Kali Linux WiFi Adapter – Best WiFi Adapter For Kali Linux
Kali Linux WiFi Adapter
Recently Kali Linux 2020 was released which updated the world’s best penetration testing OS with some neat hardware support including some WiFi Adapters to play around with WiFi networks. Here is a list of Best WiFi Adapter For Kali Linux that are 100% compatible with Latest Kali Linux, that can go into monitor mode, inject packets and perform everything that is needed for a full-fledged WiFi Penetration Testing.
Best WiFi Adapter for Kali Linux
| Sl No | WiFi Adapter | Chipset | Antenna | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TP-Link N150 TL-WN722N (Buy Version1 Only) | Atheros AR9271 | External | Buy it Now |
| 2 | Alfa AWUS036NHA | Atheros AR9271 | External | Buy it Now |
| 3 | Alfa AWUS036NH | Ralink RT307 | External | Buy it Now |
| 4 | Alfa AWUS1900 | Realtek RTL88XX | External | Buy it Now |
| 5 | Alfa AWUS036ACH | RealtekRTL8812AU | External | Buy it Now |
| 6 | Panda PAU06 | Atheros | External | Buy it Now |
| 7 | Panda PAU09 | Ralink RT5572 | External | Buy it Now |
| 8 | ALFA AWUS036NEH | Ralink RT307 | External | Buy it Now |
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Updated -: June 2021
Choosing the Best Kali Linux WiFi Adapter
Everyone seems to get confused when they are talking about the best USB WiFi adapters for Kali Linux And wireless cards. They don’t know what they are and why they need them and which one to buy because there are a lot of USB WiFi adapters and wireless cards in the market but only few are supported by Kali Linux.
WiFi Chipset
Know before start talking about the Wi-Fi adaptor brands that are supported by Kali Linux, let’s take a look at a more important factor – Wi-Fi chipset which are used in USB Wi-Fi adaptors. Wireless chipset is the brain or you can call it as the mind of USB Wi-Fi adaptor Which does all the calculations for it. It is the Wi-Fi chipset that determines whether the USB Wi-Fi adaptor is good or bad. The brand is irrelevant. It is the chipset inside the USB Wi-Fi adaptor that we should take care of. There is a lot of chipset that is supported by Kali Linux which can be used for performing various packet injection and other attack. The best one which is used by most of Wi-Fi pentesters is –
Atheros AR9271
This chipset support packet injection monitor mode and master mode which allows this to be used as an access point to create fake hotspot for Evil twin attack. The only problem with this chipset equal only support 2.4 gigahertz frequency only.
TP-Link N150 TL-WN722N (Version 1)
This is the best for Kali Linux WiFi adapter for Beginners. TP Link N150 TL-WN722N is a cheap and compact USB WiFi adapter that can act as a wifi adapter to your home desktop PC, an alternative to your inbuilt wifi chipset in your laptop and a really handy module during travel. This USB WiFi adapter complies with IEEE 802.11N and provides a speed upto 150Mbps.
This is a plug and play adapter that is compatible with most versions of Linux including Kali Linux. It also have a 3 dbi omni directional antenna with will extend the range of transmission/reception which makes it perfect for indoor penetration testing. This is the WiFi adapter that I Used for making Mobile Hacking Station Using Raspberry Pi .
Note – TP-Link N150 TL-WN722N Version 2 and 3 do have issues connecting with Kali Linux. But it will work with little bit of tweak. We reccomend TP-Link N150 TL-WN722N V1.
- Chipset: Atheros AR9271
- Supported OS – Windows 8.1 32/64bit, Windows 8 32/64bit, Windows 7(32/64bits), Windows Vista(32/64bits), Windows XP(32/64bits), Windows 2000, Ubuntu, Kali Linux, Debian
- Transmit Power <20dBm
- Frequency – 2.4 GHz
Click Here to Purchase TP-Link N150 TL-WN722N
Alfa AWUS036NHA
I have been using Alfa AWUS036NHA long-range network adapter and let me tell you guys this is the best WiFi adapter I have ever used. This one is compatible with any brand 802.11g or 802.11n router using 2.4ghz wavelength and supports mimo (multiple input multiple output) with high speed transfer TX data rate up to 150 mbps.
Click Here to Purchase Alfa AWUS036NHA. In my previous post, I explained how you can build a long range hacking station using the above mentioned WiFi Adapters.
- Chipset: Atheros AR9271
- Supported OS – Windows 8.1 32/64bit, Windows 8 32/64bit, Windows 7(32/64bits), Windows Vista(32/64bits), Windows XP(32/64bits), Windows 2000, Ubuntu, Kali Linux, Debian
- Transmitted Power – 28 dbm
- Frequency – 2.4 GHz
Ralink RT307
Alfa AWUS036NH
Alfa provides the best USB WiFi Adapters for penetration testing. AWUS036NH is the IEEE 802.11b/g/n Wireless USB adapter with 150 Mbps speed This is also compatible with IEEE 802.11b/g wireless devices at 54 Mbps. You can configure AWUS036NH with ad-hoc mode to connect to other 2.4GHz wireless computers, or with Infrastructure mode to connect to a wireless AP or router for accessing to Internet.
This is also a plug and play adapter that is compatible with most versions of Linux including Kali Linux.
Click Here to Purchase your Alfa AWUS036NH[AdSense-C]
The above product comes with a 5 dbi omni direction antenna as well as a 7 dbi panel antenna. It also comes with a clip which can be used to attach this adapter on a laptop.
- Chipset: Ralink RT307
- Supported OS – Windows 8.1 32/64bit, Windows 8 32/64bit, Windows 7(32/64bits), Windows Vista(32/64bits), Windows XP(32/64bits), Windows 2000, Ubuntu, Kali Linux, Debian
- Frequency – 2.4 GHz
ALFA AWUS036NEH
This is another compact Plug and play WiFi adapter that you can readily connect to Kali Linux PC and start you fun right away. Even though the device is so tiny, the long high gain wifi antenna will give you enough range to capture even low signal WiFi networks.
Click Here to Purchase your Alfa AWUS036NEH
This is compatible with Kali Linux as well as MAC and Windows devices. It is very handy and can be carried around anywhere and is best Kali linux wifi adapter for creating drop box using Raspberry Pi.
Realtek RTL88XX
Alfa AWUS1900
This USB WiFi Adapter will take your hacking skills to a whole new level. So far , this is the best WiFi adapter available for WiFi hackers. Even though its a bit costly, its totally worth the price.
It supports IEEE 802.11ac/a/n/g/b standards; that means it can manage 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz (dualband), have a USB 3.0 Interface with a Wireless data rate of 600 Mbps for 2.4GHz & up to 1300Mbps 5GHz.
Click Here to Purchase Your Alfa AWUS1900
The Box Contains
1 x AWUS1900 Wi-Fi Adapter
4 x Dual-band antennas
1 x USB 3.0 cable
1 x Screen clip
1 x Installation DVD-Rom
- Chipset: Realtek RTL8814U
- Standards: IEEE 802.11ac/a/n/g/b
- Interface: USB 3.0
- Wireless data rate: 2.4GHz [up to 600Mbps] & 5GHz [up to 1300Mbps]
- Wireless frequency: 2.4GHz/ 5GHz
- Wireless security: WEP, WPA, WPA2, WPA/PSK, WPA2-PSK
- Operation temp: 0-40°C
- Operating systems: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10 32/64bit, MacOS 10.12 supported, Linux kernel 3.0 supported
Alfa AWUS036ACH
A few months back Kali Linux 2021 rolling was released and the popular distro came up with a significant update – Support for RTL8812AU Wireless Chipset. Alfa AWUS036ACH is a beast, with dual antennas and dual band technology (2.4 GHz 300 Mbps/5 GHz 867 Mbps) supports 802.11ac and a, b, g, n.
These antennas are removable and if you want higher range, you can connect antenna with greater dbi value and use it as a long range wifi link which makes this one of the best WiFi Adapter. Click Here to Purchase Alfa AWUS036ACH
- Chipset: RTL8812
- Supported OS – Windows 10, Windows 8.1 , Windows 8 , Windows 7, Ubuntu, Kali Linux, Debian
- Frequency – 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz
Panda PAU06
The Panda 300Mbps Wireless 802.11n USB Adapter with High Gain Antenna (PAU06) upgrades the WiFi interface on your computer to the latest 802.11n standard. Your computer can communicate wirelessly with any 802.11g/n wireless router at home, coffee shops, etc.
This one can provide a data rate of up to 300 Mbps with 802.11n standard and is backward compatible with 802.11g 2.4GHz wireless networks. Supported security features include 64b/128bit WEP, WPA and WPA2 (TKIP+AES).
Click Here to Purchase Panda PAU06
Panda PAU09
This is another WiFi adapter for Kali Linux as well as parrot OS that works well with dualband WiFi routers. This means you will be able to attack both 2.4 GHz as well as 5 GHz WiFi Networks.
Click Here to Purchase Panda PAU09
Due to its low power operation mode (very low power consumption while operating), this can be used with Raspberry Pi dropbox as well as portable devices such as laptops. It has a maximum data rate of up to 300 Mpbs with an 802.11ac/n 2.4GHz & 5GHz networks. This adapter is reliable even on USB 3 and works great and fully supports both monitor mode and injection which is rare on a duel band card out of the box.
Kali Linux and WiFi Hacking
So far, Kali Linux has been one of the most widely used penetration testing OS of all time. It is packed with Ultimate weapons which can be used for performing various kinds of web application penetration testing, network attack as well as WiFi hacking. it has a live and active community that keeps on adding new tools and roll out the updates periodically. The only problem with Kali Linux is the lack of support for hardware devices which raises the question – Which is the Best WiFi Adapter which is compatible with Kali Linux which can perform various injection attacks using the tools packed in Kali Linux?
Why Do we use External USB WiFi Adapters?
A wireless adapter is simply a device which can be connected to our computer through the USB port and it allows us to communicate with other devices over a WiFi network. It is this wireless chipset that allows your mobile phone laptop or other devices which allows you to connect to your wifi network and access the internet or nearby devices.
So you may be asking why you need a USB WiFi adapter to connect your laptop because it already has an inbuilt WiFi chipset. Yes, you are right because most laptops and most of today’s smartphones have an inbuilt WiFi chipset. In WiFi hacking perspective, these inbuilt WiFi adapters are not apt for pentesting testing Wi-Fi networks. These are the problems with built-in Wi-Fi adaptors.
The inbuilt WiFi adapters cannot be used or accessed by virtual machines that are running on the laptop. Most of the inbuilt WiFi adapter cannot be used for WiFi hacking because they do not support all the WiFi modes and cannot perform injection attacks which are really essential.
Kali Linux WiFi Adapter
So even if you install Kali Linux as the main machine and it has access to the wireless card, you still won’t be able to perform WiFi attacks because these inbuilt WiFi adapters are not capable of performing various WiFi injection attacks And you won’t be able to do all cool stuff with aircrack-ng and other WiFi hacking tools which are packed inside Kali Linux.
How to Increase the Range of Your USB WiFi Adapter?
Most of the WiFi Routers and USB WiFi Adapter allows you to change the inbuilt antenna. Usually, the inbuilt WiFi adapter antenna that is provided by the manufacturer will be having 3 dbi or 5 dbi or some times upto 9 dbi power gain, which is very low when compared to the currently available antenna. So if your USB WiFi adapter does support an external antenna, you can get a higher gain antenna like a 12 dbi or a 24 dbi. That will surely increase WiFi range.
Click here to get a Long Range Powerful Antenna for your USB Adapter
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