Product review NetAlly AirCheck G3 Pro by networkcomputing.co.uk

NetAlly has a fine reputation for delivering desirable portable network testing and diagnostics solutions and its AirCheck G3 Pro will appeal hugely to technicians and engineers maintaining wireless networks. This ruggedised handheld device takes many of the features from the secondgeneration AirCheck G2 model and makes them even better. 

Its native Wi-Fi 6/6E radio brings visibility into the 6GHz band where it can connect at its full data rate and capture frames, and it provides more information including short-term monitoring facilities with real-time wireless measurements and trend graphs showing network changes over time. 

Bluetooth/BLE device support has been added and it enhances the standard site surveying, analysis and troubleshooting tools with network discovery, path analysis and integration with NetAlly's Link-Live cloud portal for topology mapping and remote control. The G3 Pro can diagnose all day as battery life has been more than doubled to 10 hours of continuous use and charging speed boosted, so it'll reach full capacity in no more than 3 hours.

NetAlly chose to do away with the Ethernet test port on the G2 for a number of sound reasons. Its removal is the main reason battery life has been extended and it allows NetAlly to offer a more cost-effective solution to technicians focused on wireless networks. 

The G3 Pro also runs the same Androidbased OS found in NetAlly's latest EtherScope products. This will appeal to novices as well as technicians and engineers - if they can use a mobile, they can use the G3 Pro. 

The 5in. colour touchscreen presents a selection of icons for all tasks and you can install other third-party Android apps. The screen's FAB (floating access button) opens floating action menus offering instant access to further analysis tools related to the selected task. 

The G3 Pro is easy to use and we tapped on its AutoTest icon to analyse the lab's Wi-Fi 6/6E networks. This uses profiles with a default one for fast air quality analysis, and you can add Wi-Fi profiles with predefined tests covering areas such as SSIDs, channels, AP details and target connectivity. 

After connecting the G3 Pro to our Netgear WAX630E tri-band AP over its 6GHz radio, we created a new Wi-Fi profile. We started it with one tap and could set the G3 Pro to run its AutoTests regularly as often as every minute. 

The test only took 20 seconds and presented a wealth of wireless information as 'cards' with each one colour coded to indicate warnings or errors. The SSID card revealed graphs and tables for signal quality, channel utilisation plus retries while a rolling PHY graph confirmed speedy close-range transmission rates of around 2Gbits/sec. 

The Wi-Fi test shows discovered internal and external wireless networks with the Channels map screen offering an extra Map 6E tab. One tap brings up masses of detail on all channels, their active SSIDs and associated APs, encryption schemes, all connected clients and detected Bluetooth/BLE devices. 

The AirMapper app runs Wi-Fi site surveys and creates signal heatmaps which can be uploaded to the Link-Live portal for further analysis and sharing with colleagues. The base kit includes a soft case, charger and one-year AllyCare support, the Kit option adds an external directional antenna and NXT-1000 USB spectrum analyser for even deeper insights into wireless networks, while the TA kit includes NetAlly's Test Accessory Pocket iPerf Server for iPerf performance testing. 

The AirCheck G3 Pro takes wireless network analysis to the next level as it teams up support for Wi-Fi 6/6E networks with a superb range of diagnostics and site survey features. It's extremely easy to use, integrates seamlessly with NetAlly's Link-Live cloud portal and is very affordable. 

Product: AirCheck G3 Pro 
GTIN, UPC, EAN, JAN or ISBN: 841969101014
Supplier: NetAlly 
Web site: www.netally.com 
Reviewer: WWW.NETWORKCOMPUTING.CO.UK 
Date NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 

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