Alfa awus036nh weak tx power. Is their a way to adjust?

[Carnivore]

Have you tried

ifconfig wlanx down
iw reg set BO
ifconfig wlanx up

and check with

iwconfig wlanx

while wlanx is your Alfa?

Cheers

[skinnypuppy]

Just install the latest compat-wireless (http://wireless.kernel.org/download/...-01-17.tar.bz2)

Follow the guide on the Aircrack-ng forum (http://forum.aircrack-ng.org/index.php?topic=5755.0)
or this one (http://aircrack-ng.org/doku.php?id=compat-wireless)
or the one in the forum by muts (http://www.backtrack-linux.org/forum...ight=awus036nh)

My Alfa Awus036NH on the STOCK BT 4r2 Kernel:

root@bt:~# uname -r
2.6.35.8

root@bt:~# airmon-ng


Interface       Chipset         Driver

wlan0           Ralink RT2870/3070      rt2800usb - [phy1]
wlan1           Atheros         ath5k - [phy0]

root@bt:~# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:off/any
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.412 GHz  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Tx-Power=20 dBm
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:on

Results of iw list:

Wiphy phy1
        Band 1:
                Capabilities: 0x172
                        HT20/HT40
                        Static SM Power Save
                        RX Greenfield
                        RX HT20 SGI
                        RX HT40 SGI
                        RX STBC 1-stream
                        Max AMSDU length: 3839 bytes
                        No DSSS/CCK HT40
                Maximum RX AMPDU length 65535 bytes (exponent: 0x003)
                Minimum RX AMPDU time spacing: 2 usec (0x04)
                HT RX MCS rate indexes supported: 0-7, 32
                TX unequal modulation not supported
                HT TX Max spatial streams: 1
                HT TX MCS rate indexes supported may differ
                Frequencies:
                        * 2412 MHz [1] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2417 MHz [2] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2422 MHz [3] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2427 MHz [4] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2432 MHz [5] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2437 MHz [6] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2442 MHz [7] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2447 MHz [8] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2452 MHz [9] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2457 MHz [10] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2462 MHz [11] (20.0 dBm)
                        * 2467 MHz [12] (20.0 dBm) (passive scanning, no IBSS)
                        * 2472 MHz [13] (20.0 dBm) (passive scanning, no IBSS)
                        * 2484 MHz [14] (20.0 dBm) (passive scanning, no IBSS)]

I have NO idea where all of this iw reg set BO stuff is coming from to change the power on the 36NH (maybe the 36) but would love to see it because as long as I've had these cards and as many variants of *nix as I run (Gentoo, Slackware) I have never had that command do anything whatsoever.

[laptopz]

Changing regulatory domain to Bolivia might not be usefull for a few reasons. 1)Doing that might be illegal in some countries; 2) Driver will most probably override it; 3) AP`s will supply you with regulatory domain and thus force restrictions.

A few things worth reading:
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/developers/Regulatory
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/develo...atory/Database
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/develo...egulatory/CRDA
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/develo...ocessing_rules

[Carnivore]

Changing regulatory domain to Bolivia might not be usefull for a few reasons. 1)Doing that might be illegal in some countries; 2) Driver will most probably override it; 3) AP`s will supply you with regulatory domain and thus force restrictions.

A few things worth reading:
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/developers/Regulatory
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/develo...atory/Database
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/develo...egulatory/CRDA
http://wireless.kernel.org/en/develo...ocessing_rules

Thanks, these links are really worth a read!

[joker5bb]

you have to override regulatory restrictions
max txpower is 31dbm on awus036nh

[bakru]

you have to override regulatory restrictions
max txpower is 31dbm on awus036nh

is there a howto for overriding reg restrictions that works for the awus036nh cause the jano howto is not working for the 036nh but for 050 nh

[skinnypuppy]

joker5bb

Re: AW: Re: Alfa awus036nh weak tx power. Is their a way to adjust?
you have to override regulatory restrictions
max txpower is 31dbm on awus036nh

Really?!? Show me how. Upload a screenshot of your alfa awus036nh at txpower 31: iw config , iw list, kernel you are running on, etc.. without doing the questionable iw reg set BO nonsense. I would love to see it......

I've already gone over how to set txpower to 20 in another post, just because it is advertised at 2000mw doesn't mean you are going to get it with the rt2800usb driver or any driver for that matter. Search the net, there is a whole bunch of hits pertaining to the topic of the awus036nh and linux and power adjustment.

[joker5bb]

screenshot from Ubuntu, but same result in Backtrack


here is my awus036nh modded with a heatsink (I am going to build a custom case for it):

that coax cable leads to a 15dbi directional antenna, I also have 9dbi omnidirectional antenna

I am going to test the power on the oscilloscope

[skinnypuppy]

@ joker5bb: Got it to finally hit 30 30dbm! Let me know how the test on the oscilloscope goes, I'd be interested to see if there is a significant difference from the 20dbm to 30dbm. Thanks for the inspiration to push on and get this card to due what it is supposed to do.

[spiers]

The commands i used to get 30dbm i used are below, not sure if this will help people who can only get 4dbm or similar. Im using Bt4 r2, this method worked on VmWare and a USB drive.

mkdir/usr/src/drivers

wget http://wireless.kernel.org/download/compat-wireless-2.6/compat-wireless-2011-01-17.tar.bz2

tar jxvf compat-wireless-2011-01-17.tar.bz2

cd compat-wireless-2011-01-17

wget http://patches.aircrack-ng.org/mac80211_2.6.32.2-wl_frag+ack_radiotap.patch

 wget http://patches.aircrack-ng.org/channel-negative-one-maxim.patch

 $ patch -p1 < mac80211.compat08082009.wl_frag+ack_v1.patch
 
 $ patch -p1 < channel-negative-one-maxim.patch

./scripts/driver-select rt2x00

make
(will take ages)

make install

make unload

modprobe rt2800usb

iw reg set BO

airmon-ng wlan0

iwconfig (should be 30Dmb)