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Netgear USB wifi adapters, Windows 11 and monitor mode

asked 2026-01-20 15:24:32 +0000

tdlemons gravatar image

Hi - in some years-old postings, I've read of success when using a Netgear USB wifi adapter to allow monitor mode packet capture on Windows 10/11. Currently, https://www.netgear.com/home/wifi/ada... shows six adapters. Is it known whether any of these allow monitor mode packet capture for Wireshark?

Thanks

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In general, monitor mode on Windows is very poorly supported by the adaptors, their firmware and their drivers.

The prevailing view seems to be use Linux instead.

grahamb gravatar imagegrahamb ( 2026-01-21 09:42:49 +0000 )edit

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answered 2026-03-25 08:58:21 +0000

brianwyld gravatar image

updated 2026-03-25 10:10:30 +0000

My own experience : I purchased a Netgear A6210 because it was one of the few I could find that supports monitor mode on Windows. I had to get it 2nd hand as its no longer sold by Netgear. Using it with npcap, which also provides the 'wlanhelper' tool neccesary to enable monitor mode/set the modulation/set the channel. Only captures 1 channel/modulation at a time, but can update it dynamically during a wireshark capture using the wlanhelper tool...

It works fine for capturing "ofdm" modulation (a/b/g?) also claims to suppoirt hrdsss/erp/ht (whatever versions of 802.11 they are!) but doesn't seem to want to set these modulations via wlanhelper (gives me an error)

Only issue I have experienced is that I can't seem to capture packets that have the toDA/fromDA bits set in the FC field...

A+ Brian

PS> neither the TP-Link AC600 (Archer T2U Plus) nor the TP-Link Mini Wireless N TL-WN823N support monitor mode (I thought these were on a list as working, but either I misread or the latest versions don't work)

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answered 2026-01-22 21:28:01 +0000

Guy Harris gravatar image

@grahamb's comment lists the possible reasons why an adapter might not support monitor mode at all or support it poorly.

"Use Linux instead" works if the only problem is the driver, as that's the only thing that a switch to Linux will change. If the adapter hardware or firmware is the problem, monitor mode will probably be bad or non-existent on Linux as well.

There are, I think, lists of recommended adapters for Linux monitor mode. If an adapter isn't recommended for Linux, it probably won't work well with any other OS, even if the problem is the driver - it might be better on another open-source OS, but it's unlikely to be better on Windows, as, especially given that Microsoft has little interest in monitor mode support, adapter vendors probably spend little if any effort on monitor mode support in their drivers.

I don't know whether anybody's developed lists of recommended adapters for monitor-mode capture on Windows.

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Mike Kershaw's Kismet Hardware page has some suggestions.

grahamb gravatar imagegrahamb ( 2026-01-23 08:58:53 +0000 )edit

https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi is another good place for suggestions.

johnthacker gravatar imagejohnthacker ( 2026-01-24 00:28:14 +0000 )edit

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Asked: 2026-01-20 15:24:32 +0000

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Last updated: 6 hours ago