AWUSO36H not working as expected

[alberto_chaos]

I bought this Alfa's adapter a few days ago during these days I've been searching around, reading, downloading/installing/uninstalling drivers, but no success, it is worse than my internal adapter, very noisy, signal level seems great, shows a lot of AP's but extremely slow browsing, extremely high packets lost rate, even my AP being less then 50feet from here...

I'm using a 4-7dbi antennas...
I've set txpower to 30dbm since it's a 1W adapter
backtrack/mint/fedora all using rtl8187, all same behaviour...
monitor mode works, injection (aireplay -9) works...

I really need some help =T
any output just ask, thanks in advance.

[sasanet]

hi,
this litle tutorial assumes that you have original kernel from backtrack, means you did not recompile your kernel so far!

go to this site for your alfa card:

http://www.alfa.com.tw/in/front/bin/ptlist.phtml?Category=105397

download driver for linux kernel 2.6.X
prepare kernel headers:

prepare-kernel-sources
cd /usr/src/linux
cp -rf include/generated/* include/linux/

You need to be connected to the internet in order to download the linux-source packages
Ensure /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/build/ exists and points(with symbolic link) to the location where the kernel headers are installed ( /usr/src/linux/include/linux)
now untar downloaded driver package and cd into extracted directory:

tar xvf <driver_package.tar>
cd /path/to/driver/
./configure
make
make install

make shore there are no errors in output like:

WARNING: Symbol version dump /usr/src/linux-2.6.29/Module.symvers is missing; module will have no dependencies and modversions.

if you get such error than link to the headers is not working.
solve this problem with these commands:

cd /lib/modules/2.6.29-1-686/
ln -s /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.29 build
cd /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.29
make mrproper
cp /boot/config-$(uname -r) .config
make oldconfig
make prepare
make scripts

just replace kernel version namba with your!
then install again and see if work's.
you also may download compat-wilreless drivers and install them only if driver from alfa network is not working as needed:

http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Download

however you will have to prepare kernel headers as well and install all the drivers in the package AND reboot your comp.

hope this help and good luck

[legitnick]

I bought this Alfa's adapter a few days ago during these days I've been searching around, reading, downloading/installing/uninstalling drivers, but no success, it is worse than my internal adapter, very noisy, signal level seems great, shows a lot of AP's but extremely slow browsing, extremely high packets lost rate, even my AP being less then 50feet from here...

I'm using a 4-7dbi antennas...
I've set txpower to 30dbm since it's a 1W adapter
backtrack/mint/fedora all using rtl8187, all same behaviour...
monitor mode works, injection (aireplay -9) works...

I really need some help =T
any output just ask, thanks in advance.

I have the same adapter but I haven't messed with the txpower and I'm still using the stock antenna and I've never experienced a high packet loss rate/slow browsing. To me it sounds like an issue with the driver, have you tried using the IEEE r8187 legacy driver? See if this page helps you. Also have you tried putting the card back into managed mode when using it to connect to your own AP to use the internet?

[alberto_chaos]

thank you very much sasanet, it's working fairly fine now, except for the fact the master mode just doesn't work, but i guess it is really a driver limitation, i just though that this adapter being so famous would have 100% compatibility... but it's ok by now =]