Alfa AWUS036H in a plastic bag for outside reception

[Mikey]

Hi
As I now have Kali up and running on my windows 10 desktop computer in VB I'm ready to get to grips with the Alfa AWUS036H card that I bought years ago but never used. There are several videos on Youtube telling me how to get up and running with this card in Virtual Box so I'm not going to bother anyone with that set up here. What concerns me at present is when the card is connected I'd like to stick the antena on a pole outside my window but its going to get wet so can I stick it in a plastic bag to protect it from the elements. Will it still work if its enclosed like this. No doubt you can tell I'm rather new to running Kali in VB so please be patient.
I'd be grateful if someone could advice me to do the right thing here. Someone with a similar setup would be great but any one who knows Kali in VB will do fine.

Thanks a lot.

Michael .

[Fred Sheehan]

Yes you 'could' put it in a bag to seal it, but, why would you want to? it will pick up just as much placed on the window sill, they have got good reach.

If you really want to have an outdoor aerial, then change just the antennae part and keep the device inside;

https://www.amazon.com/Kaunosta-Universal-Omni-Directional-Extension-Wireless/dp/B08LPPML46/ref=pd_rhf_d_dp_s_crs_dp_rhf_k2p_sccl_2_7/137-2997761-6828943?pd_rd_w=VIm6n&content-id=amzn1.sym.b4b29072-2a46-4040-9ae4-91e4b7e95920&pf_rd_p=b4b29072-2a46-4040-9ae4-91e4b7e95920&pf_rd_r=9HH988GYJ653Z096PYWS&pd_rd_wg=azWDK&pd_rd_r=74eac4f7-4144-42ac-b1c1-f9c8379eb4d9&pd_rd_i=B08LPPML46&psc=1

[Mikey]

Hi Fred
Thanks for the link. Unfortunately the Alfa AWUS036H drivers wont install on my host machine. I also tried edimax and that was just the same, the drivers would not load.

Can you get into monitor mode even without using an alfa card. How does Kali connect to the outside world any way.

Thanks again.

Michael.

[Fred Sheehan]

That's a very old adpater now..

it's based on a Realtek RTL8187L chipset so it should 'just work' apparently;

https://forums.kali.org/showthread.php?3816-Working-Hardware-ALFA-AWUS036H-500mW-(Realtek-RTL8187L-rtl8187)
(https://forums.kali.org/showthread.php?3816-Working-Hardware-ALFA-AWUS036H-500mW-(Realtek-RTL8187L-rtl8187))

it 'may' need to be kicked a bit using USB modeswitch, good example here of how to do that;

https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi/blob/main/home/How_to_Modeswitch.md

You would to need to change the vendor hex value (-v) and product (-p) hex value in this line;

sudo usb_modeswitch -K -W -v 0e8d -p 2870

to your own adapters values though (you leave out the hex notation 0x)

Make - model --------- chipset ---- USB vendor --- USB Product
Alfa -- AWUS036H --- RTL8187L---- 0x0bda ------- 0x8187