AWUS036H or AWUS036NH?

[Kaldrak]

So I finally upgraded to BT4 R2 from BT4 Final. I am able to get AWUS036H working fine out of the box. My question is...is it worth all the trouble in trying to get AWUS036NH to work properly? Is this adapter that much better than the AWUS036H? I've read a lot of threads/posts about getting the AWUS036NH to work and it seems like a hassle. But if it's worth it, I will figure it out. What do you guys think? Any input would greatly be appreciated. Thanks!

[macphail]

AWUS036NH works out of the box in R2. I use it almost exclusively.
Hell, I drive it like I stole it.
There are plenty of threads that would have given you this info.

[Kaldrak]

AWUS036NH works out of the box in R2. I use it almost exclusively.
Hell, I drive it like I stole it.
There are plenty of threads that would have given you this info.

Really? It works out of the box? It wouldn't work for me. Wouldn't inject properly. The AWUS036H on the other hand worked perfectly. Any idea what's going on if it's supposed to work out of the box?

[Carnivore]

I'm using the AWUS036H, which works great out of the box with my persistant USB-installation of Backtrack 4 R2. But there are difficulties if you want to use Backtrack as a virtual machine - I tried about a dozen of different approaches to fix it, but neither of them worked credible. But this ain't a Backtrack-problem, it's related to the VWWare-drivers. Beside that, the AWUS036H is an amazing device with plenty of power.

Hint: If you buy one of both cards, check their power in dbm via

iwconfig wlanX

while X is the number of the device. The AWUS036H for example should run at 30dbm (1000mW), but in my case the mentioned command showed it worked at 20dbm.

To solve this problem, type:

ifconfig wlanX down
iw reg set BO
ifconfig wlanX up

then check with

iwconfig wlanx

and your AWUS036H will work like a charm!

Cheers,
Carnivore

[skinnypuppy]

I agree with MacPhail, as I too own an AWUS036NH and it has worked flawlessly out of the box on BackTrack 4r2 and on BackTrack 4r1 with compat-wireless and the chan patch. I have NO problems with injection nor picking up 18 to 20 ap's in a suburban area inside my home. I am 100% happy with it other than not being able to get TXPOWER over 8 or 9.

As to why everyone else has problems with it? I can only attribute it to lack of knowledge in *nix or a complete failure to use google to search for whatever error you are getting because I can plug it into my Gentoo system or Slackware system and I have no problems. It also works fine on BT 4r2 under VMWare Workstation on (ughh) Windows 7

[macphail]

post some log info/error messages for us kaldrak. skinny puppy is probably right and we are looking at user error.... but if not, we are going to need more than "wouldn't inject properly" to be able to assist.

besides, it will give you a chance to audit your process.

[poya22]

I have a AWUS036NH too and when run "iwconfig wlanx" in backtrack 4 R2 show this message:

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:off/any
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=6 dBm
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:on

[nined3z]

I have a AWUS036NH too and when run "iwconfig wlanx" in backtrack 4 R2 show this message:

wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:off/any
          Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=6 dBm
          Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:on

I've noticed it to be off sometimes using "iwconfig wlanX"

Try

iwlist txpower

What does it list there?

[Kaldrak]

post some log info/error messages for us kaldrak. skinny puppy is probably right and we are looking at user error.... but if not, we are going to need more than "wouldn't inject properly" to be able to assist.

besides, it will give you a chance to audit your process.

Okay, sorry for being such a noob guys. I am successfully able to crack WEP and WPA with the AWUS036H but the AWUS036NH on the other hand is giving me issues. When you guys say it works out of the box, I'm assuming I don't have to do absolutely anything to get it working. That includes installing drivers, patches, etc. This is the case for the AWUS036H. I don't have to do anything. It works perfect. But since the AWUS036NH is the higher end card I would like to get it working. Am I correct on my assumption? Or am I completely wrong? So when I type "iwconfig wlan1", this is what I get:

[poya22]

I've noticed it to be off sometimes using "iwconfig wlanX"

Try

iwlist txpower

What does it list there?

show
6db 3mv