[SOLVED] Why does TP-Link tend to make its wireless adapters not supporting monitor mode after they were supporting it, when upgrading it to new versions?

[mina_7]

 

[jojesa]

As you can see TP-Link makes the adapter, but does not make the network silicon chip on the device.
Atheros, Broadcom, Marvell, Qualcomm, Realtek, and a few others do manufacturer the chip.
The more features on a chip, the higher the costs, so they might decide to drop features that are used less.

 

[mina_7]

The more features on a chip

really ? or it's just Realtek more cheaper than Atheros ?

 

[Math Geek]

it does not take hardware for monitor mode. this is purely a software/firmware feature. if it is not there it is due to them disabling it or not including it in the software pack it comes with. you can see if there is 3rd party firmware that enables it or adds it to the software pack, but you do risk a lot doing that. like anything else, a mistake flashing firmware can brick the device.

the simple way is through other software. there are plenty of monitoring software packs that will allow for promiscuous mode and other analytics. they'll get it done if the built in software does not.

 

[mina_7]

but you do risk a lot doing that. like anything else, a mistake flashing firmware can brick the device.

flash the device !!? i never seen anyone does it to a wireless adapter

there is third party drivers out there but they mostly don't work properly.

it does not take hardware for monitor mode. this is purely a software/firmware feature

so in theory any adapter is capable of monitor mode with the correct driver , right ?

 

[Math Geek]

software to support it is needed. i use monitor mode often and never had a driver concern for it to work. it's software that makes it happen. software that comes with the adapter might be able to use it but in general i've mainly just used it from various software i use.

just grab some software that uses it and it should work fine. i'm not sure what you are trying to use right now that does not work, but i've never seen software with it as an option not work straight away.

 

[mina_7]

software to support it is needed. i use monitor mode often and never had a driver concern for it to work. it's software that makes it happen. software that comes with the adapter might be able to use it but in general i've mainly just used it from various software i use.

just grab some software that uses it and it should work fine. i'm not sure what you are trying to use right now that does not work, but i've never seen software with it as an option not work straight away.

ok thanks i generally use the aircrack suite which requires installing the drivers manually in case of the devices that doesn't support monitor mode like TL-WN822N even though it was supporting

 

[mina_7]

software to support it is needed. i use monitor mode often and never had a driver concern for it to work. it's software that makes it happen. software that comes with the adapter might be able to use it but in general i've mainly just used it from various software i use.

just grab some software that uses it and it should work fine. i'm not sure what you are trying to use right now that does not work, but i've never seen software with it as an option not work straight away.

hi mate i don't think that it's only about software here is why

a reply i got from reddit
he is talking about ASIC implementation

Modern hardware doesn't really support it anymore, most chipsets are built on old process nodes and they try to squeeze every penny out of those controllers and they literally lack the hardware implementation for it
Even with FOSS drivers the hardware capability is lacking - the software can ask for monitoring mode, but the chip replies with i'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do that - even if the drivers do support it and can work around the older generations improper implementation cough Realtek cough
I've seen some BT & WiFi controllers using FPGAs, where with the driver installation you flash the firmware into the chip and the firmware with RFMON won't fit into the available memory.
Some fully fledged wifi+bt adapters do support it (Apple MacBooks use those IIRC) but they are expensive (above $30 per chip) and their driver is proprietary, where it maybe disabled for other platforms.
And here we come back to Alfa who's USB devices are on the expensive side, but they do support it

 

[bill001g]

Maybe a better question is why does tplink constantly change the hardware chipsets in their equipment and keep the same model number...other that some silly version number.

It is the chipset vendor that must have the feature in their chip and also release a driver that can use the feature. The driver they release that can be used in public domain things like linux is different than some of the drivers that a router can use even though it is the same chip.

Have not looked at this in years. It is pretty much a waste of time because of things like mimo. It is almost impossible to get all the parts of a signal since the pattern is different than the 2 end points. I have not see a chipset has monitor mode on 802.11ac either. With the old chips all you will see are the beacon message from router. Most people lost interest when pretty much all wifi signals became encrypted.

 

[Math Geek]

hi mate i don't think that it's only about software here is why

a reply i got from reddit
he is talking about ASIC implementation

it sounds like he knows what he is talking about but i've not had any issues using the feature on various systems including my new module on my aorus pro wifi mobo. i use Kali linux a lot to do a lot of stuff and not had any issues nor any requests for drivers. this may be a brand new issue i have just not run across yet, so i can't say 100% it's not true or if it is.

but you seem to be experiencing it. is there another adapter you can try to test the theory out?