Ralink RT3070 not working with Kali in VirtualBox Fix

Hello all, I?m new to this forum. I was having a lot of issues getting my RT3070 to work in Kali Linux on a VirtualBox , MacOS. It would always say ?Not Connected ? when trying to connect via WiFi, while the ?Wired? connection worked fine. If you typed #ifconfig it wouldn?t list wlan0 at all. However, booting from a live USB I realized it worked fine, with no driver install necessary, just plug and play.

I tried every possible fix under the sun, and in doing so it made me extremely familiar with both VirtualBox and Linux command line/O/S.
I tried network-manager restarts, putting wlan0 up and down, trying to install drivers , etc.. everything. Still no luck.

The solution is so easy it?s a joke. When you plug in the USB adapter, it defaults to USB 2.0 in the VirtualBox settings > Devices > Ports menu. Simply change this to USB 3.0 , and your issue will be fixed. You might need a reboot.

You don?t have to do anything to the host (MacOS) , no need to install drivers anywhere, simply change this setting and your USB ALFA RT3070 will function in Kali Linux within the VirtualBox.

There is a lot of confusion over this topic, i hope this helps. Pls let me know if it does by responding to this post!

Hey there!

I've made an account just to thank you, buddy. I've been struggling with my Alfa awus036neh for a while now, and almost had given up after trying everything just like you did, up to the most obscure tutos out there. It didn't ring a bell when I saw USB 1.1 honestly, I just assumed what mattered was the firmware of the adapter, along with the host hardware, and that everything would work fine as is. I wouldn't have imagined the origin of these constant disconnections and unreliability of the NIC came from such a basic thing. Well, I've tried your solution after installing the latest VBox extension pack (in order for it to support USB 2 and 3, as it didn't display these options for me). And dang, now it works like a charm. It's a shame my TP-Link and awus036nha are on their way, hahah. But I guess it'll give me some more freedom of choice regarding the chipsets.

So, thanks again, buddy, I wanted you to know you really helped me out, and that for some reason, I haven't seen this fix anywhere else. It'd be worth to spread the word because I'm pretty sure we're not the only ones.

Have a wonderful day, you beautiful thing.