Forum Thread: How to Increase TX of Internal Wireless Cards in Kali 2016

Hello,

I didnt see a How to specifically for the newest Kali 2016 release so I thought I would toss this up for you all.

The default TX-Power of wireless is set to 20 dBm but you can increase it with a little trick to 30 dBm but let me warn you first that It might be illegal in your country, so use it at your own risk. Not to mention increased power = increased heat, some wireless chip sets utilize sub par heat sinks that may not hold up under the higher heat levels.

I have not found a database that lists cards that support this so, you may have to research your individual Wireless cards. I can tell you however, that Realtek Cards: RTL8188CE, 8192ce/de/se and the 8723e Have the TX hard coded into the driver that will not allow you to adjust the setting.

If you are having problems with wifi signal with any of the above cards, I recommend updating to this newer driver that fixes many flaws in the original drivers release:

Simply run from a Terminal:
git clone https://github.com/FreedomBen/rtl8188ce-linux-driver

Now to hopefully increasing your TX power.
1st Method.
Code:

iw reg set BO
iwconfig wlan0 txpower 30

If above method gives the following error then go for 2nd method.
Error for wireless request "Set Tx Power" (8B26) :
SET failed on device wlan0 ; Invalid argument.

2nd Method.

Code:

ifconfig wlan0 down
iw reg set BO
ifconfig wlan0 up
iwconfig wlan0 channel 13
iwconfig wlan0 txpower 30

Again, this trick will not work on all cards. If it works for you please let me know. I ordered two alfa cards from Amazon today, so I am doing away with my wonky internal card completely. If you have any more to add to the topic feel free to comment away. I am a Novice at best, so I welcome the chance to learn.