Wireless / WiFi cards / adapters for cracking (which one?)

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Wireless / WiFi cards / adapters for cracking (which one?)

Post by Sethioz »

Here i will talk about wireless adapters that can or cannot be used to crack wireless networks. First of, aircrack-ng seem to be only good tool that can do the job, however there are few others, even windows based.
Most important is that aircrack does not care about the adapter / card itself, it only cares about the chipset it uses. for example there are many companys who make wireless cards, but chipset can be same or different. so adapter model says nothing.

Here are chipsets i have used myself to successfully crack wireless network:
RTL8185 (realtek something, cant remember card name, all 3 PCI)
zd1211 (card is A-LINK USB)
AR9271 (card is TP-Link TL-WN722NC USB)
RaLink (dont know the exact chipset, card is Edimax)

and few other zd and RTL chipsets i cannot remember.

these are the ones i have used myself, lets talk about them little bit.

RTL chipset is good, however the latest ones are not as good as old ones. ive had 3 cards with RTL chipsets, one of them is in my other pc that is RTL8185 and it works just fine. very good choice if you ask me.

zd1211 (zydas chipset) is good to go, but it fails a lot. It isn't very good. i've had 2 of them, both almost identical cards, one had antenna built in, other had a socket for external antenna. both failing time to time, but will do the job. both cards said A-LINK on them.

AR9271 (card is TP-Link TL-WN722NC USB). I just got this one today and it seems very good. it uses AR (Atheros) chipset that is recommended by many ppl who have experience in cracking, this is why i chose to get this one. It's everything you want:
- usb (so it can be used with any laptop or pc)
- it has antenna socket so you can use some good antenna, like i have 24dbi grid antenna which can be used outdoors in open areas, range 3miles or so (comes with 2dbi antenna)
- it has USB stand / docking station for the USB stick. You can connect it normally or with the extension.
- finally it's very cheap compared to some other cards.

RaLink is what im using currently in my primary pc. Card is is Edimax (cant remember model). i would stay away from it if i would have to buy card for cracking. It worked once, but then drivers messed up and now injection doesn't work. It has capabilites to crack a network, but i don't recommend. i haven't tried it with backtrack 5 tho. it might work well, but my experience on uBuntu was bad.


Best choice is that TP-Link card i mentioned. its definetly something you want if you are going to wardrive and warcrack wireless networks.
here's a picture of it (taken from amazon). note that it can be detached from the docking station and used as normal USB adapter.
61QWHLyqY1L.jpg
61QWHLyqY1L.jpg (106.59 KiB) Viewed 7065 times
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Re: Wireless / WiFi cards / adapters for cracking (which one

Post by Sethioz »

Here are some updates. I have bought a new adapter from Alfa, which is 2000mW power and is more powerful than one of my PCI adapters.
and a massive omni antenna from TP-LINK, it is 15dB gain and 160cm height.

I have posted some pictures with detailed description HERE
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Re: Wireless / WiFi cards / adapters for cracking (which one

Post by Sethioz »

Recently i bought another wireless adapter.
It's Alfa AWUS036NHR 2000mW, latest verions (was released about month ago).

I have compared AWUS036NHR and AWUS036NH against eachother, difference is amazing. NHR kicks ass. It has so much more power, however actual performance in internet speed is not so impressive, but i doubt its because of the adapter, its most likely because of the interference.
500mW TP-LINK adapter don't even get anywhere near the power and performance than NHR.

Here's comparison.
TP-LINK adapter had 3-4dbi omni antenna and it was placed in open window (no glass to interupt signals)
NHR was on my table, in front of PC with 4-5dbi omni antenna and it was able to discover more networks with higher signals.

NHR and NH are both 2000mW, but they do have difference in performance.
However it does have downside, NH will work with backtrack5 without any need to install drivers, NHR needs drivers, i still haven't got it working on backtrack5. im sure it will work fine, just driver issues.


NOTE - using both at same time and placing them close to eachother, is bad idea. due their high power output, they interfere with eachother badly. Now they are about 1 meter apart and seems better, but still its lot better to use just one.
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Re: Wireless / WiFi cards / adapters for cracking (which one

Post by 7Ds »

Backtrack 5 R3 Support:

Datel PSP WifiMAX
Model #: WL-685Z
Chipset: Zydas/Atheros
Driver: zd1211rw

Cisco - Linksys WUSB600N
Chipset: Ralink
Driver: RT2870/3070 (rt2800usb)

Planex Xlink Kai
Model #: GW-USMini2N
Chipset: Ralink
Driver: RT2870/3070 (rt2800usb)
Last edited by 7Ds on Mon Nov 26, 2012 1:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Wireless / WiFi cards / adapters for cracking (which one

Post by Sethioz »

yes, RC3 supports a lot more than previous versions.
i had issues with RTL8188RU (Alfa AWUS036NHR USB) and AE1000 chipsets, but on RC3 they work fine.

i highly recommend using Alfa AWUS036NHR, so far it is the best wireless device i have came across with, it doesn't support 5ghz, but it's still good. there aint any 5ghz networks around anyway, 5ghz is too new technlogy to be used + range is a lot smaller.
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