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morrownr / USB-WiFi

USB WiFi Adapter Information for Linux
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Modern adapters with (active) monitor mode, packet injection etc. #454

Open ghost opened 3 weeks ago

ghost commented 3 weeks ago

We all know the good old AWUS036ACHM. AWUS036AXML could be a good modern replacement (IMO), but it has a long known problem with active monitor mode. It would be nice to make a list of modern "wardriving" equipment with good feature support. There are already some works: click, but in my opinion the number of options is too small, only AWUS036AXML catches my eye.

morrownr commented 2 weeks ago

Active Monitor Mode that works well seems to currently be limited to the mt7612u and mt7610u drivers. The mt7921u driver says it supports active monitor but it has a bug that hopefully is fixed at some point.

I can't speak to the new driver for the mt7925 chip because we can't buy adapters with them yet. They aren't on the market yet. The mt7925 is a WiFi 7 chip. The driver went into kernel 6.7.

koparebu commented 2 weeks ago

If one is interested in things like active monitor mode (i.e., security testing), would the AWUS036AXML have any advantage over the AWUS036ACHM or AWUS036ACM? I guess the AXML model may have superior transfer speeds, and support for WiFi 6, but at this moment these are not the most important things you're looking for if you want this for pentesting, right?

morrownr commented 2 weeks ago

@koparebu

I understand your point. I have all 3 - axml, acm and achm. I recommend different adapters depending the detail of the information that users provide. The achm and acm both support Active Monitor Mode, not to be confused with Monitor Mode. The axml says it supports Active Monitor Mode but it is currently broken. It will be fixed at some point. Basically Active Monitor Mode is a function of the driver so any adapters with the mt7612u or mt7610u chips should support it and any adapter with the mt7921au chip should support it once the mt7921u driver is fixed. I am not aware of any Realtek drivers that support Active Monitor Mode.

If dual band will work, I really like the Alfa achm because it has range that can't be beaten by other dual band adapters. I have tested it and it is somewhat amazing. If users ask me to recommend an adapter where dual band will do and they are learning, the achm is the one I recommend.

koparebu commented 1 week ago

@morrown, thanks for your reply. Yep, I agree having multiple ones, with different chipsets also, is the best option.

By the way, is the fact that adaptors like ACHM have a single antenna a drawback when compared to models having two or more? I recall reading somewhere, a long time ago, something related to "MIMO", and how a single antenna prevents the use of that technique, that may be useful for security/pentesting, but I couldn't find more info about it.

morrownr commented 1 week ago

By the way, is the fact that adaptors like ACHM have a single antenna a drawback when compared to models having two or more?

That is not something I have investigated. I did a test a few years ago to see what adapter had the best range. The file is not on the Main Menu as some parts are dated at this point:

https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi/blob/main/home/Performance_Comparison.md

Note how the achm beats the ach. The ach and achm are both what Alfa calls MaxPower adapters which means they have very high quality amps and antennas. The achm with its single antenna beat the ach. Not by much but it does beat it.

I've had interesting discussions before. The achm, even though it is an AC600 class adapter, it can, in some situations, outperform AC1200 or even faster adapters. The way it does it is all you have to do is locate the AC1200 adapter at a distance where it loses adequate signal to maintain a link and the achm still has a link and is transferring packets. ha ha

I guess the answer about MIMO is that it certainly does not seem to be an issue one way or the other.

keatonp-inahoodie commented 1 week ago

@morrown, thanks for your reply. Yep, I agree having multiple ones, with different chipsets also, is the best option.

By the way, is the fact that adaptors like ACHM have a single antenna a drawback when compared to models having two or more? I recall reading somewhere, a long time ago, something related to "MIMO", and how a single antenna prevents the use of that technique, that may be useful for security/pentesting, but I couldn't find more info about it.

layman opinion but I find it useful for antennas like dual band yagi antennas and other directional dual band antennas. Much more practical than buying two (and the good ones arent cheap) for each antenna socket let alone trying to phyically arrange them properly.