Alfa 500mW USB adapter and RTL8187 WLAN utility

Alfa 500mw USB adapter

I just took delivery of this last week and have been trying ever since to get it to work with no luck. The product has no online support, either from the manufacturer (Taiwan) or the peope who import and sell it on eBay. I'm hoping someone here might have some experience with either the adapter or the WLAN utility that manages and configures it...or any pointers to help me.

I have a Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop running Vista Home Basic (32-bit) with no networking problems when using two other wireless adapters, other than weak signal.

The Alfa advertising and packaging both say the adapter is Vista compatible. However, the install CD contains only a Vista driver for the adapter but not the wireless LAN utility, so there is no way to configure it. It will only install on an OS running XP or older, or Linux.

I try Windows Zero Configuration (WZC) utility to connect to APs broadcasting in the -64 to -92 dBi range and the adapter gets no response, there is no "handshake" at all.. But both of my other adapters will connect to these same APs with varying degrees of throughput, depending on conditions.

I found a WLAN utility called WiFi Hopper that also works fine with my two other wireless adapters but not the Alfa. I haven't been able to download the Realtek RTL8187 suite of drivers because the site is always down when I can get a decent connection...like now. Realtek has a number of drivers and utilities updated since the ones on my install disk, so I don't know if there is a fix for the Vista incompatibility issue or I got ripped off for being dumb enough to buy a deceptively advertised and/or faulty product.

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of this adapter? Thanks in advance for any help.

Well I have downloaded all the various drivers and tried different configurations, still can't connect to anything. Seems like my adapter is not pinging the AP.

Anyone got any ideas at all?

i have the same problems just recieved mine yesterday no luck with vista 64 bit at all

I have another problem almost related to the one you are having. I have this alfa that i bought recently cause i cannot get a wifi signal on my room though we do have a wifi on our building. But then after i installed everything it cannot find the wifi on our building even you are infront of the acces point still it will not detect. I wonder what seems to be the problem cause it can connect and detect to another wifi outside our building but the nearby it cannot. if anyone has some suggestion or can give me reason why alfa cannot detect the nearby signal please email me or reply to this.

alvin3_2000@yahoo.com

64 bit vista?.. I just recieved my Realtek 500mW USB adapter through Wi-Wi Link.com and it is working just fine for me. I am, though, likewise a bit tiffed about Realtek's website, too. But So far so good. Running it mounted in watertight enclosure on my van with a 24dBi V-Yagi Directional and I am estatic with the range and signal strength.

Yeah, the 'magnetic' mount is a bit lame.. Pretty powerful little magnets, may re-use them elsewhere.

Besides, I got this rig all FREE ( including the adapter) so I am NOT complaining over a little bit of lack of support.

Right, Guys.. Dud you remeber to install the antenna BEFORE connecting to your compters? Radios ( like the adapters) that are powered on without antennas connected can cause the devices to destruct..albiet quietly.

Like I poseted just previously.. I , personally have had no prblems with realtek based hardware or the software... BTW 64bit ADAPTABLE does not mean will work great with 64 bit. Have you tried running the install in either XP or vista 32 bit compatability modes?

here is link to correct driver package, make sure it is rtl8187L

Realtek

Choose the auto install option(make sure you remove all realtek drivers for utility first from add/rem programs. (for os vista, xp, etc this is item to download)

If you run windows update manually, you willl see an option to 'upgrade hardware' (other updates) for your alfa adapter, this will give you the latest driver for this item.

Well I downloaded the RTL8187L driver package and did a clean install and it still didn't work. I finally took it down to the coffee shop just to try it with a different router and confirmed that the adapter is in fact working. Which is a big relief because I was really worried I had a defective product and the guy that sold it to me is useless, no way I'd ever get my money back.

For some reason it won't connect to the open networks around my house but it will connect to the encrypted one at the coffee shop. I used the small 3" dipole antenna at the coffee shop but at the house I have a 15 dBi panel antenna mounted on a tripod on my balcony connected to about 20' of low loss cable. The signals with this antenna are VERY strong and the range must be quite good too because the number of networks I'm detecting is insane.

The only thing I can figure is the cable is bad or I am getting feedback or interference somehow. I'll keep trying and post back here with the results.

try the small antenna 3" long approx that came w unit, try moving antenna to different spots; for example if near a window, try moving a few inches away from window or screen. Its kind of odd you mention vista as I have a newer hp laptop w vista that I cannot get the alfa to work w that part OS although w windows 7 rc, it works great as long as you initially use the cd to install the drivers then use windows update to search for updated drivers by opening device mgr, then update" allow windows update to update driver" option.
You will find(listen up everybody) that w the same hardware setup, antenna pointed the same direction w the most recent drivers, your download and browsing speed will be 10 to 20% faster with windows 7 rc as compared to windows xp!! (this done w a 500mw alfa adapter w stock small antenna)

TOO LOUD is just as bad as too weak. As the previous poster said, try it with the stock antenna first. Taking a alleged 500mw booster into a 12db gain antenna creates quite a bit of TX power, perhaps too much for close up work.