High power WLAN USB Adapter (eBay)

[SilvaRizla]

I just thought I'd let you all know about this great high gain wifi adapter, cheap as chips, can be turned into a cantenna or other long range and works out of the box (injection and everything). I bought one this morning, highly recommended


search ebay for "802.11g Wireless LAN WLAN High Gain USB Adapter Antenna" sold by adapterbest

EDIT: It uses the RTL8187 chipset

[snaes]

Thanks! this sounds really good (not to mention cheap!)

[godzillar32]

Is this Ebay Adaptor plug n Play in Bt3? Did you simply plug it into your PC, boot up BT3 and thats it???? Please advise as i have bought a "Rokman" USB Adaptor that is supposedly BT3 Plug n play and it doesnt work at all!!

Cheers

Andy

[whiterice42019]

Have you tried this card and confirm it works out of the box? Sorry if the question is redundant, but you said in your post you just bought it that morning. Just wanted to check before looking into the card. Thanks

[SilvaRizla]

On BT4 everything works flawlessly out of the box. Just plug it in, mac changing, monitor mode, injection, wicd, the lot. I'm so chuffed I've just bought a 18dbi yagi

[snaes]

That yagi sounds like it'll have amazing range...have fun with that.

[SilvaRizla]

its got up to a 10km range but that'll be rural with clear line of site, should give me two or three mies urban which is more than enough for me. War-camping! Bring it on

[pinchegringo]

That usb adapter/antenna combo listed on ebay is unremarkable at best. All I am seeing is a sub 500mW dongle and a 5db antenna – either of those are far from ideal if you are looking for range. What concerns me is the conspicuous lack of real specs.

If you are trying to min/max your setup I highly recommend the Alfa AWUS036H, it’s a 500mw card with excellent sensitivity specs. There are cards with more power but sub-par sensitivity. The Alfa card is available with a 9db antenna, or you can pick up a 15db antenna for under $20, or if you are a DIY type and portability isn’t an issue, I highly recommend busting out a cantenna (Dintimoor or Stagg can) for superior results.

That said, even under ideal circumstances you will not get anywhere near 10km connection distance, unless you got some juice on both side. I’ve been using the Alfa with 15db antenna on the go with excellent results hooking up to the central wifi node at the campgrounds and in the marina (before anyone asks – both free for paying visitors).

[SilvaRizla]

Errr ok, read the thread again.

[Rusted]

At this recommendation I also purchased one of these from adapterbest. Using BT4 I just plugged it in and it worked (did not test with BT3). Monitor mode, macchanger, injection all worked. I show the RTL8187 chipset as well.

I received it in 5 days. The quality has that sub-par / made in Taiwan look and feel to it. I doubt it will take any abuse at all. The antenna is very low quality.

The radio signal is disappointing. I expected that I would see greater radio coverage with the included external antenna. For a comparison using my built-in wifi adapter (Dell e6400) airodump can see 16 access points from my current location. An external netgear PCMCIA card can view about 16 as well. Using this Taiwan USB adapter I can only view 8 access points.

For < $20 this is an OK adapter, but if you are looking something "good" or that you want to keep for awhile I would recommend you apply the $20 towards something better.