Alfa AWUS036H Upgraded to 1000mW 1W 802.11b/g High Gain USB Wireless Long-Rang WiFi Network Adapter with 5dBi Rubber Antenna and a 7dBi Panel Antenna

Bought this for my pentesting practice. With my laptop's wifi card (a good atheros chip) I could only pick up 3 networks with anything near 2-3 bars (mine and my next door neighbors directly on either side of me) With the Alfa and the awesome antennae included I pick up over 20 signals and every single one (I'm not exaggerating) is 4 bars or above, most are 5. I live in a town-home and on the opposite side of where my unit is located the homeowners assoc. has a free wifi AP that people can connect to. It is a good .3 miles away and has about 7 town-homes in between I pick it up with 3 bars and plenty of signal for a quality internet connection. It works out of the box with Windows 7 (had to connect to the internet to download a driver) every Linux flavor I have at my fingertips works with no installation. Injection works flawlessly (most of you know exactly what I'm talking about) and this a wardriver's or wireless security guy's wet dream. I can't express how awesome this thing is. I had a similar cheaper card that looks exactly like the Alfa but has a very very familiar "dragon" on the adapter. Doing an airodump-ng scan I get -7 to -10 better power signals from every single AP. This isn't even the coolest part about this thing. Out of the box (and due to FCC regulations) it only is working at HALF power (27db and 500mw) in backtrack (and I hear certain drivers in Windows can do this too) you can change the country code to,... lets say Belize, or Bolivia and get a full range of channels and transmit at a full 1 watt. When I did that and a Airodump-ng scan I had so many AP's come up under -60 power that even maximizing the terminal couldn't even hold all the AP's. Keep in mind that's only the ones UNDER -60 I picked up a total of 40 AP's in close enough range to inject or capture WPA handshakes. I'm ordering a couple more for my guys at work (I work in networking services at a Hospital) I'd easily pay double this for what I got. Also I ordered this on Friday afternoon and I received it Monday and I used standard shipping.

Multiple attempts at driver install, and I eventually figured out you should either leave it with the default Windows driver (if you're lucky) or install the new driver halfway then stop it when it right as it hangs and is about to fail again and roll back to not having it on your system at all. I got it to work and it worked quite well at picking up good signal from a few blocks away from an upstairs apartment. Then, after a few months, it started dropping connections more and more often. After several months, it stopped working completely, with an interesting exception. I now use this antenna on an Etekcity adapter, which is more powerful than this Alfa adapter, has so far lasted longer, more reliably, and didn't cost as much! Back when I thought Afla was the best option, it was effectively the best option, so for that, it was good. It saved me hundreds on internet bills I otherwise might've had if I hadn't used this adapter to pick up the local Hardee's free Wi-Fi. Still, if I got another adapter like this Alfa unit lately, I'd probably return it because now I know there are options just as good as is advertised for this unit, if not actually better, even for the same cost or less. Just saying, if you can't find better, this can be a good unit with a little TLC. On the other hand, if you know better, then you can do better.

Nicely packaged and well made. I had some issues from the start. The CD included did not match the hardware, I tried a few timesto figure it out, but if the Awus036H drivers where on the CD I could not find them. So, online, find the correct drivers, install. It works!That said, it works about the same as the other wi-fi radios I have in my laptops etc. I tried a few different spots and even outside on the porchto see if I could get the really long range that this device can deliver, no joy.I think this device has merit, but for me it just didn't do what I had hoped. Returned for a refund.

First off, when this thing came in, I was shocked at how small it was. I was expecting something quite a bit bigger, but nope. Instead, I got a tiny plastic thing that was lighter than a bottle of water. Naturally, this didn't put me at ease, as I'm usually one to think 'the heavier an object is, the better-made it is.' Not so with this!I popped in the CD with the drivers and software and installed them; easy as falling off a log. Then, I continued with the instructions, plugging in the device and pointing it in the right direction. The result was immediate! It's able to pick up a signal that is usually either one bar or nonexistent from about 50 yards away...with this device, a full five bars! It's amazing!Granted, there is a drawback...with the panel antenna, it falls on its face, so to speak. Also, with only four small rubber feet on its bottom, it's not easy to mount on a wall. So, even though it looks atrocious, I simply duct taped it to the wall to get the most signal out of it. Works perfectly! Oh, and it does get a little bit warm. Not enough to burn you if you touch it, but I wouldn't want to hold it for very long.All in all, a very excellent (little) device! I'll probably get another one for use while traveling, it's so small!

I got it a few days ago and I cannot get it to work. I installed the driver many times as specified by instructions as well as the software. Basically, the antenna loads on Windows for a few seconds (you hear the little Windows sound when you plug in a USB device), then you hear the sound when you disconnect it. It cycles like this for hours (the sound gets annoying). Thinking it was a compatibility issue with my Win 10 64 bit machine, I tested it on an older PC (Win 7 32 bit) and I am getting the exact same thing. It may be a power issue as some devices pull too much power and if you have a PC that cannot deliver it, then you need some external power source to help. This device does not have that. Maybe using a hub could help. Not sure at this point, I just don't have time to figure this out. I thought I could just plug it and use it. Not on my machines. Too bad for me.

Even though this card is limited to B and G, I still wanted the classic, tried and true card to work with Linux security distros.I can confirm these cards are authentic Alfa cards and the RTL8187 chipset for plug n play with Linux. Monitor mode, injection, all work fine. The directional antenna was a nice addition to have as well.I haven't tried but I'm fairly confident once the drivers are installed, this card will also perform well on Windows.5 stars for the awus036H card, and the good purchase experience.

The product is more than well reviewed for by everyone else. It works perfectly. The 7Dbi antenna works as expected. Using this with Kali Linux and have not encountered any glitch so far. I would recommend an directional antenna for those looking for more range, never the less the 5dbi and 7dbi antennas work for most situations.For pen-testersThe product comparable to Alfa AWUS036H is its own successor Alfa AWUS036NHA but that is known to have few glitches in KaliThe locally available (INDIA) product for pen-testers is TP-Link WN722N the range and the price is on the lower end.Cons: Though not really a con for pen-testers but for regular users the device wont work on Macbook running 64-bit operating system. and this device supports only B and G networks N is only supported in Alfa AWUS036NHA.Overall this is a good product for War driving and pen-testing. Also for regular users the product offers a good range with packaged antennas.

I bought this adepter quite a while ago and it works well for penetration and signal tests. However, it can't be used for critical links as it locks during long uses. I had to write a script which disabled and reenabled it at least once a day, most of the time more. It seems that the higher the transmit power is set to, and the poorer the link quality, the more often it needs to be cycled.Still, very good for diagnostics.

Good One

Not a huge improvement in sensitivity over onboard or USB dongle