Repo Status

Ready for use.

The entire contents of multiple Alfa driver DVDs have been uploaded here, containing Windows, Mac, and Linux drivers for Alfa wifi adapters and products.

DRIVER INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE AWUS036AC, HOWEVER, ARE A WORK IN PROGRESS.

1. Update 28 Feb. 2021: I've given up trying to get this 36AC 2.4/5GHz wifi adapter to work properly and reliably on Linux. See my notes below where I start with "as of 28 Feb. 2021". If you have a good recommendation for an alternative high-speed 5GHz adapter WHICH PREFERABLY ALSO HAS AN EXTERNAL ANTENNA connector, please do tell.
2. Update 12 May. 2021: I have found the BrosTrend WiFi adapters to be THE BEST FOR LINUX! See my BrosTrend notes and links below.

AlfaWiFiAdapterSoftware

This is the software that comes on the CDs with Alfa WiFi adapters. Since most modern computers don't have CD/DVD drives anymore, I find the CDs to be inconvenient, hence why I'm making this repo.

I'll also add a few of my personal installation notes for these Alfa drivers on Linux Ubuntu, as I figure out how to do it.

By Gabriel Staples
www.ElectricRCAircraftGuy.com

Table of Contents

(click to expand or hide)

1. All of my Wifi adapter repos:
2. Wiki Instructions
3. My Instructions
4. Alfa Driver DVDs
   1. Disk 1: ALFA_Driver_DVD_old
   2. Disk 2: ALFA_Driver_DVD_v3.0
   3. Disk copy instructions on Linux
5. License
6. Driver Installation Instructions on Linux
   1. 1. Alfa AWUS036NH 2000mW Tx Power 2.4GHz USB Wi-Fi adapter
      1. SPEED:
      2. INSTALL DRIVER:
      3. CONNECT AND CONFIGURE:
   2. 2. Alfa AWUS036AC 802.11ac Long Range AC1200 Dual Band 2.4GHz/5GHz WiFi USB adapter
      1. SPEED:
      2. INSTALL DRIVER:
      3. CONNECT AND CONFIGURE:

All of my Wifi adapter repos:

• If you are using Linux and desire a high-speed WiFi adapter, I recommend this BrosTrend Wifi adapter above all others! It installs with a simple 1-line or 3-line command and has an excellent installation script, as well as great performance, speed, and range.
• If you are using Linux and need a Wifi adapter which is plug-and-play and requires NO driver installation, and are okay with it being a bit slower than the BrosTrend one above, then buy a Panda Wifi adapter like this one instead.

My Wifi Repositories:

1. BrosTrendWifiAdapterSoftware - (BEST WIFI ADAPTER FOR LINUX, HANDS-DOWN!)
2. AlfaWiFiAdapterSoftware
3. RealtekWiFiAdapterSoftware

Wiki Instructions

Anyone can edit this wiki to add your own instructions on how to install whatever Alfa or similar driver on any operating system, whether Windows, Mac, Linux, or something else.

My Instructions

For my personal notes and driver installation instructions, see this section of the readme, below: "Driver Installation Instructions on Linux".

Alfa Driver DVDs

Disk 1: ALFA_Driver_DVD_old

• This is the driver installation DVD which came with my Alfa AWUS036NH 2000mW 2.4GHz USB Wi-Fi adapter for $25 from Rokland here.
• You can also get it in this bigger kit for $45 here.
• It appears to be the older of the two disks.
• Its size is 2.8 GB.
• See its directory structure here, or browse its files above or by clicking on the data DVD disk image to the right.

Disk 2: ALFA_Driver_DVD_v3.0 [recommended]

• This is the driver installation DVD which came with my Alfa AWUS036AC 802.11ac Long Range AC1200 Dual Band 2.4GHz/5GHz WiFi USB Dongle for $29 from Rokland here.
• It appears to be the newer of the two disks, and it says "v3.0" on the front of it.
• Its size is 3.0 GB.
• See its directory structure here, or browse its files above or by clicking on the data DVD disk image to the right.

Disk copy instructions on Linux

References:

1. [my own answer] https://askubuntu.com/questions/17275/how-to-show-the-transfer-progress-and-speed-when-copying-files-with-cp/1275972#1275972
2. https://fideloper.com/user-group-permissions-chmod-apache

Here is how I copied the entire contents of the DVDs above on my Linux Ubuntu computer, FROM directory /media/gabriel/ALFA Driver DVD TO directory ~/GS/dev/AlfaWiFiAdapterSoftware:

# First, do a dry run to make sure the statistics summary at the end all looks good, and that
# "Number of deleted files" (meaning: files it's going to delete from your destination directory)
# is 0.
time rsync -rah --dry-run --info=progress2 --stats '/media/gabriel/ALFA Driver DVD' ~/GS/dev/AlfaWiFiAdapterSoftware

# When ready, remove the `--dry-run` flag above to actually do the copy. In the event there are any
# disk read errors, simply re-run this command repeatedly until you no longer get any errors and it
# all passes. Any read errors will show up live in the `rsync` terminal output while the command
# runs. If you get read errors, you may need to clean the disk and try again. `rsync` is great in
# that it scans for and only copies changes between source and destination, which makes it as though
# it can pick up where it left off, so re-running the command is usually very fast.
time rsync -rah --info=progress2 --stats '/media/gabriel/ALFA Driver DVD' ~/GS/dev/AlfaWiFiAdapterSoftware

# Once done copying, add (`+`) read/write (`rw`) privileges for your user and group (`ug`) to all
# files you just copied (in the destination directory), like this. This allows you to be able to
# move, modify, rename, etc. them as you see fit using your favorite file manager, such as nemo (my
# favorite; see here for how to install it: https://askubuntu.com/a/1173861/327339) or nautilus (the
# default that comes with Ubuntu).
cd ~/GS/dev/AlfaWiFiAdapterSoftware
chmod -R ug+rw 'ALFA Driver DVD'

Here is --stats summary I saw after running the command above. It copied 2.98 GB of data in 17 min. 31.65 sec., at an average rate of ~2.83 MB/sec. I used this external CD/DVD drive which I bought for $27 from Amazon. It works great! It was plug-and-play on Linux Ubuntu, and required no special setup. I just plugged it into a single USB 3.0 port, from where it drew power as well, and it worked with no problem.

$ time rsync -rah --info=progress2 --stats '/media/gabriel/ALFA Driver DVD' ~/GS/dev/AlfaWiFiAdapterSoftware
          2.98G 100%    2.71MB/s    0:17:29 (xfr#3920, to-chk=0/4944)   

Number of files: 4,944 (reg: 3,920, dir: 1,024)
Number of created files: 4,944 (reg: 3,920, dir: 1,024)
Number of deleted files: 0
Number of regular files transferred: 3,920
Total file size: 2.98G bytes
Total transferred file size: 2.98G bytes
Literal data: 2.98G bytes
Matched data: 0 bytes
File list size: 65.53K
File list generation time: 0.001 seconds
File list transfer time: 0.000 seconds
Total bytes sent: 2.98G
Total bytes received: 81.34K

sent 2.98G bytes  received 81.34K bytes  2.83M bytes/sec
total size is 2.98G  speedup is 1.00

real    17m31.650s
user    0m41.922s
sys 0m19.801s

License

ALFA HAS THEIR OWN LICENSES TO COVER THEIR OWN SOFTWARE HEREIN!

Whatever licenses Alfa has on this software is their business. I do not pretend to override their licenses by adding my own licence and license file to this repo. The license file I've added to this repo is only for the content I add here which is not otherwise bound by any other license by Alfa or anyone else.

Driver Installation Instructions on Linux

Here are the drivers I've installed for my use on Linux, and how I installed them.

1. Alfa AWUS036NH 2000mW Tx Power 2.4GHz USB Wi-Fi adapter
2. Alfa AWUS036AC 802.11ac Long Range AC1200 Dual Band 2.4GHz/5GHz WiFi USB adapter

1. Alfa AWUS036NH 2000mW Tx Power 2.4GHz USB Wi-Fi adapter

Tested on Ubuntu 20.04.

SPEED:

This is an old and slow 2.4 GHz-only adapter. See below.

INSTALL DRIVER:

NA. The device is just plug-and-play on Ubuntu now. You don't have to manually install any driver!

CONNECT AND CONFIGURE:

1. With all external wifi adapters UNPLUGGED, see what the name is of your internal wifi card, so we can disable it to force the computer to use the external wifi USB adapter instead.

   iwconfig
   

   Mine shows enp0s31f6, wlan0 (connected to my wifi network ESSID), and lo. So, wlan0 is my internal wifi card.

2. Plug in the external USB adapter, and run iwconfig again. I now see a wlan2 adapter as well. That is my external USB adapter.

3. Disable my internal wifi card (wlan0 in my case) (source):

   # Turn OFF your internal wifi card, which you previously determined
   # to be `wlan0`
   # 1) (what I usually use)
   sudo ifconfig wlan0 down
   # 2) OR:
   # sudo ip link set wlan0 down
   
   # Note: if you ever need to turn it back on, simply run this:
   # 1) (what I usually use)
   # sudo ifconfig wlan0 up
   # 2) OR:
   # sudo ip link set wlan0 up

4. Now, manually connect your USB adapter to your wifi network: click the drop-down menu at the top-right of your Ubuntu screen --> click the little arrow next to "Wi-Fi Not Connected" --> choose "Select Network", and connect from there. See the image below:

   

5. Once you've connected, run iwconfig again:

   iwconfig

   You should see that wlan2 (your external USB wifi adapter) is now connected to your network's ESSID (wifi network name) with Frequency:2.447 GHz, since this USB adapter works on 2.4GHz only. wlan0 (your internal wifi card) should NOT be connected to anything now. Also take a look at your key connection information in the iwconfig output to see the quality of your connection, such as the following:

   Frequency:2.447 GHz
   Bit Rate=72.2 Mb/s   Tx-Power=30 dBm
   Link Quality=70/70  Signal level=-19 dBm  
   

   A bit rate of 72.2 Mb/sec is normal for this AWUS036NH 2.4GHz adapter, and a link quality of 70/70 with a signal level of -19 dBm is pretty much perfect. You can't get much better than that! Higher numbers are better. A really weak signal might look like Quality=39/70 Signal level=-71 dBm. To scan for all possible networks to connect to, run:

   iwlist wlan2 scanning

   And, to search specifically just for your ESSID for your network, filter that output with this command (source: see my comment under this answer here):

   iwlist wlan2 scanning | grep -C5 -i 'my_network_name'

6. You may now go to https://speedtest.net to run a speed test to verify the speed of your connection, or use their speedtest CLI tool from the command-line:

   speedtest

   Maximum real-life speeds (even at extremely close range) for this Alfa AWUS036NH 2.4GHz USB wifi adapter are ~5~20 Mbps download (usually closer to 5 Mbps, but also depends highly on the quality and transmit power of your router) and ~8~20 Mbps upload. It is NOT a high-speed adapter. Instead, it is a high power (2000mW Tx power--highest on the market!--even today in the year 2021, despite it being made originally in like 2011 or something!) and long range wifi adapter! That's what its specialties are: high transmit power and long range, NOT high speed!

   Again, as far as speed and wifi technology is concerned, this adapter is actually very old and very slow. Despite that, and despite its age, however, it is still perhaps the most powerful consumer wifi adapter available on the market today, even as of Feb. 2021.

7. Done!

Notes to self:

You don't need to do this below anymore, since Ubuntu comes with driver support for this Realtek RT chipset 3070, rev 0201 now. (See dmesg output after plugging in this Wifi adapter to see that it is the 3070 chipset).

References:

1. https://askubuntu.com/questions/148767/how-do-i-install-the-ralink-rt3070-wireless-driver/148786#148786

    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install build-essential flex bison
    tar -xjvf 2011_0719_RT3070_RT3370_RT5370_RT5372_Linux_STA_V2.5.0.3_DPO.bz2
    cd 2011_0719_RT3070_RT3370_RT5370_RT5372_Linux_STA_V2.5.0.3_DPO
   

2. Alfa AWUS036AC 802.11ac Long Range AC1200 Dual Band 2.4GHz/5GHz WiFi USB adapter

SPEED:

TBD. See below.

INSTALL DRIVER:

Tested on Linux Ubuntu 20.04 with kernel 5.4.0-48-generic (see the output of uname -r to see your kernel version).

With the device NOT plugged in, do:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential git dkms libelf-dev linux-headers-`uname -r`
mkdir ~/Downloads/Install_Files/wifi
cd ~/Downloads/Install_Files/wifi
time git clone https://github.com/aircrack-ng/rtl8812au.git
cd rtl8812au
time sudo ./dkms-install.sh

Now reboot.

Done! Now jump to "Connect and Configure" below.

Sample commands to this wifi adapter:

# turn device OFF (set interface down)
sudo ifconfig wlan0 down        # what I usually use
# sudo ip link set wlan0 down   # alternative form

# turn device ON (set interface up)
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up          # what I usually use
# sudo ip link set wlan0 up     # alternative form

NB: per the link below, do NOT use the below commands on this device. Use the ip link set commands above instead.

sudo ifconfig wlan0 down  # they say do NOT use; use `sudo ip link set wlan0 down` instead
sudo ifconfig wlan0 up    # they say do NOT use; use `sudo ip link set wlan0 up` instead

For more info. and commands, see here: https://github.com/aircrack-ng/rtl8812au. I'm not sure how important or legitimate their recommendation here is, but they say:

* Use "ip" and "iw" instead of "ifconfig" and "iwconfig"
     It's described further down, READ THE README!

Notes to self:

1. Driver from Alfa won't build; seems to be an incompatibility issue with Linux kernels more recent than like 5 years ago.

        tar -xvf AWUS036AC_036EAC_ACH_linux_v4.3.2_11100.20140411.tar
        cd AWUS036AC_036EAC_ACH_linux_v4.3.2_11100.20140411
        make
   

   FAILS TO BUILD! See my build errors here: gnab/rtl8812au#207

2. The Alfa AWUS036AC is here: https://www.alfa.com.tw/products_detail/3.htm

   1. It uses the "Realtek RTL8812AU" chipset, so that's what I need to install drivers for!

3. Sample google searches:

   1. "AWUS036AC_036EAC_ACH_linux_v4.3.2_11100.20140411 no member named 'data'"
   2. "Realtek RTL8812AU linux driver install github"

4. Sample driver repos for this chipset (Realtek RTL8812AU):

   1. ***** [1114 commits; active 9 days ago; has tons of versions; seems to be the most up-to-date] https://github.com/aircrack-ng/rtl8812au
   2. https://github.com/gordboy/rtl8812au-5.6.4.2
   3. **** https://github.com/gnab/rtl8812au
      1. Issue I opened: gnab/rtl8812au#207
   4. ***** [2352 commits; active 13 days ago] https://github.com/ulli-kroll/rtl8821au

CONNECT AND CONFIGURE:

See and follow the "Connect and Configure" instructions for the "AWUS036NH" adapter above.

Note that when I run iwconfig with this Alfa AWUS036AC adapter plugged in, I see that it is called wlx00c0caabd977. If I unplug it and plug it back in, however, its name may get changed, and sometimes it is called wlan0 even, while my internal wifi card becomes wlan1. You can tell which device is this external AWUS036AC adapter because it says Nickname:"<WIFI@REALTEK>" in the first line of iwconfig output for this device.

When viewing the output from iwconfig, a bit rate of ~174 Mbps is normal for this adapter when connected to a 2.4GHz network. In short-range situations where my laptop's internal 2.4GHz network card gets 30~50Mbps download and 20Mbps upload speeds, this adapter, on 2.4Ghz, get's a measly 4~10 Mbps download and 3~10 Mbps upload. I'm not sure why it sucks so bad. Perhaps it's the driver?

On a 5GHz network...todo.

...as of 28 Feb. 2021 I still can't get this adapter to work properly and reliably on Linux. I'm giving up and looking to buy another adapter that works better with Linux Ubuntu (perhaps the Panda adapters?--but they seem old and low-tech too). If you figure out this Alfa adapter, or have other adapter recommendations for me or are willing to share your experience with me, please open an "Issue" or Pull Request on GitHub here to let me know. Thanks. (Update 12 May 2021: I use BrosTrend on Linux now--see my links to them above.)

---

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