Wireless RF Site Survey Tools: Do you have a preference?

Our customers are asking us with greater frequency to work with them on deploying high performance wireless networks that are secure, reliable and support end-to-end QOS. We recognize to do that professionally requires great site survey RF tools.
We are considering AirMagnet's "Survey Pro" with their integrated "Spectrum Analyzer." We would run them on a Lenovo 802.11abg PC.
However we have seen some discussion on here regarding Cognio's Spectrum Analyzer and we have also found the Exahau "Site Survey" software product will speak with a Fluke 802.11 radio.
We are looking at investing in a tool set for our Wireless practice and we want to ask you what are your favorite site survey and spectrum analyzer tools? Thanks for taking the time to respond!

Apart from all the features Sales folks pitch about from both these companies the intuitiveness (ease of use) and accuracy make a lot of difference.
I would suggest getting trial copies of both of these tools and using them in the field before making a final investment.
Personally I have used AirMagnet Spectrum Analyzer (a separate product) and has been impressed by it. It comes in both laptop as well as handheld formats.
For site surveys I have used Wireless Valley which is also very impressive.

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Site survey tool

Hi forum,
Is there a free tool I can use to survey the site that we are going to install wireless network?
can "firewall" - concrete wall 1 feet thick blocking the RF signal?
thanks much,
paul

I do not know of any free site survey tools for predictive surveys. If you have a few APs to use, you can do a physical survey with some manual work. It would involve starting in one corner and placing APs. Then you see how far coverage reaches with your required RSSI. If you have a cisco card they have a site survey tool to help with this. Then you move the APs to the next possible spot and make sure you have enough overlap in your cells.
If you decide that this is a bit more than you bargained for, I highly suggest looking at prices for trained site surveyers, because it will cost more putting APs in the wrong place and re-doing it than a good site survey should cost.
If you want to look at predictive tools, I suggect looking at Ekahau and Airmagnet. They each have products to do predictive.
As for the firewall, I know cinder blocks that thick will drastically impact signal, but I have not seen them fully block it. Buildings with that as the internal construction type tend to require many more APs than stick construction.

7920 Site Survey Tool

Can someone please explain to me the readout from the 7920 Site Survey tool? I'm taking guesses... I just hope I guessing right!
i.e.
1 (C), voice, 23, 0
6 (C), voice, 45, 3
11 (C), voice, 55,4

Hi,
1= Channel
(C) = Connected
Voice= SSID
45= RSSI
0= Quality Param,
You may also see an (A), that means Available.
Thanks,
Scott

Wireless mesh site survey

Hello all,
I need to perform several wireless mesh site surveys. The challenge I have is that I generally use a 2600 autonomous ap for indoor site surveys. However I have not found an easy way to do an outdoor mesh site survey. Any suggestions or best practices from the group?
Sent from Cisco Technical Support iPad App

You use a 1552 with the survey image installed.
HTH,
Steve
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Wireless Site survey tools and Software requirement

Dears,
I have Cisco wireless site survey to distributed and selected Wireless AP on big building contain 20 floor,
what are the prerequisites and is there any free tool from Cisco or third party software , that can help my to upload all building map to get accurate results,
AP model: 1602I-E-K9
Thanks in Advanced,

Is there any tools , I can used to do the site survey ?
Won't make any difference what tool to use if you don't know the basics and requirement in wireless site survey. As what George and Scott has mentioned, AirMagnet and Ekahau are the two largest and most popular wireless site survey programs in the market right now.
However, there are a number of topic that won't be covered in AirMagnet and Ekahau computer-based-training or web training. So getting the tools is half the "fun".
Get someone to do it for you. Tag along. Ask a lot of relevant questions. Observe what they do. Observe the tools they are using and what info their eyes are focusing into.
In some cases, when I do site survey, I only use a Cisco 7925G. That's all I use. So far my method, even though it is unorthodox, hasn't failed me one bit.

Wireless Site Survey Tool

I am looking for Software tool to conduct wireless site survey in campus
Any recommendation ?
Regards
Mohamed

one is here
http://www.flukenetworks.com/enterprise-network/wireless-network/AirMagnet-Survey

Site Survey Tools for 802.11b, g

Hello,
Can anyone recommend a suitable tool?
Fairly new to WiFi and require to perform a site survey to ascertain appropraite equipment deployment based on SNR, RF interference levels, etc.
Tool can be shareware or commercial product?
All help appreciated.

http://www/en/US/products/sw/cscowork/ps3915/index.html but it's not shareware/freeware.

Site survey tools for ipad

Hi,
I was trying to find some apps for iPad/iPad mini which are useful in conducting a wireless site-survey. Any app which will scan air and gives list of available wireless networks along with their RSSI/SNR values.
I found one app WIFI Analyzer, but it is for Android.
Are there any apps available for iPhone / iPad / iPad mini?
I am planning for an outdoor survey for a location around 8-10 acres. The purpose is to provide internet services and cover most of the specified areas within park.
I've got the maps, conducted a passive survey by simulating the environment using AirMagnet planner. Now I am planning for on site survey .
Thanks,
CJ

iPad WiFi Survey
Ekahau Mobile Survey
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Publishing a particular Web site using iWeb when you have 2 iWeb projects

Hi ! I'm a new mac user. Working with iWeb is great. I have 2 web projects. How can I upload or publish 1 of the sites without both of them being uploaded ? Every time I have tried to upload on .Mac, both sites are being uploaded but I only want one of them (the smallest one) to be uploaded. Thanks for the help !

goony goo goo,
It can be done, but you need to jump through a few hoops to make it happen. Read through these notes on separate sites, held in individual Domain.sites files in iWeb.
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Aperture or Light Room - Do you have a preference?

Want to turn out professional-grade photographs using the photos in iPhoto, moving them into either Aperture or Light Room. Leaning towards the latter right now and I'd be curious to know if there are any huge downsides...THANKS!

I've only used Lightroom but keep intending to buy Aperture just to see what all the fuss is about. I normally just use Photoshop CS6 for all of my RAW conversion but back when I was using SC3 I used Lightroom a great deal. Both do pretty much the same thing, as I look at the specs for Aperture, but it would seem that the latter does a better job of integrating with OS X, which would be a big plus depending on how your photo management system works and how much you'll need that integration with OS X.
I feel as if I'm biased towards Adobe products, so take what I opine with the proverbial grain of sale. I just use and prefer Lightroom.
Clinton

LWAPP Site Survey methodology

I have been doing site surveys the "old fashioned" way for quite some time.
I am interested in how the survey is performed utilizing the new lightweight AP's.
Mainly, how do you determine AP location if there is no way to configure the AP itself?
Do these surveys require the use of a Controller?
Can I still design the infrastructure to physically load balance the network or am I at the mercy of this little box?
Also, do I have any control over channel allocation? I don't like to put channel 11 near Microwave ovens if I can help it, but I would like to know that if any thing gets switched, is it going to be switched back?
Any links that would describe the "new" survey process would be very apprieciated.
Thanks-

I can confirm that when I asked the same question, no "survey mode" exists on the AIR-LAP1131AG or AIR-LAP1242AG.
That said, you can convert these APs to autonomous mode (there are a number of threads on this forum that discuss how to do this). After you are done with the site survey you can flip the APs back.
From the Cisco "Wireless Site Survey FAQ - Document ID: 68666"
"Q. Can I perform a site survey using Cisco Aironet 1131 and 1242 access points and then use the results to deploy an Airespace wireless solution?
A. Yes, you can do this as long as a proper site survey is conducted and the results yield an effective Wireless solution. In this case, you can use any site survey tool."
If you intend on carrying your RF settings manually once deployed using the WLC, you will need to refer to the following document which correlates autonomous power settings (in dB) to the WLC power setttings 1, 2, 3, etc.
Excerpt from WLC Configuration Guide v4.0:
"The transmit power level is assigned an integer value instead of a value in mW or dBm. The integer corresponds to a power level that varies depending on the regulatory domain in which the access points
are deployed. The number of available power levels varies based on the access point model. However, power level 1 is always the maximum power level allowed per country code setting, with each successive power level representing 50% of the previous power level. For example, 1 = maximum power level in a particular regulatory domain, 2 = 50% power, 3 = 25% power, 4 = 12.5% power, and so on.
Note: Refer to the hardware installation guide for your access point for the maximum transmit power levels supported per regulatory domain. Also, refer to the data sheet for your access point for the number of power levels supported."
Final thought: I have found that the AUTO RF tends to work better if you start out your APs with manual channel settings from your site survey and then release everything to AUTO RF at the same time. The automatic channel choices that the WLC comes up with are not optimal.
The steps to doing this are:
1) Changing the global AUTO RF setting to manual channel selection or ON DEMAND. Power setting can stay on automatic.
2) Change your APs to the manual settings from your survey.
3) Change the APs to automatic RF settings. (They will not change until AUTO RF channel selection is re-enabled.)
4) Re-enable AUTO RF channel selection.
This is not official from Cisco, simply based upon my own observations. However, my experience so far has been that the channel settings I pick tend to work better (I see higher power level settings on the APs since they have less co-channel interference) and WLC will continue to use the manual channel settings unless the some significant outside interference is encountered.
(please remember to rate helpful posts)
- John

Best practice power setting when doing a Site Survey for VOIP

Hi Team,
Can someone please confirm or correct me. When doing a Wireless Active Site Survey for Cisco VOIP, I should be setting the Test AP to local power of 14, which is 25mW? Is this correct, or should it be another value? I asked the customer for the power of their weakest client and they do not know, but they claim there's a high probably that they will go with Cisco VOIP clients.
Thanks...

When you check the signal coverage, make sure the AP's radio transmit power does not use a transmit power greater than what the client devices can support. For example, by default, the Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phone 7925G uses the highest available transmit power by default (17 dBm / 50 mW for 2.4 GHz and 16 dBm / 40 mW for 5 GHz). It is possible to have a survey report that shows good coverage in all areas; however, if you have APs that operate at the highest transmit power, you might still experience uplink issues where the client devices do not support the same transmit power. For areas where there is deficient coverage, and you increase the AP transmit power to levels that the client devices cannot support, this only increases coverage on the downlink.
Link for the same :-
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/wireless/5500-series-wireless-controllers/116057-site-survey-guidelines-wlan-00.html

Detail workflow for site survey?

Hi All,
I am new in this field. I had saw some information and I can catch the basic meaning of wireless LAN. But I can not find any information about the detail workflow when doing site survey and how to work when an AP doing as site survey client, also when a bridge work as a repeater. When will a client doing a site survey? and the detail workflow of site survey? Is there any problem that may make site survey fail? Does any body know it? Can any body give me a hand? Thank You!
Best Regards
Teru Lei

Here are a few URL's that should help you with the site survey. These links have a list of things that could interfere with the site survey. http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/wireless/airo_350/350cards/windows/incfg/win5_apf.htm http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/wireless/airo_350/accsspts/ap350scg/ap350ch3.htm#1016921

Site Survey Questions

Hello,
I have a question about surveying. I have been doing site surveys and all the site surveys that I have done were all passive mode. I use AirMagnet with Proxim card. I know that there is an active mode for doing wireless site survey. My question are:
1. When do I need to do an active site survey?
2. What is the difference between active and passive mode?
3. What is the advantages and disadvantages of each mode?
4. For post site survey, which mode should I used?
I know that the passive mode is in monitor mode and I don't need to associate with an AP whereas active mode I need to associate with the AP.
Thanks

Granted, this is My Opinion:
1. When do I need to do an active site survey?
     When you are troubleshooting an issue. And/Or needing to do throughput testing, on a live network.
2. What is the difference between active and passive mode?
     Active survey's you are actually connecting to the SSID, so you can pass traffic and measure the results.
3. What is the advantages and disadvantages of each mode?
     Active Survey - Allows you to see more information on packet frames, as you are connected to the SSID. You can watch and test roaming, throughput etc.
     Passive Survey - Is what you want to use when you are doing a pre-install survey, or even a post install validation survey.
HTH,
Steve
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Site Survey Adapters - USB options?

Hello,
We are in need to perform a site survey with the Aironet 1041N Access Point.
Upon reviewing the site survey software, it seems you need to use an Aironet adapter.
However from what i can tell, all the Aironet adapters are PCMICA cards, which most modern laptops do not have, and the PCMICA cards that do exist don't have drivers for windows 7.
Are there USB adapters w/ Windows 7 drivers that can be used to perform a site survey?
Thank You.

I was going to use the Cisco Aironet site survey application.
the client doesn't have $1000+ to spend on site survey software.
this doesn't need to be overly complex but we're trying to get an estimate on AP placement and the # they'll need to get adequate coverage.
our plan was to go around with one access point to use as a baseline then determine how far away you can get before signal drops off too much, mark a building diagram with where access point should be placed, move the AP to that location to see how far away you can get before you should place another AP, etc.
thank you.

Wireless RF Site Survey Tools: Do you have a preference?

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