awus036h r8187 poor performance

[genjix]

i recently bought alfa awus036h excited at its range and power. under backtrack im able to inject but managed mode does not work.

under ubuntu it works albeit the same as my laptops on board wifi with the mac80211 and ndiswrapper drivers.

i've installed the r8187 drivers, im sure they're running but it connects only to wep points and not any better that my laptops wifi card

i've set the txpower at 25 and the bitrate at 53 and there's no change in the signal strengths of the APs and it remains roughly the same as my onboard wifi card with all 3 drivers (r8187, rtl8187, ndiswrapper) and the r8187 only connects to WEP ponts. i dont see anything unusual in dmesg.

i just tried it using an old ubuntu on another laptop with 2.6.24-23 kernel and wpa works but AP signals strength is still poor compared to the on board wifi card.

my current kernel is 2.6.27-11

id be inclined to think my card is broken if it were not for the huge number of AP's I get in monitor mode

also i have only one usb connection, as i understand theres supposed to be 2? should i contact my supplier?

[genjix]

awus036h with bitrate 53M and txpower 15:

 00:01:38:B2:16:7F   45      370        0    0  10  54. WPA  TKIP   PSK  IslamicJihad                                                                       
 00:14:7F:BA:CA:40   19      515     8342    2   8  54  WEP  WEP         BTHomeHub-38A1
 00:1E:74:90:78:4F   21      324        4    0   1  54  WPA  TKIP   PSK  SKY30798
 00:23:4E:AD:A3:3B   15      179        0    0   1  54  WPA2 CCMP   PSK  BTHomeHub2-FFKF
 00:1B:2F:96:0D:2E   15      263        0    0  11  54. WPA  TKIP   PSK  SKY98876
 00:1D:68:4F:AA:EB   12      132        0    0   1  54  WEP  WEP         BTHomeHub-E1F3
 00:14:7F:C0:41:8F   10      121        0    0  11  54  WPA  TKIP   PSK  BTHomeHub-7AE8
 00:14:7F:BA:5A:11   16       48        2    0   7  54  WEP  WEP         BTHomeHub-AD89
 00:1B:9E:E0:82:A1    9        9       45    0   8  54  WEP  WEP         FH_BTVOYAGER2110-A1

on board crappy laptop wifi card:

   00:01:38:B2:16:7F  173       53        0    0  10  54. WPA  TKIP   PSK  IslamicJihad
   00:14:7F:BA:CA:40  163       45        0    0   8  54  WEP  WEP         BTHomeHub-38A1
   00:1E:74:90:78:4F  163       37        2    0   1  54  WPA  TKIP   PSK  SKY30798
   00:23:4E:AD:A3:3B  163       11        0    0   1  54  WPA2 CCMP   PSK  BTHomeHub2-FFKF
   00:14:7F:C0:41:8F  162       23        0    0  11  54  WPA  TKIP   PSK  BTHomeHub-7AE8
   00:14:7F:BA:5A:11  162       13        0    0   7  54  WEP  WEP         BTHomeHub-AD89
   00:1B:9E:E0:82:A1   -1        0       71    0   8  -1  WEP  WEP         <length:  0>

[ppppl]

What kind of laptop card is that?
This is actually quite usual that laptop onboard cards have quite a good range compared to USB cards due to bigger in-built antennas (which are usually placed next to your screen). I got caught by this as well. I don't have Alfa (although waiting for a delivery of an ordered one) to do a comparison but my Edimax 7318USG sees about 50% less AP's than my laptop's Intel 5100!
As for the txpower, it's a transmit power and has nothing to do with card's sensitivity and reception range.

You may want to consider getting a higher gain antenna to boost your reception capability.

[genjix]

aha, so what can i do to boost my cards reception quality then? i remember reading that people hadn't seen much gain using higher dbi antennas over the default 2dbi one. is there a recommended antenna to get with the awus036h?

my on board card is an intel 4965

thank you

EDIT: ok so I just read this, "however, is not good at connecting to not so distant networks when compared to the internal adapter of a Compaq laptop." What is a good directional antenna anyone can recommend?

[hm2075]

there are two drivers for the awus036h


one is the ieee drivers which work brilliantly but have limitations in terms of not being able to connect to wpa easily, hence the use of ndiswrapper, --- to use this driver do a search on the forum.


the later drivers are the mac802 drivers, backtrack4 ships with these drivers by default, but it just seems pants

but do not despair, i am dedicating today to get to the bottom of this one way or another and have a solution that fits all

[genjix]

well i have tried all 3 and they suck ass.

http forums.remote-exploit.org/showthread.php?p=128495

"I like Alfa due to its excellent sensitivity compared to other products."
"It's by far one of the best cards that I've tried in terms of sensitivity and range."

people have mentioned that it's to do with irradiation patterns and my location. So i tried up and down my whole street- still stronger signals from my laptops wifi.a

someone else said the numbers might not be a meaningful comparison- but the laptop wifi connects faster, to more APs and connection speeds are better. where i'm sitting now, my AP is listed at full strength with my laptops wifi but very low with the alfa and i cannot connect to it. wtf

knock me up if u need any help with anything. i used to work as a programmer although not much in systems/driver stuff.

[ppppl]

Your Intel 4965 is a N capable card... From what i gathered, N cards, due to a different (better) design are able to noticeably boost the range over b/g cards.
My intel 5100 also outscores the Edimax 7318 in terms of amount of picked APs even if I connect a 10 dBi omni antenna to the later one.
My alfa awus036h should arrive soon, so I'll be able to compare all three and post some comments.

[madirish]

[QUOTE=genjix;128627
also i have only one usb connection, as i understand theres supposed to be 2? should i contact my supplier?[/QUOTE]

I have the same card & mine has 2 usb connections -hence the high power of this card.
I've had mine a couple of years , did they change something since ?

[imported_vvpalin]

mine only came with 1 not the pigtail but its a legit card

the pigtail is only needed if your usb doesn't output enough power ... and that might be the case on a laptop.

if you can find a pigtail and give it a go i bet your problem will be solved.

[genjix]

I asked them about the pigtail and this is what they responded:

The following update has been made to your ticket:

dual USB head awus036h: We could send such a cable to you but it only helps if the laptop is 8 yrs old or more.

Could that be the problem? Should I request it...

I don't understand what they mean by "if the laptop is 8 yrs old or more"... Are they referring to USB 2.0?