Best USB or PCI wireless card

[aeternus]

I received my ALFA Wireless. It works perfectly. Really high powered. This solved all of my wireless problems and displays a lot of networks.

[LaserEyes]

Hello,

Is this the exact model of the card you have purchased:

Alfa AWUS036H-V5 1000mW USB Wireless Adapter w/ threaded RP-SMA Jack & 5 dBi Antenna

This one is the V5

Is there a difference or is that the actual card?

[killadaninja]

Raising transmission power on your wnic (wireless network interface card) (tx), should not enable you to see further away routers.
Think of it like this, person A (500mw alfa) and person B (router) are in a valley, lets say a mile apart, now when person A shouts really loud "is anyone out there" (this is equivalent to your alfa transmitting, called (tx), person B hears him, (how far away person B can hear him from depends on how good his hearing is), or in radio frequency terminology how good he`s receiver%

[corruptblitz]

I have a 500mw awus036h, and the newest version 5 1w awus036h, the new alfa sees routers that the old one cannot, but if my understanding of 2.4 ghz rf is right then the reason for this is not because of the new alfas higher tx, which means the new alfa v.5 must have uprated components

Does the v5 Alfa have the same chipset and therefor work in BT4 without any patching? I have one of the original 500mw ones and 2 of the 500w N versions, but was dissapointed when I found that the N versions use (what seems to me to be) an inferior chipset.

[eeepclover]

killdaninja is correct, just because you are speaking louder doesn't mean you can hear any better.

And folks should be careful when buying this NIC, the AWUS036H positively rocks, but I've seen some folks trying to buy the newer (and more powerful) AWUS036NH (note the "N" in there). It is a 2000mW NIC so that's cool, but it uses a different chipset, so it isn't likely to work right out of the box. Its N support is newer than the build of a lot of the BT tools, so driver support will be spotty at best.

[killadaninja]

Does the v5 Alfa have the same chipset and therefor work in BT4 without any patching? I have one of the original 500mw ones and 2 of the 500w N versions, but was dissapointed when I found that the N versions use (what seems to me to be) an inferior chipset.

Yep works perfectly using regular drivers, when I say uprated components I mean possibly better materials etc.

killdaninja is correct, just because you are speaking louder doesn't mean you can hear any better.

And folks should be careful when buying this NIC, the AWUS036H positively rocks, but I've seen some folks trying to buy the newer (and more powerful) AWUS036NH (note the "N" in there). It is a 2000mW NIC so that's cool, but it uses a different chipset, so it isn't likely to work right out of the box. Its N support is newer than the build of a lot of the BT tools, so driver support will be spotty at best.

Absolutely correct, for BT4 use, people are much better off with the awus036h over the awus036nh

[kudox]

Has anyone used the 1W awus036h on a netbook?

I've heard it has a cable with two usb connectors because it may draw more power then some usb ports provide. Would this only be needed for usb 1.1 ports or am I likely to have to plug in both usb connectors to get it to work on my netbook?

I'm trying to decide between the 500mW and 1W versions of the awus036h, it sounds like the 1W version is superior but I need to be able to use it on a netbook without it using more than 1 usb port (a wall powered usb hub would not be practical in my case)

Any information on this is appreciated.

[sagaci]

Has anyone used the 1W awus036h on a netbook?

Any information on this is appreciated.

Just go with the 1W version.

I've got a Dell Mini 10 and have tested this adapter with Backtrack 4 final and Ubuntu 10.04/10a and works out-of-the-box, so to speak. Works perfectly.

[bt4newuser]

I have the last version of alfa awu036h. But i cant use in VirtualBox(dont know what the manipulation i need to do or shamaning). And from live cd i have some problem with the windows scroll down in shell(to look the full statistics). So i cant use at this moment this card correct and say something about.

[BACKonTRACK]

I bought THIS ADAPTER which uses the RTL8187L chipset, which is the same chipset in THIS ADAPTER. I have found that the chip overheats and never keeps my connections alive. After modding the chip by adding a heatsink i no longer have this problem. Does the alfa networks adapter have the same problem or do they have a heatsink installed from factory to solve this problem?

I also purchased the AWUS036NH card and it has terrible range and does not work out of the box in BT4. Just for reference it uses a Ralink RT3070L chip.