Best Compatible USB Wireless Adapter for Kali Linux Top Reviews The Kali Linux is a type of an Operating System. It is specially made for the professionals of the security and penetrating systems. Not all the work with Kali Linux. So, the choice of the best wireless adapter for Kali Linux is like finding a pin in the grass. The drivers and chipset of the WiFi adapter decide whether it will be compatible with Kali Linux or not.
Below is the list of the best wireless adapter for Kali Linux. Check it and choose your most suitable and Linux compatible WiFi adapter. The Panda PAU05 wireless adapter will upgrade your current system to the latest wireless standard 802.11n. It will help to make your Kali Linux system easily communicate with the 802.11n WiFi router at home, office, etc. Pros.
It works with any system with 1GB memory, 1GHz processing speed, and a USB port. Gives a super wireless speed of up to 300Mbps. Both the infrastructure and ad-hoc modes are supported by it. It uses RT3070 chipset which is perfectly compatible with Kali Linux.
Also, works on which is a big plus Cons. Doesn’t come with antenna, so you will not get good signals at long range. Not as powerful as Alfa 2) TP-Link N150 TL-WN722N Wireless High Gain USB Adapter. If the TP-Link products are favorite for you, then you will love this TL-WN722N wireless adapter for Kali Linux.
It uses the RT3572 chipset which is also used by Alfa AWUS036NHA WiFi adapter. It will give you an experience of an interruption-free performance.
By providing a speed of 150Mbps, compatibility to the latest 802.11g network, and make the Panda Ultra N USB WiFi adapter a good choice for Kali Linux OS. The PAU03 helps you to wirelessly connect your device with any router supported by 802.11g/n standard at your home, office, or anywhere. Pros. Compatible with a range of Operating Systems including Kali Linux, Windows, Mac OS, etc.
It consumes low power which helps to extend the battery life. It backwardly compatible with the wireless 2.4GHz 802.11g networks. Supports both AMD and Intel CPUs. 1GHz processing speed, 1GB RAM, and a USB port is enough to use the Panda PAU03. Nano size will not disturb other. RaLink chipset works fine with Kali Linux with a kernel module rt5370sta Cons.
It will not work on 5GHz wireless band. 1-year limited warranty is somewhat uummmmmm limited!. 150Mbps speed is specified, but can’t get constant rate when tested 4) Alfa AWUS036NHA USB Wireless Adaptor. This is the best wireless adapter for Kali Linux from Alfa.
The AWUS036NHA is a top-quality b/g/n USB WiFi adapter which works with the 5GHz band. It uses the same chipset of Atheros AR9271 like TP-Link TL-WN722N. The Alfa AWUS051NH is a powerful WiFi adapter for Kali Linux which uses the RT3572 chipset. Though it is not powerful as AWUS036NHA is, it is also a popular for the Kali Linux users. Pros. Compatible with both 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz wireless frequency bands.
Up to 300Mbps high-speed data transfer rates. Supports all types of wireless data encryption protocols including AES, WEP, WPA, WPA2, and TKIP. It has support for the 802.11a/b/g/n wireless network. Comes with 5dBi/9dBi rubber antenna for an extended range of wireless signals.
FCC compliant. Comes as a clip window mount to attach your device easily Cons.
Not as good as AWUS036NHA adapter for receiving signals. It is specified for two but comes with only one antenna Comparison of USB Wireless Adapter for Kali Linux. OS Support Kali Linux, Windows, Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS Kali Linux, Windows, Mac OS, Linux Kernal Kali Linux, Windows Wireless Type IEEE 802.11 g/n IEEE 802.11 b/g/n IEEE 802.11 b/g/n Frequency 2.4Ghz 2.4-2.4835GHz 2.4Ghz Transfer rate 300Mbps 150Mbps 150Mbps Security WEP, WPA, WPA2 WPS, 64/128-bit WEP WPA/WPA2, IEEE802.1x, 64/128-bit WEP Weight 0.32 ounces 6.4 ounces 5.6 ounces When you on your Desktop or Laptop, and if you try to connect it through the built-in wireless card but can’t do so due to not recognized by Kali Linux, then you need a Linux compatible WiFi adapter.
The above list of the best wireless adapter for Kali Linux reviews will help you to get one which is most suitable for you. Any of the above wireless adapters will work with Kali Linux. Choosing the right adapter is always a mind straining task as you have to check with your set up. For example, if you are using Windows 10 with VMware to run the Kali Linux, then you should go with the wireless adapter that is compatible with Windows 10. Best Selling USB Wireless Adapters.
For doing penetration testing, Kali Linux OS is the best platform to work with. But as it is not as popular as the Windows Operating Systems, there are limited resources to avail the most compatible devices like the scanner, printer, wireless adapter, mouse, PC, laptop for Kali Linux platform. Yes, it is true that there are many devices introduced to work with the Linux environment regularly, but the incompatibility with older supported devices makes the task of choosing the best USB adapter for Kali Linux somewhat tricky, especially with the standard wireless support. So, I researched a bit and listed down some of the top wireless adapters that can support to do pen testing. Let’s have a look at them here.
Savage model 101 serial numbers. Contents. Best Wireless Adapter for Kali Linux 1) Panda PAU05 300Mbps Wireless N USB Adapter The Panda PAU05 N USB adapter uses the RT3070 chipset to support the Kali Linux OS and pen testing. One big advantage is that it can work even with the Raspberry Pi device.
Kali Linux Best Wireless Adapter
I installed Kali Linux on my Sony Vaio laptop (model number SVF142C1WW), but I had no wireless out of the box. Ethernet works fine, and I can connect to wireless networks normally from Windows running on the same machine. I found on Google which suggested I install the compatible wireless driver. I downloaded it from, extracted it to /Desktop and ran the following commands: $ cd desktop $ cd filenameofthatextracted folder $ make unload $ make load After these commands, my wireless seems to be recognized (see iwconfig output below), but I can't see any available wireless networks. Also, the driver disappears after restarting, and I have to run the commands again and reinstall to get the NIC to show up in iwconfig again.
Relevant information: root@Light:# iwconfig wlan1 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:off/any Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=20 dBm Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Encryption key:off Power Management:off eth0 no wireless extensions. Lo no wireless extensions. Wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:off/any Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=20 dBm Retry short limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Encryption key:off Power Management:off hwsim0 no wireless extensions. $ lspci -vq 07: 00. 0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM43142 802.
11b/g/n (rev 01) Subsystem: Foxconn International, Inc. Device e071 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16 Memory at 90700000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) size=32K Capabilities: 40 Power Management version 3 Capabilities: 58 Vendor Specific Information: Len=78 Capabilities: 48 MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+ Capabilities: d0 Express Endpoint, MSI 00 Capabilities: 100 Advanced Error Reporting Capabilities: 13c Virtual Channel Capabilities: 160 Device Serial Number 00-00-87-ff-ff-7c-34-23 Capabilities: 16c Power Budgeting Kernel driver in use: bcma-pci-bridg I found one more thing, and now I'm totally confused. See, while installing Kali Linux this is the menu you get in the beginning: Kali - boot Non Persistent Mode Kali - Boot Persistent Kali - Failsafe Kali Forensics - No Drive or Swap Mount Kali Graphical install Kali Text install I went into the option Kali Graphical Install to install Kali Linux. I believed to run live Kali, and I have to go in Kali - Boot Persistent. I went into that, and I got Kali desktop. And I found out that Wi-Fi drivers were perfectly fine and they were working well. I can connect to any Wi-Fi connections and all Wi-Fi connections were showing.
What is this? And there is one more thing. While installing Kali Linux, inbetween I got an error message saying the following. !DETECT NETWORK HARDWARE Some of your hardware needs non-free firmware files to operate. The firmware can be loaded from removable media such as a USB stick or floppy. The missing firmware files are: rtlnic/rtl8168e3.fw But after I ran some update and upgrade commands, it is present in /lib/firmware.
Kali Linux works with a limited set of WIFI network adapters, and getting the best network adapter is like black magic. In the good old days of Backtrack, I would always have recommended a 54 Mbps card from Alfa – called the Alfa AWUS036H.
This card was amazing and would pick up 2-3 times as many networks as more powerful cards. This leads us to the first point about KALI Network adapters – the chipset is more important than the adapter itself. The Alfa AWUS036H used the Realtek 8187L chipset – and nothing came close to its performance.
Of course, who wants a 2.4 Ghz, 54 Mbps adapter these days? Step 1 – Research the Chipset The chipset is the ultimate decider of whether a network adapter will flunk or be awesome with Kali Linux – choose wisely, as even yours truly has bought an expensive adapter that proved to be utterly useless. Atheros AR9271 Ralink RT3070 Ralink RT3572 Realtek 8187L (Wireless G adapters) Realtek RTL8812AU (Wireless AC.Kali 2017.1 only) The reference section links the chipset to drivers.Update Kali 2017. The new Kali Linux, version 2017.1, also adds support for Realtek’s RTL8812AU wireless chipsets, it is a very useful feature because these chipsets are used by major modem-makers like Belkin, D-Link, and TP-Link. Step 2 – Use Alfa cards – lazy option You are humbly introduced to Alfa network cards – Alfa dominate the Penetration Testing scene.
Not all Alfa’s work with Kali on a plug n play basis. So we still need to be selective. We are looking for network adapters that can carry out “monitor mode ” and “packet injection”.
If your dream card cannot do this – then backtrack. Backtrack, gedit Step 3 – Wardriving Paddles & Antennas Use wardriving paddles to increase your adapters signal strength. A rule of thumb here is that every 3 db increase in power, will double your signal strength.
So an Alfa antenna with a 10 db gain – means triple your signal strength. 10 db gain antenna – for 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz networks The panel antenna fits onto the Alfa adapters, and costs between £12 and £20. The wardriving paddle works with only 2.4 Ghz networks, and gives 7 db gain for £11. I really like using the wardriving paddle, however 2.4 Ghz networks are dying out. Step 4 – Current strongest Kali Network adapters Alfa AWUS036ACH (with Kali 2017) The new Kali Linux, version 2017.1, also adds support for Realtek’s RTL8812AU wireless chipsets, but needs a USB 3 port for maximum speed. “A while back, we received a feature request asking for the. These drivers are not part of the standard Linux kernel, and have been modified to allow for injection.
Why is this a big deal? This chipset supports 802.11 AC, making this one of the first drivers to bring injection-related wireless attacks to this standard, and with companies such as ALFA making the AWUS036ACH wireless cards, we expect this card to be an arsenal favorite.” continues the announcement.
The AWUS036ACH currently costs £46 on Amazon. Apt install realtek-rtl88xxau-dkms.Comment on Amazon: BEST RESULT is Achieved with a small improvement: ONE 9DBI ANTENNA on RIGHT PLUG, One 5DBI ANTENNA on LEFT plug ( one of the2 of the original package) the intensity JUMPED from – 63dbi(AWUS036H) to -35dbi (AWUS036ACH).It is plug’s order sensitive, don’t reverse R/L.
Also the throughtput jumped from 110 KBytes to 140 KBytes.Caution: Driver issues with the AWUS036ACH. The “ACH” works well, works in monitor mode, but has issues with injection. I’ve placed a caution in here, as I need secondary evidence that the latest drivers will successfully inject, and that they are reliable. Here’s an example of the driver issue – and the card failing to inject. Alfa Network AWUS036NHA – Black Alfa The AWUS036NHA uses the Atheros AR9271 chipset drivers. 150 Mbps – costs around £20.
Note the comment about region set to BO. BO = Bolivia.
There are no radio laws in Bolivia so you can TX at maximum power. Alfa Network AWUS036NH – Green or Teal Alfa Comments/test results found: ALFA Network AWUS051NH V2 (Version 2) 2.4/ 5GHz The AWUS051NH uses the RALink3572 chipset. It’s plug n play in Kali and injection capable. 300 Mbps – costs around £35. ALFA Network AWUS052NH 2.4/ 5GHz Dual Band 300Mbp/s This uses the RT3572 chipset and reportedly works with Kali out of the box for G/N/A networks and uses a USB 2 port, which will limit its speeds.
Reports found it weak when used with Windows. Amazon comment found about AWUS052NH It looks great too, this adapter is plug and play with Kali Linux. But is hard to find, therefore costs over £40. I really like the look of this. But need to find more corroborating evidence regarding its compatibility with Kali – but it’s looking good.
Non Alfa Adapters – TPLink WN 722N Non Alfa Adapters – Comfast using AR9271 chipset Alfa Adapters – AWUS036NHR V2 -AVOID!! Note the chipset – RTL8188RU. This chipset is known to have issues. In Conclusion:. I’d go with the Orange Alfa Adapter – AWUS052NH – if you have a USB 2 port. If you have a USB 3 port, then take a chance on the AWUS036ACH, even though I have yet to find corroborating evidence that the latest drivers are stable. There’s no price difference between the 2 adapters.
Final words – watch out for the USB 2 port The speed of the USB port will affect the performance of the adapter. The AWUS036ACH is designed to be connected to a USB 3.0 port You can connect it to a USB 2.0 port, but there will be a transfer cap issue since the USB 2.0 is capped at 480Mbps, below the theoretical 867Mbps allowed by the protocol ac. USB 1.1: 12 Mbps.
USB 2.0: 480 Mbps. USB 3.0: 4.8 Gbps. USB 3.1: 10 Gbps.
Increasing the signal of your WIFI adapter – this video is so funny and so informative. Disclaimer: Last point, am I paid by Alfa networks? Do they provide me with kit to test? I wish they did. If you have a wifi network adatper that works with Kali 2 – plug n play then please let me know. That’s the trouble with being independent and impartial – no free lunch. Reference.
Hi Bruce, You’ll need to upspec to the 5GHZ network cards – as most networks are moving in this direction. However most 5GHZ cards have problems capturing packets. You could try the AWUS036NHA adapter. In the old days of G band networks, there was an outstanding adapter however with the newer 5GHZ network adapters, there is no clear winner – they all have issues. I would suggest using high gain antennas, such as the Alfa panel adapter – as each 3DB gain will effectively double your signal strength – and stablise the connection.
You may need to change the transmission power to Bolivia – as then you can use the full strength of the adapter. Laws in the US and Europe restrict the signal power, so you may only get half the actual power of the adapter. I hope this helps. Hi Bruce, A new annoucement on Kali adapters has just been released – with support for a new Alfa Adapter – AWUS036ACH. A while back, we received a feature request asking for the inclusion of drivers for RTL8812AU wireless chipsets. These drivers are not part of the standard Linux kernel, and have been modified to allow for injection.
Why is this a big deal? This chipset supports 802.11 AC, making this one of the first drivers to bring injection-related wireless attacks to this standard, and with companies such as ALFA making the AWUS036ACH wireless cards, we expect this card to be an arsenal favorite. So you’ve asked a great question! I found your site a few months and get new posts via email.
I share your interests in security and privacy. I came here to leave a note pointing you to the news about the new Kali version including support for our AWUS036ACH. I see you have already updated your post. I think your blog deserves re-branding/renaming with a real URL so it is easier to point people this way. Do they provide me with kit to test? I wish they did. We have something coming out that I would like to show you.
2137 Hello, I have been doing research on Alfa cards for a few days and now I feel like I know less than before I see so many contradictory informations and it’s driving me crazy. I am using TP-Link TL-WN722N now, but I feel that it lacks power. I was about to buy an AWUS036NHR but I’ve read that it’s not very good on Linux (I am using Arch).
Now I am battling myself between AWUS036NHA and AWUS036ACH. From opinions I know that NHA appears to be best Alfa around, but it lacks 5ghz support and that’s a big issue.
However I am not sure about stability, ability of injecting packets and overall performance of ACH. Could you please provide me with some info which one should I choose?
It’s been almost a year since you’ve made this post and things could have changed. Thanks in advance. Hi 2137, Kali has included support for the Realtek RTL8812 chipset used in the AWUS036ACH – this provides the AC or 5GHZ support. The ACH does inject packets.
Kali 2017.1 in a VM also works with the host wifi adapter if you’re using a Dell laptop, and a Windows OS with a Virtual version of Linux. The driver support for monitor mode and injection with the RTL8812 is here: The 5GHZ is best when close to the access point – say within 30 foot or so. For longer distance the 2.4GHZ gives the range but with reduced speeds.
If you use a USB 3 port, then you’ll get maximum speed. If you use a USB 2 port, then your speed will be significantly reduced. I hope this helps. Hi 2137, The ACH is an excellent choice, as you know its drivers have been created and tested specifically for Linux. The 9dbi antenna is great, as every 3db doubles the strength.
That said, the 2.4GHZ panel is my favourite as you get the range with that frequency. These antennas will keep your connections stable. Next I’m testing out the AWUS1900 – which uses the RTL8814u chip.
Fingers crossed that it works out for me if it works for the RTL8812U chip, the drivers should double up on the 8814U as well. Let me know how you get on with the ALFA kit. Sakaray Hi there, That was a very clear explanation. Thank you for your efforts and sharing your experience as knowledge. I am a beginner with Kali and I want to play around. I have got some basics on the attacks and way they work.
Can i start with TP-Link TL-WN722N, does it fulfill the basic attack tests.? As I am from India this device is available at seven time lesser than the cost for AWUS036NHA. Awaiting for your suggestion before I click buy Thanks in Advance. Thanks and Regards, Sakaray Liked.
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