View Full Version : Which wifi card is better for Kali? ALFA AWUS036NHA or AWUS036NHR ?
Hello,
Which card will perform better with Kali Linux?
I did small research about them and I found that there are some driver related issues with NHR version but I couldn't find too much about NHA.
please help.
I don't know much about the NHA but the NHR has too many problems. I Have it and can't get it to work which is why I bought the 036H
register
2013-04-25, 22:18
NHA doesn't grab as many APs as the NHR but that's it's only downfall, signal strength. The NHR will inject but has problems seeing associated clients. It's just not a full feature card yet.
If this is going to be your only card, the NHR's quirks make for a frustrating, confusing mess. I'd grab an H or NH first. Or just buy them all like I think we all end up doing. You would be amazed at the different results you get in the same conditions with each card.
DrDinosaur
2013-04-26, 02:56
I have the one with just the H (no H) and it works fine.
Darkestshadow
2013-04-27, 04:30
I use the nha with no problems
clearday
2013-04-27, 11:23
Don't bother with the NHR or any card that uses the 8192cu driver. I had the NHR and now the edimax 7811, and while the range is excellent, packet injection is slow or doesn't work (especially when the 8187 or ar9271(NHA) can crack within minutes, even seconds with WPA), and WPA handshake gets stuck in a loop.
I am about to purchase the AWUS051NH. It is supposed to have better range than the NHA and you can see both 2.4 and 5GHz networks.
Ive been messing with the NHR aswell. And dont bother. I havent gotten half as far as these guys. Which is rather frustraiting.
Can anyone suggest some working guides with the NHR? - I have an extended antenna, and i cant even get it to see more than 2 AP's. And usually the one i wanna test with wep, isnt viewable.
The card has been out for YEARS there is no reason for it to be so disfunctional.
I've always had no problems with ALFA on linux. Still new to Kali so i don't know how dependable they are.
clearday
2013-04-28, 20:25
I don't think realtek ever planned the 8188/8192 to be a packet injection monster, even if Alfa got fooled into selling the 8188/8192 based NHR. Using the NHR and edimax 7811, both are blind to clients, and can only see APs. This makes the NHR so-so for WEP cracking, and a complete failure at grabbing WPA handshakes. It is basically 'broken' at the hardware level.
For general connection to APs and surfing the internet, that it does well (edimax 7811/8192cu).
Ive been messing with the NHR aswell. And dont bother. I havent gotten half as far as these guys. Which is rather frustraiting.
Can anyone suggest some working guides with the NHR? - I have an extended antenna, and i cant even get it to see more than 2 AP's. And usually the one i wanna test with wep, isnt viewable.
The card has been out for YEARS there is no reason for it to be so disfunctional.
dataphreak
2013-04-29, 08:38
Someone actually had the NHR working on BT5r1. http://www.backtrack-linux.org/forums/showthread.php?t=45323 It worked when you first plugged it in on 5r3, and then would go mute. I also found this: https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/1854881/ The issue is not the hardware, it's the drivers.
Realtek's r8192cu driver will never support injection, and it
is not a mac80211 driver. Look for a driver whose module name begins
with "rtl" (not just "r"). AFAIK one is included in recent kernels.
hi guys,
thanks for all advises, in the end I decided to go for most reliable and recommended by all version 036H and guess what... It keeps freezing in the middle of every attack i'm trying to do. LED just stops flashing and I have to reattached wifi to get it back to work. It's doing the same thing in backtrack5 r3 and Kali linux. Any ideas what may be the reason of that behavior?
clearday
2013-04-29, 12:09
The NHR works somewhat but it can neither see clients nor perform fake authentication. I've tested the NHR on backtrack r3 with patched drivers.
Kali in VMware and Raspberry Pi will detect and load the NHR. However, see first sentence regarding limitations. The NHR, and any WiFi cards that use the 8188 chipset share the same weakness.
Lack of fakeauth and blindness to clients limits the NHR to testing WEP, and very slowly at that. The NHR has been out for almost three years and the driver still seems to be broken as a security tool.
Someone actually had the NHR working on BT5r1. http://www.backtrack-linux.org/forums/showthread.php?t=45323 It worked when you first plugged it in on 5r3, and then would go mute. I also found this: https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/1854881/ The issue is not the hardware, it's the drivers.
clearday
2013-04-29, 12:16
Test the card with 'normal' Windows and Linux setup. This should help in troubleshooting to see if you received a lemon.
Also, make sure you run apt-get update then apt-get upgrade in bt5 and Kali.
hi guys,
thanks for all advises, in the end I decided to go for most reliable and recommended by all version 036H and guess what... It keeps freezing in the middle of every attack i'm trying to do. LED just stops flashing and I have to reattached wifi to get it back to work. It's doing the same thing in backtrack5 r3 and Kali linux. Any ideas what may be the reason of that behavior?
I'm using the 036H right now and haven't had a single problem with it right out of the box. I got it to replace my NHR that never worked. You have to make sure that the 036H you got isn't a fake one. Because they do have a problem with some sites selling fake ones that crash.
clearday
2013-04-29, 12:25
I have purchased four 036h from Amazon and would to say they all work out of the box in bt5 and Kali.
In windows all seems to be fine, i can surfing on internet for hours but in linux, when I run Wifite average time before it freeze is around 3-7 min.
I have kali linux and backtrack 5 r3 on oracle VM and Dell mini with kali linux as a main system and it's the same on all of them
clearday
2013-05-01, 12:10
Based on what you said, we can eliminate the card as the problem.
Do you have a live cd/dvd or live usb with kali or bt 5 you can boot with? In terminal after boot, try to run wifite from there or proceed with aircrack to see if you execute the commands with no errors.
The freezing means it is possible that it is a RAM or HD issue. If you haven't run apt-get update and apt-get upgrade do so now. I have noticed wifite cannot detect routers with WPS enabled until after I run these commands right after the initial install.
On the VM installation, try VMWare instead of Oracle VirtualBox.
In windows all seems to be fine, i can surfing on internet for hours but in linux, when I run Wifite average time before it freeze is around 3-7 min.
I have kali linux and backtrack 5 r3 on oracle VM and Dell mini with kali linux as a main system and it's the same on all of them
Hi,
I spent whole yesterday night installing Kali linux as a second system on my PC and finally every thing is working as it should. No more problems with 036H, even LED flashes now in different way .
Thanks to all involved, especially clarday for your help.
I found out that Wifite has some bugs and its not always working as we want it (I found also like updated/beta version of wifite which seems to work better to me: https://github.com/derv82/wifite)
And extra benefit from Kali as a second system: ultra speed for pyrit :
Running benchmark (60164.5 PMKs/s)... \
To all people which are struggling with linux - don't give up!
NHA works fine for me too. Had some issues on bt4 initially but none now.
Leijonasisu
2013-05-04, 21:06
Is this the NHA or NHR?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0041L3FI8/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A39LSTY4A9J2UG
jeffmcormick
2013-05-06, 21:10
its the NH.
Chrifister
2013-05-07, 22:20
I picked up a few Alfas a few months ago out of curiousity. I have the 036H V5, 036NH, and the 036NHR. I have tested them in both BT5 R3 and Kali with the same results.
The 036H worked right out of the box but it has its quirks. It has freezing issues. Sometimes the card or the driver freezes while doing an ARP replay. Most of the time, it just freezes while Airodump keeps logging IVs. Eventually it frees itself up but Aireplay gives a wifiError() or something causing the ARP replay to stop. You can just start it again. There was one time it locked up the entire laptop requiring a hard reboot.
The 036NH also works out of the box and again it has its quirks. I can't remember if the LED worked properly on it or not. Also I think you can't bring the card down using ifconfig, it errors out. It also has freezing issues. Multiple times it has froze in the middle of an ARP replay and doesn't recover. All the terminals show wifiNetworkDown() or some weird error.
The 036NHR is a very frustrating card. I haven't gotten it to work 100% yet and may not try again for a while. I originally played with it in BT5 R3. It didn't really work out of the box. It didn't channel hop, wouldn't show associations, wouldn't show handshakes, wouldn't inject, couldn't increase the txpower over 20, and wouldn't connect to any WPA networks (bad password error). I tried the compat-wireless drivers (the ones before the name change) and fixed some of the issues. I followed a post on the old forums which solved the channel hopping and txpower issues. I got it to actually inject with an ARP replay but it was extremely slow, something like 8 pps before it locked up the laptop requiring a hard reboot. I tried multiple driver versions including the newest ones after the name change. I ended up having no working wifi drivers probably because of my sheer stupidity and ended up installing Kali. The issues remained and I eventually reinstalled BT5 R3 because I couldn't get the ATI driver working for use with Pyrit and Calpp, probably because of being a complete noob to Debian. Still waiting for a proper solution. Shame because the card works well in Windows.
I am by no means any sort of expert or even intermediate level at Linux so I'm hoping somebody else with a little more skills can get the NHR working properly.
clearday
2013-05-08, 02:56
Unless you're only going to test WEP, any card based on 8192CU chipset is crippled for aircrack. It cannot detect clients, therefore it is incapable of deauthentication and capturing WPA handshake.
The only thing the NHR is good for is surfing the internet.
As for the 036H and NH, use wifite to troubleshoot your setup. Another good way to troubleshoot is to use a liveCD to isolate the problem. Execute the commands to see if the cards behave the same way.
I picked up a few Alfas a few months ago out of curiousity. I have the 036H V5, 036NH, and the 036NHR. I have tested them in both BT5 R3 and Kali with the same results.
The 036H worked right out of the box but it has its quirks. It has freezing issues. Sometimes the card or the driver freezes while doing an ARP replay. Most of the time, it just freezes while Airodump keeps logging IVs. Eventually it frees itself up but Aireplay gives a wifiError() or something causing the ARP replay to stop. You can just start it again. There was one time it locked up the entire laptop requiring a hard reboot.
The 036NH also works out of the box and again it has its quirks. I can't remember if the LED worked properly on it or not. Also I think you can't bring the card down using ifconfig, it errors out. It also has freezing issues. Multiple times it has froze in the middle of an ARP replay and doesn't recover. All the terminals show wifiNetworkDown() or some weird error.
The 036NHR is a very frustrating card. I haven't gotten it to work 100% yet and may not try again for a while. I originally played with it in BT5 R3. It didn't really work out of the box. It didn't channel hop, wouldn't show associations, wouldn't show handshakes, wouldn't inject, couldn't increase the txpower over 20, and wouldn't connect to any WPA networks (bad password error). I tried the compat-wireless drivers (the ones before the name change) and fixed some of the issues. I followed a post on the old forums which solved the channel hopping and txpower issues. I got it to actually inject with an ARP replay but it was extremely slow, something like 8 pps before it locked up the laptop requiring a hard reboot. I tried multiple driver versions including the newest ones after the name change. I ended up having no working wifi drivers probably because of my sheer stupidity and ended up installing Kali. The issues remained and I eventually reinstalled BT5 R3 because I couldn't get the ATI driver working for use with Pyrit and Calpp, probably because of being a complete noob to Debian. Still waiting for a proper solution. Shame because the card works well in Windows.
I am by no means any sort of expert or even intermediate level at Linux so I'm hoping somebody else with a little more skills can get the NHR working properly.
Chrifister
2013-05-10, 05:53
The 036H seems to be the most stable, and sensitive. I've been using it the most.
Is the NHR crippled because of a hardware limitation or software(firmware or driver) issue? It does work quite well in Windows. I just find it odd that it is capable of monitor mode and even injection but offers such poor performance and instability. I was hoping to hold on to it until they got the driver sorted out but I may end up selling it.
The other two cards work for my needs. I may do some troubleshooting when I have free time. The bugs are just annoying.
clearday
2013-05-10, 12:09
This thread might be able to help:
http://www.backtrack-linux.org/forums/showthread.php?t=45323&page=8
You will need to read through the postings to figure out what was done to make the card work.
The 036H seems to be the most stable, and sensitive. I've been using it the most.
Is the NHR crippled because of a hardware limitation or software(firmware or driver) issue? It does work quite well in Windows. I just find it odd that it is capable of monitor mode and even injection but offers such poor performance and instability. I was hoping to hold on to it until they got the driver sorted out but I may end up selling it.
The other two cards work for my needs. I may do some troubleshooting when I have free time. The bugs are just annoying.
Chrifister
2013-05-11, 02:44
Yeah I read through that. I think I combined the guide in that thread with another thread that fixed the channel hopping and txpower issues. I made a post towards the end of the thread describing my results. I can get the card to work but packet injection is so slow that it's useless (8 pps). I let it go for ten minutes and it froze and locked up the laptop. Was still having the bad password issue and the association issue. Not sure if I picked up any handshakes but it's unlikely considering the association issue.
Compat-wireless is now known as Compat-drivers and I think I tried random drivers up to the 3.7 release. No luck and I ended up losing wifi capability altogether somewhere. Perhaps some of the newer drivers work and I'm an idiot. I don't know. Was so frustrated with the card that I haven't played with it since.
clearday
2013-05-11, 12:08
Yep. I went through the same cycle of babysitting the NHR (8188/8192), wasting hours searching the internet for answers until I just got sick of it. People who have claimed 'success' seem to only get the WEP portion to work. I have not seen a single youtube video or tutorial with terminal output that demonstrate the NHR is capable of testing WPA at all.
However, I would love to be proven wrong. If anyone here could find evidence otherwise, please post it here or provide the link showing the step-by-step instructions.
Here is another link claiming success with the NHR and plug and play with Beini:
http://xiaopan.co/forums/threads/awus036nhr-not-working-in-backtrack-5-r3.911/
Yeah I read through that. I think I combined the guide in that thread with another thread that fixed the channel hopping and txpower issues. I made a post towards the end of the thread describing my results. I can get the card to work but packet injection is so slow that it's useless (8 pps). I let it go for ten minutes and it froze and locked up the laptop. Was still having the bad password issue and the association issue. Not sure if I picked up any handshakes but it's unlikely considering the association issue.
Compat-wireless is now known as Compat-drivers and I think I tried random drivers up to the 3.7 release. No luck and I ended up losing wifi capability altogether somewhere. Perhaps some of the newer drivers work and I'm an idiot. I don't know. Was so frustrated with the card that I haven't played with it since.
Chrifister
2013-05-13, 14:40
I'll keep checking every few days to see if there's any progress but if it doesn't look good in a few months, I'll probably sell it. I can make do with the H and NH.
I'll keep checking every few days to see if there's any progress but if it doesn't look good in a few months, I'll probably sell it. I can make do with the H and NH.the nha is working beatifull ibought 1 and is working out the box with no problems at all. Works in everything with aircrack-ng and the others things is working perfect.
TH3CR4CK3R
2013-06-09, 19:39
Any of the ones which use RTL8187 or RTL3070 chipset work great all around. Those other ones dont work for everything. Some might work for packet injection, but wont work for creating fake AP' and stuff like that.
Any of the ones which use RTL8187 or RTL3070 chipset work great all around. Those other ones dont work for everything. Some might work for packet injection, but wont work for creating fake AP' and stuff like that.
problobly the nha works for what you want to do this is athero chipset 9271 so problobly works
longjidin
2013-06-11, 16:14
i am using RTL8187 about 4 year i think the most stable wireless card in market, from BT3,4,5 R1,R2,R3 now Kali i am still using it......
i have the 036nhr and im getting problems id go with the original 036h
Chrifister
2013-06-24, 22:58
The 036H is still the most sensitive out of the three I have. The reason I chose them is because of the 2mw power but I'm starting to second guess how much benefit is really gained from it. Otherwise, I probably would of went with the 036NHA as Atheros is a trusted and widely supported chipset maker. Can anyone make any comparisons on performance between the other 2mw chipsets and the 1mw Atheros?
repzeroworld
2013-08-18, 21:15
The 036H is still the most sensitive out of the three I have. The reason I chose them is because of the 2mw power but I'm starting to second guess how much benefit is really gained from it. Otherwise, I probably would of went with the 036NHA as Atheros is a trusted and widely supported chipset maker. Can anyone make any comparisons on performance between the other 2mw chipsets and the 1mw Atheros?
I did not have much dealing with the awuso36h adapter...i have the nh over a year now and it is working well..it is very receptive to signal..when i used this adapter i picked up like around 10-13 AP with a 3 to 4 bar signal..it works fair in reaver with some timeout messages..i guess because it does not inject packets that well like the nha....handshakes are very hard to grab with the nh also (sometimes it grab sometimes not)... the nha is not a signal grabbing card.. even though i picked up all the AP that the nh (ralink 3070 chipset) did.. these AP had a 1 bar..considering i have a 40 feet outdoor antenna..using an amp increase the nha signal to an addtional bar. but even at a 1 bar signal i was getting a excellent transfer speeds! ..the only problem i have with the nha is that it would randomly disconnect at times... but it injects and grab packets so fast that i sometimes forget about this problem...you should try reaver with the nha it is amazing!!.....it is much a cooler card than nh and is excellent!
oh yess...it also picks up AP with weak signal -91dBm as compared to -70dBm(nh)
I have had the 036NHR and had problems for packet injection & getting handshakes. Somethimes it wouldn't even connect to the internet. Also the chipset is not recognised by airmon-ng but i don't know if that is the problem. I also got the 036H and that card really works well with the 5dbi antenna. I have a 12dbi antenna also for it but really don't know if that is an improvement or not. I do not see any difference between the antennas. heard the 036NHA is also a good card but i haven't tried it yet. I'm into the pineapple thing now.
Hello,
I just bought the NHA card but I am not able to maximise the txpower. Maximum to set is 20 but it should be 27.
root@k4li:~# iw reg set BO
root@k4li:~# iwconfig wlan1 txpower 22
Error for wireless request "Set Tx Power" (8B26) :
SET failed on device wlan1 ; Invalid argument.
wlan1 Atheros AR9271 ath9k - [phy1]
Does someone has some hints for me?
joha.klotz
2013-08-23, 19:55
tr00n3r, i'm having the same trouble with an awus06nh... I want to put it on 33 dBm (~2W), but the "reg set BO" only allows up to 30 dBm...
Anyone knows how to fix this?
Hello,
I just bought the NHA card but I am not able to maximise the txpower. Maximum to set is 20 but it should be 27.
root@k4li:~# iw reg set BO
root@k4li:~# iwconfig wlan1 txpower 22
Error for wireless request "Set Tx Power" (8B26) :
SET failed on device wlan1 ; Invalid argument.
wlan1 Atheros AR9271 ath9k - [phy1]
Does someone has some hints for me?
I have the same problem with NHA that is connected to Raspberry Pi.
soxrok2212
2013-08-28, 01:52
I personally use the 036H. It has the rtl8187l chipset which is HIGHLY supported by Linux (Aircrack suite) and I get very strong signal and good injection so that would be my recommendation .
i found that alfa awus052nh is working great, the pin is very fast and seldom disconnected, currently working on 2.4 and 5ghz AP
nOT_uR_bUddY_
2015-05-19, 17:23
thats phunny!!! i was looking at the 052NH yesterday and couldn't find much info on it so i ordered the Alfa AWUS036NH instead last night.. lol. good to know the awus052nh is working too!!
brunoaduarte
2015-12-14, 16:54
The maximum output power for the AWUSO36NHR is 2000 mW, do you know what's the maximum for the AWUSO36NHA ?
BTW, watch out for fake adapters, they're all over the internet.
I've bought myself a fake AWUSO36NH that is a piece of ****, it's worse than my laptops built in wifi card.