RTL8187 Kernel 2.6.34 Backtrack 4 R1 Edition - High signal, slow connection

[RexBudman]

Hello all.

For quite a while now I have been hunting forums attempting to self educate myself in regards network security and pen-testing. Knowing quite well it is illigal to access and network without administrator permision (which is a no brainer) I had settup 2 AP's in my home. One for regular surfing, another for pentesting.

I have had no internet surfing issues while using my inbuilt Intel wifi card which is in the Toshiba A200 laptops, however the unit is weak at picking up distant signals ie. The floor below me, as I am in a 2 story home. So in turn I had gone and purchased a USB Wifi Adaptor (RTL8187 500mw).

Packet Injection, generating ARP requests, airodumping and aireplays work fine. In-fact with "aireplay-ng -9 mon0" I am able to inject MORE packets at a much more consistant rate than the old card. However, once I had fully cracked the WEP on my test AP, and attempted to sign in for a quick "test surf", the signal strength was rather strong reported in Wcid Manager, however the data transfer rate is absolutley ridiculous.

Intel Card recieves up to 20Mbps whilst the RTL8187 is only recieving 10Mbps. I asked my best friend 2 doors down to allow me to settup the test AP at his house to test injection over distance. Once again injection rate is fine. however running the crack again, and obtaining the newly generated key (I generate new and stronger keys from time to time for fun) and signing into the AP, the data transfer rate was a bare minimal! Signal strength up to 80%, however the data transfer rate again, completley sucks. Connecting Via my old card yields a higher data rate with lower signal reception.

Once again, I am running the NEW AND FANTASTIC Backtrack 4 R1 edition, all drivers succesfully loaded and showing. Currently running two interfaces in which one is always shut to minimize interference. Regardless of TX (iwconfig wlan1 tx *) and rate (iwconfig wlan1 rate *) I have had no avail nor sucess in fixing this issue.

It is almost as if these units were built specifically for Pentesting and packet injection, and are not focused on surfing! That is not the case, I realize that As windows machines tent to yield good connection via these REaltek chipsets.

My question is, "How will I be able to obtain the right setting?".

I apologise for the long post, I do tend to ramble, however I am concerned with conveying the specifics of the situation, as to not frustrate any of you.

Kind Regards,
Rex

Edit: I am now experiencing inconsistant internet connection via RTL8187 and on occasion an inconsistant data injection rate. is 250 average #/s to be expected?

I am quite sure the internet connection SHOULD be must more consistant, however I have had a small phenomenon occur. When connected to home AP speedtest.net gets 8-10Mbps... When connected to my best friends personal router, recieving 19Mbps over distance... I consider this odd, then again I am new to radio networking.