Would like to get some feedback from those who have experienced Air Magnet, both pros and cons of the product.

Both from a Pen Test point of view as well as an Admin side of the house.

its supported card list doesn't contain much. check it here:
hxxp://www.airmagnet.com/products/cards.htm

It is a really usful app and works rather well too. The cards it supposrts though is a HUGE drwaback

Air Magnet comments

After several days of having access to an AirMagnet security package I wanted to give my comments regarding it's capabilities. This is not a hard core review, but more so my comments on the product.

Initial setup of the AM sensors could use a little help. The initial 1 piece "ticket sized" instruction sheet included in the box leaves little to be desired. Shooting from the hip in the initial configuration or access attempts is not the way to setup a security device used for detecting rogue devices or ensuring wireless integrity.

Requests for a password was noted, and that information was no where on the instruction sheet. Additional aspects such as upgrading of the software and detection of the keys was not found on the ticket, but had to be researched in the primary instruction booklet. Somewhat time consuming when you expect the instruction sheet should have everyhing required for initial setup.

This is not ok, I feel if your going to be running the setup directly from what is provided in the main box then the information to do this should also be included. Simple courtesy that goes along way when your thinking about the growing market of wireless security products for enterprise levels. Another issue was some conflicts getting the primary card to be recognized by the product. In the end the Cisco A|B|G card was the selected card and install/detection went smoothly. 2 other cards did not fair so well, and were sidelined due to the trouble getting the cards recognized.

Once a few obstacles were overcome, setup was a breeze. The sensors were completed relatively quick as well as the placement schemes and power sources.

Once up and running, AirMagnet was quick to identify various wireless devices and allowed the flexibility of createing rules based off of the different templates available.
This was really smooth and no troubles what so ever. Attempts to run a variety of Pen test's against wireless devices setup throughout the environment proved of little use as pre-set detection settings were able to identify and drop wireless acccess attempts from the different "attackers".

This was really smooth, with no hiccups. Rule set's not in compliance were quickly identified, and dealt with. There was little to no interaction by those monitoring the activity. Identified attempts, as well as information on the attackers tactics, and system information was available and could be accessed by those granted permissions during the initial setup and configuration of the AM Ent. Server.

I found the AM concept to be extremely usefull in the detection of wireless devices in the form of AP's, Laptops, and PDA's.

It does a great job in picking up and identifiying wireless activity, and built in features allow SysAdmins to import floor plans into the application to permit triangulating the "attackers" location. I found this feature extremely useful and very beneficial to those in the security field tasked with tracking down the violators.

Overall I think performance wise AM is a really good product that allows numerous functions, acls, and settings for Admins to complete to add a very well rounded device into the realm. I would lean more towards the AirMagnet tool the some of the other more popular devices.

Instructions on the other hand I would give a score of 1.5 out of 5. The product is useless to admins if they can't get past areas where simple notes should be included to allow for an effectrive and rapid setup.

Manuals are pretty easy to follow along but once again some imporvements are need.

These are my opinions and I hope this adds some insight into the AirMagnet capabilities.

Great post Spookie! I like the way that you have defined the pro's and cons of the actual app. I would love to start a reviews section if I thought that people would use it.

Thanks for acknowledgeing the effort GSecur. It would be nice to have a review spot, I think some elements might find it handy. Then again like you, I feel it may not get as much activity as some of us would like.