Alfa AWUS036H 500mW high tx power

[xCPPx]

Hello,

Has anybody played around with Alfa's high tx power settings? The doc at the driver section on aircrack-ng site mentions that txpower option should be viewed relatively and the mW unit ignored... The card should theoretically go up to 500 mW, but I'm curious which txpower settings can be safely used with this card without damaging it. I'm using the patched rtl8187 driver from aircrack-ng site.

See ya.

[aggtrfrad]

ive been running aireplay arp=500pps, at 35dbm(max), 1Mbps and its still allive.
neither heard of anyone damaging it.
i would suggest you setting 35 dbm only when needed, and returning back to 15-20.

[xCPPx]

Hmm, that's rather interesting. According to another thread, 35dBm is just under 4 watts, but I'm guessing you can't run a 500 mW card at that power. Is it known which dBm number actually represents the 500 mW border for Alfa with aircrack-ng driver?

dBm = log10 (mW)*10
mW =10^(dBm/10)

[aggtrfrad]

of course it doesnt transmit on 35dbm. thats just a way the DRIVER was written for the user to measure the txpower. forget about dbm ,see it just as a number to set the cards max power from 1-35.now, about the real maximun tx power the card can transmit, i have no idea. fcc results showed 360mw @ 11Mbps. But noone took the time to test the highpower drivers, i guess noone has the equipment.

[Nachtfunker]

I just came across this thread and wanted to ask how you actually change the power setting.
I'm using the Alpha, too and iwconfig always says "Tx-Power: 5dbm".
Now 500mw should be about 25dbm.
How do you set it?

[xCPPx]

Originally Posted by Nachtfunker

I just came across this thread and wanted to ask how you actually change the power setting.
I'm using the Alpha, too and iwconfig always says "Tx-Power: 5dbm".
Now 500mw should be about 25dbm.
How do you set it?

First of all you'll need the latest patched drivers from aircrack-ng. Follow the installation guide and install those. After that there will be a new option available with iwpriv, called "highpower". To set your Alfa's tx power any higher than 5 you'd use:
iwpriv wlan0 highpower 1
iwconfig wlan0 txpower 15

Also, be sure to ignore the dBm and mW units as these are inaccurate. Since I do not know the exact scale myself, I asked about the values.
EDIT: I should have read the tutorial more carefully. I see now 0 being the lowest and 35 being the highest tx power.

[Mexicant]

So does this still apply to BT3 Final or is it already included. I'm looking at buying an Alfa card currently.

[=Tron=]

Originally Posted by Mexicant

So does this still apply to BT3 Final or is it already included. I'm looking at buying an Alfa card currently.

The Alfa card does support injection out of the box on BT3, it is only to be able to use the hight tx power option that you will need to download the patched drivers.

Still I have yet to experience not being able to transmit to an AP that I can hear using the default drivers, so you will most likely not need to fiddle around with these settings.

[ghaze]

You should be able to use the highpower setting with the drivers that come with bt3final. "iwpriv wlan0" lists highpower as an available private ioctl. No need to download any additional drivers. Works like a champ.

[=Tron=]

Originally Posted by ghaze

You should be able to use the highpower setting with the drivers that come with bt3final. "iwpriv wlan0" lists highpower as an available private ioctl. No need to download any additional drivers. Works like a champ.

Did not know that. Thanks, I guess I have to give it a try as soon as I get some time to spare.