Random Wireless Questions

[starbuck88]

Hi everybody! I m a new poster but i read a lot of articles and discussions on the board since 1 year now and i love this forum. My english is not perfect but i m working on it .

I post today because i have few random questions about wireless for you guys.


1 - I bought the legendary card Alpha 500mw usb and i lost the original usb cable (with the double male usb) and want to know if there is a big difference if i use only a regular usb cable (one male). If yes, where can i buy one. I am thinking about making one but i'm not sure of the result .


2 - My second question is about my routeur, its a wrt54g (the legendary, again) flashed with DD-WRT (a must?? lol ) and I would like to booost the signal and be able to catch it 300 - 500 meters farther (to be able to catch it at my friend s house,few streets farther) , i m not sure if its possible with that routeur and i would like to know what kind of antenna i have to plug on the routeur, i heard about yagi antenna (what kind , what cost, home made?). I would also like to know if the alpha is able to send and receive the information to the routeur at THAT distance and what kind of antenna for the alpha i should use, i made a cantenna with a chef boyardee Can one year ago but I m not sure it will work with that distance.

3 - My third question is in the second one, I am looking for a better antenna for my alpha card. I want to know if you guys have recommendations and experiences (directionnal or omni can be interresting) . I m thinking about a yagi here too (maybe buying/making 2 yugi??) I have the money and the time in my hands to do it ... and the motivation too =)


3.2 - If i buy a better antenna to replace the original, can i expect to be able to increase the chance to connect mysleft to "normal routeur" (without special antenna or special firmware) like a friend's routeur. or by default the range of my alpha is bigger than the range of the majority of routeur. I m jsut not sure about How strong is the alpha.



4 - I cracked my own wep key few days ago with bt3+alpha card and its very cool how everything work, and i put a WPA key and want to learn how to crack it. The thing is I am curious about the minimum power and rxq require to be able to "catch" the handshake and what is the minimum for an acceptable connexion. because i had few problems last time(and the first time) i tried to catch the wpa handshake.



For the moment i dont have any more questions, more can come later =P.
thank you in advance if you take the time to answer me to one or more of my questions. Oh and please, i dont want the "google is your friend" cliché answer, I found stuff on google but i need answer from your own experience. =) and if you dont understand my chinesenglish, just ask and I will reformulate X_x =) .

have a nice day/ ev'ning.
thanks again


-StarB

Québec, Canada

[Thorn]

1) A USB cable is a USB cable Google would be your best friend in locating a replacement cable.

2-4) All of these questions require a lot more information and knowledge. You'll need to either call in an expert to assist you, or do a lot of studying on your own. Again, Google is your best bet.

[Shatter]

1) If you're using USBv2 then you do not need the dual-port USB cable, one plug will suffice. The double male cable as you call it is only needed when using the older USBv1.1 ports.

2) I use the same router model with DD-WRT. To boost your signal you can basically do two things. The first one is to poke through the settings and increase the transmitting power of your router. Please note that increasing tx power does not necessarily result in better performance (you must also increase the rx rate - read on). The second thing is use a better antenna. I have no idea what kind of antennas this router supports, but you may want to search the internet a bit. A parabolic directional antenna can be used to reach up to a few miles (Router and Alfa). It's best, however, that you test these things out yourself.

3) Again, it really depends on your application. I use a 8dbi omnidirectional to pickup my nearby access point from outside. A yagi attached to your router should cover up a nice distance, but for those ultra-long ranges a parabolic is the best choice.

4) Please note that successfully capturing a WPA handshake requires you to have a good signal on the client, not just the access point, which can be a bit tricky. Alfa cards have surprisingly good sensitivity, but you can boost that with a bigger antenna or by reducing your distance from the client/AP. I'm not sure if things can be measured in minimu-rx-required-to-capture-handshake. As long as the card can read packets, it should be able to hear the handshake.
To learn about cracking WPA I suggest you take a look at xploitz' tutorials. Maybe get a bunch of good wordlists (search forum).

~Ol

[starbuck88]

Thank you guys !

1 - Thank you, yeah i use usb 2.0 so i am okay =).

2 - I am currently making a lot of research about what kind of antenna and settings I should use.

3 - Okay

4 - Thank you i understand better now.