The "Don't Buy This Hardware" Thread

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=15935

The processor is ultra-slow, memory is limited, both are soldered and thus non-upgradeable, internal connectors vary within the same models (making spare parts hard to locate), you can't upgrade to a newer Android/Windows CE, and most important: you can barely do the simplest of tasks on them. Also, good luck if the operating system ever fails and you need to reflash, because factory firmwares are all lost and you rely on the bootloader implementing the SD card boot feature at all.

Definitely a waste of the $100 sellers have the audacity of asking for a new one.

Still, if you have nothing better to do and still want to try reflashing one, the F1 password is: ztk

Price paid: $88, used

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=16723

Randomly overwrites sectors with "USBC".

Price paid: $1, new

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=16722

Couldn't get it to connect no matter what.

Price paid: $14, used

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=16721

Client mode is a nightmare to set up. 2 MB flash means no open firmware support unless you solder a bigger chip.

Price paid: $14, used

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=16724

Finding the right drivers requires some research - good luck if you're on Windows 8 or above. Indoor range is less than 10 meters, and power output is always limited to 100 mW. I was fooled by the stellar reviews and bought two :pinch:

Price paid: $13.50 each, new

Two things that I learned so far in buying things:

1. never buy the cheapest item
2. when in doubt, always the most expensive item

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Originally Posted by Master Razor

when in doubt, always the most expensive item

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the most expensive item is almost certainly overpriced, sometimes ridiculously so - how is that a good option for the average user?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Master Razor

Two things that I learned so far in buying things:

1. never buy the cheapest item
2. when in doubt, always the most expensive item

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No. 1 is true, as you get burnt more often than not with those. No. 2 is debatable.

Another tip: check the used goods market. Prices are lower, and you can haggle to bring them down even more. You won't get a warranty, of course, but people rarely misrepresent a faulty item as good.

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=16772

I'm thinking of adding these antennas to the list, since the following tests seem to indicate the "11 dBi" gain is actually between 5 and 8 instead. However, at the same time, I feel they may not be conclusive. Feedback is appreciated.

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=16775

(Scans were run for 60 seconds; row color indicates security type and is not related to signal strength)

Price paid: $9.70 each, new

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Originally Posted by slikrapid

the most expensive item is almost certainly overpriced, sometimes ridiculously so - how is that a good option for the average user?

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The average option is usually best value for money, I've found, if you had to make a wild guess about anything you don't know anything about.
Too cheap is crap, too expensive is overpriced and in some cases worse than the average priced item (e.g. paying a lot for the brand).

If anything, I've learned that you shouldn't buy things on a whim. As soon as it's over 50 dollars, I research the shit out of it. Anything under 50 is still whim-worthy.

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Originally Posted by anon

I'm thinking of adding these antennas to the list

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I've learned that by just wrapping your existing antenna's with tin foil already helps. I'm actually very interested in seeing a comparison!

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Originally Posted by Sazzy

I've learned that by just wrapping your existing antenna's with tin foil already helps.

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funny, so a tin foil wrapping (aka aluminum foil hat) can actually increase range or intensity of EM-waves (of certain frequencies)

Code:

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_foil_hat

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sazzy

I've learned that by just wrapping your existing antenna's with tin foil already helps. I'm actually very interested in seeing a comparison!

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I know that sticking a tinfoil "extension" at the tip of the antenna can improve reception, but wrapping it is news to me. I'll try to test both + the beer can signal enhancer soon.

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=16778

Today I removed the onboard antenna of my media center. I was unhappy with it for a long time now and thought it was the chipset screwing me over. I was about to spend another 50 dollars on a second high quality wifi card when I thought about this thread. So I ended up unscrewing this piece of shit:

Attachment 16781

And ended up putting the antenna of my old router on there (larger than my hand so pretty big):

Attachment 16782

My wifi speed has increased from 52 mbps to 585mbps!! Holy fuck :lol: Signal is a lot better, too. Previously, signal was meh on 2.4GHz and really shitty on 5GHz. (thus it never went on 5 because it was so bad)

Also, aesthetically far more pleasing since i no longer have a box hanging out of my cupboard and the antenna actually fit nicely behind the case inside the cupboard. (e.g. when it's open it still looks nice)

Antenna cabling isn't lossless like Ethernet or USB, it attenuates signal in both directions - and with a cable as long as the one on your first image, the losses can be significant. This in addition to many other factors that also affect signal strength (antenna gain, polarization, orientation, Rx sensitivity, Tx power, interference, chipset quality).

Drivers also play an important role - a bad driver can half your speeds, even if all other conditions are fine. Under Linux, all you have to do is pick the latest open source one and it's almost guaranteed to give good results; Windows users are not so fortunate. The xiaopan.co have lots of research on which adapter/driver combos work best.

Also, wireless equipment manufactured in or for Europe must comply with ETSI regulations, which limit maximum power output to 100 mW. Most chips can safely do at least a bit more that, so using European firmware effectively turns your routers and adapters into crippleware. For comparison, America allows up to 1000 mW (in theory).

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=16801

I bought this card for my old laptop, thinking the acclaimed RTL8187L chipset would make a good replacement for its RTL8188CE (which is 11n capable, but cannot see a lot of networks and disconnects sometimes). Unfortunately, I was wrong. This one only detects 3-4 networks and has trouble connecting at all, even with excellent signal, all else being equal.

Also have a generic one with two antenna connectors, but this laptop only has a single antenna, so I can't make a proper test for now.

Price paid: $6.60 each, used

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=16800

Don't know what to make of this one. Under Windows (at least), ejecting a device connected to it ejects the entire hub. On the other side, everything else seems to work fine, and it cost a fifth of what a new USB 3.0 hub of any brand goes for. Unless it lets me down in the following days, consider this a neutral vote.

Price paid: $13.30, used

I updated my other posts with the amounts of money each device cost at the time.

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Originally Posted by anon

Unless it lets me down in the following days, consider this a neutral vote.

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No letdowns so far, and the hub is pretty tough. Works for hours on end without any problems. I currently have an optical mouse, a external 2.5" hard disk and a high-power wireless adapter connected to it with no power supply, and everything's fine (I'm guessing the sum of their power consumption is lower than I expected).

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Originally Posted by anon

image

Finding the right drivers requires some research - good luck if you're on Windows 8 or above. Indoor range is less than 10 meters, and power output is always limited to 100 mW. I was fooled by the stellar reviews and bought two :pinch:

Price paid: $13.50 each, new

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anon mate - i've gotta disagree with you there - those wifi adapters are AWESOME, depending on what you're using them for. - they have decent range and power, plus they support packet injection - great for certain 'tasks' ;)

try this google search and jump to 'images' - "nexus 7 nethunter tp link tl-wn722n"

the tl wn722n wifi adapter connected to a nexus 7 running kali linux nethunter gives you the most powerful micro penetration testing setup available without a laptop computer! :D

The 20 dBm cap is okay, but range was horrible in my experience. I see a lot of networks, but can only connect to two or three of them. On those, there's regular packet loss and some disconnections, which doesn't happen with other adapters. And I've tried different driver combinations. I knew about their injection capabilities and considered that a plus at the time of buying, but my main interest was having an adapter that's better than my laptop's integrated one, and cheap enough. Reviews said it complied, reality disagreed. Linux experience might differ, that OS is much better than Windows when it comes to wireless drivers.

TP-Link did make an adapter that's great both for "tasks" and regular usage: the TL-WN7200ND. Not as great as the Alfa AWUS036H, which can literally get a signal from a block away, but then again what is :wwink:

Did the image search, wasn't disappointed. Didn't even know there was a version of Kali for tablets. I have yet to find a good means of mobile pentesting that doesn't involve dual-booting, although the Wi-Fi Pineapple looks awesome. My first networks were done with OpenWrt and a travel router, but internal antennas limit you a lot.

don't buy Lenovo X1 carbon laptop.
screen options are not good: the lower resolution is dull, bad viewing angles, not enough brightness and the high rez is too high for such a small screens size, you need a microscope in windows.
plus their fancy Adaptive Keyboard is a nightmare to use.

tako, since you spoke well of the TL-WN722N adapter and I have an open mind :smilie4: I decided to give it another try.

After installing the 7.7.0.150 XP drivers on Windows 7, and forcing 802.11g mode, signal strength was still lackluster, but I surprisingly get better speeds than with my other three adapters, and latency is lower. So either this one underreports its RSSI, or the others exaggerate it (the AWUS036H definitely does, good reception and all). Guess it's just a matter of finding the right drivers and/or settings.

Also, Linux performance is good and I found a way to "use" Linux wireless drivers on Windows, which opens the door to other adapters with decent performance under that system.

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Originally Posted by anon

Also, Linux performance is good and I found a way to "use" Linux wireless drivers on Windows, which opens the door to other adapters with decent performance under that system.

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the linux drivers under windows work better than the windows native drivers? :eek:

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Originally Posted by takomania

the linux drivers under windows work better than the windows native drivers? :eek:

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My test results so far...

AR9271 (TP-Link TL-WN722N): Linux drivers are on par with the XP drivers, and beat the rest.
RT3070 (TP-Link TL-WN7200ND): Linux drivers are better than any Windows driver.
RTL8187 (Alfa AWUS036H): Linux drivers are on par with XP's and Vista's, and better than 7's.

It looks like Linux usually has one driver for each adapter that is open source, works well, and wasn't coded in a rush to be able to stick "Windows 8.1/10 Compatible" stickers on the product box.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by anon

I know that sticking a tinfoil "extension" at the tip of the antenna can improve reception, but wrapping it is news to me. I'll try to test both + the beer can signal enhancer soon.

image

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Not done yet, because I keep forgetting to buy the tinfoil wrap and soda can :wtongue: But here's some interesting information.

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=16912

I posted this image on the random picture thread two weeks ago, but didn't give it much thought at the time. I saw it again yesterday, and decided to do some quick tests that provided some potentially interesting results...

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=17002

(Adapter: Encore ENUXI-XAN3. Chipset: RT3070. "PWR" is signal strength in decibels/milliwatt, "RXQ" is signal quality expressed as a percentage. Only the antenna has been changed between the 60-second tests, all else is equal.)

Note how increasing antenna gain from 2 dBi drops reception on the 3C:04 and D3:C1 networks by ~50%, whereas going all the way to 8 dBi makes the 8A:16 network show up from nowhere with a 64% RxQ (as well as giving 4A:60 and CD:0E, which I know to be distant, a big boost) while 68:AB disappears completely! Now, this testing isn't very scientific, it should be redone several times with different adapters. But here's some reading material that confirms omnidirectional antennas "become" directional as their gain increases.

Attachment 17001
Beam diameter
ATI Space, Satellite Technical Training Courses Tutorial on Antenna, Gain and Beamwidth

This may also mean I have misjudged those 11 dBi antennas I advised against buying before. Furthermore... The Best Way to Point Your Wi-Fi Router Antennas: Perpendicularly

Looks like picking the best antenna gain and orientation for your network is a complex process :wdabs:

Confirmed: the TL-WN722N's performance under Linux is superb, and I'm using it along my workaround (which involves VMware, OpenWrt, relayd, USB passthrough and a host-only adapter) whenever I need a decent connection. I can download several files at the same time and latency doesn't suffer, which is not the case at all with any Windows driver (two low-speed downloads on the background and you'll feel like you're on a 56K modem, or get disconnected in a worst-case scenario).

I need to further test this on the TL-WN7200ND now.

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=17044

A Bluetooth adapter with an external antenna is a pretty rare sight, but it should have better signal, right? A local blogger took the job of buying one and opening it...

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=17045

...the "antenna" turned out to be a hollow plastic stick that wasn't connected to anything. Beware. I didn't fall for it, but some months ago I was considering buying a Bluetooth dongle to add such capabilities to my router, and this was among my choices.

Awesome Chinese shit that bluetooth adapter!

I bought a new bicycle recently and when we came to choose the tires, I wanted to the one with deep tread.

But the salesman (who has worked many years as a technician/engineer on the tour de France) said that treads are totally useless, for a city bicycle. They actually work against you.

Many people think it help to prevent aqua planning but that's apparently irrelevant for bicycle as they would never reach a speed high enough to build that layer of water between the wheel and the road surface.

Tread are only useful off road or on fresh snow.

so, my "don't buy this hardware" for today is:

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Don't buy Inverted tread tires or semi-slick bike tires for your city/commuter bike, get the slick ones.

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You should get one of those bicycles from GTA San Andreas. They're absolutely impervious to any kind of damage, including thousand-meter falls, gunfire, and direct hits from a rocket launcher.

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=17163

Windows performance is horrible - 11 Mbps or less on a network where other adapters with an internal antenna won't get less than 48. OpenWrt support, which is what I wanted it for, is almost nonexistent since the drivers don't support mac80211 and everything must be configured via terminal (but that's my fault for not researching it beforehand).

Price paid: $10, new

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=17715

These die too quickly. You'll know it's happened when after plugging them, Windows takes a half minute to react at all, then shows a removable drive with no media inserted. Needless to say, any data you had inside is lost at that point.

You're sure its dead? Might just require a partition fix. Try a manufacturer tool (UPTool or MPTool) to re-format the drive.

I tried all versions of the program that matches the flash chip (Phison MPALL), but it didn't work. Fortunately, the most important files I lost were some GRUB4DOS menus.

Suffice to say, all cheap USB sticks die quickly if used/left in USB port all day long. I had one of those, left it all day in usb port and after 1 month it died.

But these received the same non-constant usage that didn't kill other brans and models :wtinfoil:

Anyway, I decided to use a MicroSD card with a cheap multi-card reader after this. If the latter dies, you don't lose your data, and the cost of replacing it is around $2.

On my former workplace we used to use external drivers to transfer data to/from users when upgrading their computers.
Since most external drives are crappy, because:
1. they do not give you any details regarding the HDD used: don't know the manufacturer, RPM, or form factor, or other informations (AF).
2. They are enclosed in a case that cannot be easily opened, and are voiding waranty if you open it. Due to this, they greatly increase the heat generated by HDD.
3. They occupy a lot of space and requires more power than a normal internal HDD.

In other words, instead of this:
http://i.imgur.com/LsPYpE3.jpg

I like this:
http://riponstore.co.ke/wp-content/u...2.5-laptop.png
With a large 2.5/3.5 usb SATA adapter. I have about 40 of these, and they occupy less space than what you see in the first pic.
And that's what I would recommend if you cannot afford nas servers.

http://www.sb-innovation.de/attachme...chmentid=15628

For support tasks, keep one of these and a 2.5" USB adapter (just its circuit board and a cable) in your backpack, and you can't go wrong.

Buying a regular disk and making it external is usually the best choice, but sometimes "premade" ones cost less.