Our USB Wireless Adapters for Wireless / Wi-Fi Assessments

The following USB Wireless cards are a selection of the ones we used to conduct our assessments / Penetration Tests. Each card’s specifications are listed below including RF bands and 802.11 standards the cards support.

Note: All of the cards detailed below support working in monitor mode and can perform wireless packet capture.

All of the cards detailed below also work well with VMWare sourced Linux virtual machines (see VMWare wireless adapter troubleshooting issues below).

The cards are listed in our order of preference (favourites first).

Alfa AWUS036ACM (bands: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac)

Chipset = MediaTek MT7612U

Cons = Double antenna connections can present a challenge when connecting external directional antennas e.g. wireless survey / access point triangulation

Alfa AWUS051NH v2.0 (bands: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, 802.11a/b/g/n)

Chipset = Ralink RT3572

Cons = Requires an additional cable which can make it awkward during mobile assessment (although laptop affixed holder are available)

TP-LINK TL-WN722N (band: 2.4 GHz only, 802.11b/g/n)

Chipset = Atheros AR9271 chipset

Cons = Does not support the 5 GHz band.

Alfa AWUS036EH (band: 2.4 GHz only, 802.11b/g)

Chipset = Ralink RT3070

Cons = Does not support the 5 GHz band & Does not support master / Access Point (AP) mode.

Generic Mini USB WiFi Adapter (band: 2.4 GHz only, b/g/n)

Chipset = Realtek RTL8192EU

Cons = Does not support the 5 GHz band & Does not support master / Access Point (AP) mode.

Having trouble with USB adapters in VMWare?

Check out our troubleshooting guide:

VMWare Workstation Pro USB Wireless Adapter Troubleshooting Tips