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.

thanks

[aware]

I seem to be having a similar problem. Same card. Managed mode works for me but overall card performance is just... not worth the money. Literally, iwl3945 in my notebook seems to have a better range. Just as an example, after "iwlist dev scan":
iwl3945: about 8 networks
alfa + 12dB omni: only my ap that is 3 meters away
Same results with airodump-ng.

Seriously, sometimes it looses the signal from my ap if i go the other room. I've tried both rtl8187 and r8187. Im out of ideas. Just one question (also to other awus036h owners). Are you using that double usb Y cable? I got just a normal usb -> mini usb and am hoping maybe thats the problem i.e. not enough power. Could it be?

[genjix]

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?

[aware]

wiki.robotz.com/index.php/Alfa_AWUS036H_500mW_USB_WiFi_Adapter

At the bottom of the page:

Plus it is just set to 500mw as soon as you plug in the 2nd usb on that dual cable

I dunno if that means it will only work well with a double usb cable or not. I'd rather some other lucky owner of this model who has used it successfully commented on that.

[genjix]

http forums.remote-exploit.org/showthread.php?p=128690#post128690

(doesnt let me post urls yet)

i made another thread there since this subforum doesnt look like it gets checked often.

im using a 2dbi antenna.

i've just ordered a return. lets see if the new replacement works better