Acrylic WiFi software works with all existing WiFi cards on Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10. Monitor mode WiFi capture is and advanced capability supported by Acrylic with most WLAN cards.
Some WiFi cards drivers don’t adequately report information about the signal level or WiFi channel on which the measurement is made, limiting its use to generate WiFi coverage maps under monitor mode. There are two main WLAN cards groups that support monitor mode WiFi under Windows, as shown below:
1 – Generic monitor mode WiFi cards: Standard WiFi cards (less expensive ones) on which monitor mode is supported by the hardware and by vendor drivers under windows. Its performance has been verified with Acrylic WiFi NDIS Driver and supports Wireshark integration. WiFi cards with Broadcom chipsets are fully compatible with NDIS and monitor mode under windows.
ZyXEL MediaTek Dual-Band Wireless N450 USB Adapter
b/g/n
a/n
Good
ZyXEL N220 802.11bgn Wireless Adapter
b/g/n
-
Good
ZyXEL NWD-270N Wireless N-lite USB Adapter
b/g/n
-
Good
ZyXEL NWD2105 802.11bgn Wireless Adapter
b/g/n
a/n
Good
ZyXEL NWD211AN 802.11abgn Wireless Adapter
b/g/n
a/n
Good
See 270 compatible adapters
Note: Acrylic Wi-Fi Professional compatible adapters (no additional software required)
Broadcom BCM43236
b/g/n
a/n
Very Good
Linksys AE2500 N600
b/g/n
a/n
Very Good
Asus USB-AC53 (Nano version NOT supported)
b/g/n
a/n/ac
Very Good
NetGear A6200
b/g/n
a/n/ac
Very Good
Belkin F9L1106az v1
b/g/n
a/n/ac
Very Good
D-Link DWA-182 Revision A1 a/g/n/ac
b/g/n
a/n/ac
Very Good
BT 11ac Dual Band Wi-Fi Dongle 900
b/g/n
a/n/ac
Very Good
Buffalo AC866 N300 Dual Band Wi-Fi Dongle WI-U2-866D
b/g/n
a/n/ac
Very Good
D-Link Wireless DWA-110 b/g
b/g/n
-
Very Good
Qualcom Atheros AR5BMD222 b/g/n
b/g/n
a/n
Good
Qualcom Atheros AR9002WB-1NG
b/g/n
a/n
Good
Broadcom BCM94352HMB 802.11ac 2x2 WI-FI Adapter
b/g/n
a/n
Good
D-Link DWA-182 Revision A1 a/g/n/ac
b/g/n
a/n
Good
Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1030 B/G/n
b/g/n
a/n
Good
TP-LINK TL-WN722N v1 (v2 NOT supported)
b/g/n
a/n
Good
AR5008X ABGN
b/g/n
a/n
Good
Ralink RT2870/3070 / Alpha
b/g/n
a/n
Limited
Qualcom Atheros AR9485WB-EG b/g/n
b/g/n
a/n
Limited
NetGear WiFi A6210
b/g/n
a/n
Limited
Qualcom Atheros AR5B97802.11a/b/g/n
b/g/n
a/n
Limited
Qualcom Atheros AR5B95
b/g/n
a/n
Limited
Dell wireless 1702 b/g/n
b/g/n
a/n
Limited
Cisco Linksys AE3000
b/g/n
a/n
Limited
UBIQUITI SR71 USB
b/g/n
a/n
Limited
Proxim 8494-WD 802.11a/b/g/n
b/g/n
a/n
Limited
RTL8187 chipset (bg)
b/g/n
a/n
Limited
Airpcap Classic
b/g/n
-
Good
Airpcap Tx
b/g/n
-
Good
Airpcap Nx
b/g/n
a/n
Good
Legend
Recommended
It perfectly works in monitor mode. It has the best capabilities to capture. This card is recommended.
Very Good
It perfectly works in monitor mode. Does not support the latest WiFi standards
Good
It can be set to monitor mode but RSSI values may not display correctly or return malformed packets.
Limited
Can be put in monitor mode, incorrect RSSI, can stop capturing after a while or return malformed packets.
2 – Professional hardware: WiFi hardware product developed by Riverbed that supports native capture under Windows with excellent performance and signal precision levels. Airpcap devices are expensive (200$ – 600$) and are compatible with Acrylic WiFi Professional and Acrylic WiFi Heatmaps.
Airpcap Classic – b/g/n
Airpcap Tx – a/b/g/n
Airpcap Nx
Recommended monitor mode WiFi cards
We hope to increase the number of compatible WiFi cards supported by improving our driver and by contacting manufacturers to include NDIS support properly. Hoever, any card can work using native capture mode “WLAN API”, by disabling monitor mode on Acrylic WiFi device selector. We recommend your to purchase D-Link DWA-182 Revision A1 (Revision C1 uses an incompatible chipset), Netgear A6200 or Asus USB-AC53 for fully monitor mode capable Wi-Fi cards.
Send us an email to support@acrylicWiFi.com to report us information about hardware compatibility and we will update our list.
If you have compatible hardware, want to test your WiFi card and want to try an advanced WLAN sniffer give a try to our products:
Acrylic Wi-Fi Home: Free WiFi scanner for windows that provides information about networks, channels, connected clients and speed..
Acrylic Wi-Fi Profesional: Professional WLAN analysis and advanced wireless networks information (Trial available).
Acrylic Wi-Fi HeatMaps: Wireless site survey WiFi, coverage analysis and WiFi heat maps (Trial available).
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