's expertise in wireless network analysis is undeniable, and there are few products in the same price bracket capable of offering a similar level of features to its Laptop Analyser. With Surveyor, AirMagnet has turned its attention to site surveys by offering a range of scientific tools to help position your access points to provide the best levels of wireless services to customers or staff.

Surveyor functions with a wide range of wireless PC Cards and we successfully tested using a Proxim ORiNOCO Gold ComboCard, supporting 802.11a/b/g operations and a Cisco AiroNet Series 350 802.11b card. Before starting a survey, you'll need to get busy with a drawing program and create a picture of your premises, which is then imported into Surveyor. Dimensions and environment information are added, and after you've decided whether the plan represents closed or open office space, a warehouse or outdoors, signal propagation values will be automatically assigned.

In Passive mode, Surveyor doesn't try to associate with an SSID (Service Set IDentifier) or AP (access point), but simply listens to and records all RF data including signals and environmental noise. You start by opening a project where the floor plan is displayed, along with associated survey details. When you're ready to go, begin the survey and move the animated walking man icon to your start position. Now it's time for some exercise, as you take yourself and your laptop on a walk of the premises. As you travel, use the icon to update Surveyor on your movements simply by moving it on the map and clicking in the relevant location. We ran a passive survey of a large premises with some 20 closed offices and were impressed with the information that came back. Plenty of details were gathered about our test APs. Each unit's MAC was converted to show the manufacturer's name plus details on signal strength, S/N (signal-to-noise) ratios, the channel in use and the SSID.

In Active mode, Surveyor associates directly with either the strongest AP or a selected unit. Using this feature, you can place an AP in a desired location, walk around and then see how well it performs. In both modes, the Display option processes the AP information gathered and shows your map along with graduated colour bands revealing signal strength, noise, S/N, or interference for channels or the SSIDs. Eight reports can be produced on the data gathered to show details such as overall coverage by SSID or channel and interference by AP or channel. If you want more detail, AirMagnet has released a Professional version, which incorporates outdoor GPS data, more reports and supports multifloor building maps.

A smart feature is the Simulation tool. This allows you to take your data, modify AP power, channel and SSID settings and view before and after colour-coded maps to see the results of your tinkering. A Calculator tool is also provided to convert dBm to mW and work out antennae down-tilt angles, Fresnel zones for determining antennae height and system operating margins.

During testing, Surveyor was easy to work with and capable of providing a great deal of detailed and useful information. It's also well priced. So if you aren't sure how your wireless network is performing, take Surveyor for a walk.

Author: Dave Mitchell