Alfa AWUS036ACH (brand new) can only see 5 networks on Kali?

[Leijonasisu]

Hey guys. I am trying to get my brand new Alfa AWUS036ACH to work. On Windows I can see 48 networks on the device. With 22 networks on my internal Intel 8260.

First I installed the drivers that support injection with:


apt-get update
apt install realtek-rtl88xxau-dkms

Then I disabled my internal Wi-fi to prevent conflicts:


rfkill block 0 <-- (Where 0 is the internal Wi-fi device #)

Next I kill any conflicting processes:


airmon-ng check kill

Then I ran monitor mode on the Alfa AWUS036ACH device.
The traditional method doesn't seem to work, but I found this method on a blog.


ip link set wlan1 down
iwconfig wlan1 mode monitor
ip link set wlan1 up

Now let's actually start monitoring networks


airodump-ng wlan1

The problem is that it shows there are only FIVE networks around me. As I said, in windows I can see FORTY EIGHT
networks in my area with the Alfa device. With my inbuilt Intel 8260 I can see at least 22 of those. With both cards enabled
in Kali I can only see these 5 that the Alfa shows (on both cards in network-manager)

What am I doing wrong?

Here's a readout of "iwconfig"


root@gitgud:~# iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

wlan1 IEEE 802.11 Mode:Monitor Frequency:2.422 GHz Tx-Power=18 dBm
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11 ESSID:off/any
Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=off (disabled with rfkill in this readout)
Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:on

(wlan0 is my Intel 8260 and wlan1 is my Alfa)

Disconnecting the Alfa device causes the internal Intel 8260 to display all 22-ish networks again.

Am I missing a driver or a step or something?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Leijonasisu]

Hi,

Turns out it's a f__king problem with the USB 3 cable. Due to it using the old USB 3 interface (split Mini USB + USB3) the cable doesn't make proper connection with the USB 3 interface on the device. This is due to the cable weight and just garbage interface layout in general. i.e. The reason why we now have reversible USB 3 (the interface connectivity sucking @ss) is why my Alfa can only find 5 networks.

Plugging an old mini USB 2 into the first part of the USB 3 interface on the Alfa instantly shows me a good 30+ networks in range. The downside of course is that I lose 1000mbps of throughput.. and I'm stuck at USB 2.0 speeds of about 250Mbps. I'm going to look for a way to run the Alfa with the garbage old USB 3 interface and somehow not have to deal with issues of the connection being flimsy. If anyone has any ideas that would be greatly appreciated!