One more note...I have to say...I do like the Alpha...I ve used it too but I hate trying to wardrive with that clunker sticking from the side of my laptop...but I have used it for wireless pentesting in a VM... but thats another thread!! Long story short... they are both very good cards...depends on what you want to use them for.

I ve used the Proxim Orinoco Gold b/g cards with the external pigtail connection which was good for its time. But I totally recommend the Ubiquiti SRC 300mW 802.11 a/b/g MMCX. Its a little pricey but none the less I believe the best card I ve used so far.

www.ubnt.com

Thanks

I used to use the Orinoco Proxim Gold 802.11 b/g  atheros based wireless card for wireless scanning. It was great for its time, then we were introduced to the Ubiquiti DMARC 300mw 802.11 a/b/g wireless cards. Yes, they are expensive but they work awesome. For example I was conducting an "Authorized" wireless pentest from the parking lot of a customer. It was approximately 500-750 ft away from the bldg, not the AP, so can probably add other variables like structure, location of AP in the bldg etc etc. Well, I was able to sniff packets without having an antenna attached to my card. Yes, I was dropping a few packets here and there, but for the most part, I was actually capturing packets on this device. Oh and I guess it also helps that I was using on of the greatest wireless analyzers around "Kismet". (Last line added for effect!!) I then proceeded to put the little antenna that came with the card that fits in the pigtail port and "shazam"... I had full packet capture with awesome signal strength. Not only is this card great for range and packet capture, but it works great for packet injection as well. So, to make a long story short, these Ubiquiti cards are awesome. Yes, they're expensive, but well worth the money for those that conduct wireless assessment regularly. Oh and on another note, this is somewhat related, another good card to look at is the USB Airpcap wireless 802.11 a/b/g , I like this card because it does everything the Ubiquiti card does but works in a VMare machine as well....and I think that is awesome for more strealth Red Team type of assessments.

Thanks for listening...
have a great holiday everyone

the Izman

I am seriously interested in learning a programming language. In fact I agree that every security professional should learn at least the basics of one language. I ll be checking in periodically for updates....good luck on your exams Shakuni

You know, its a shame I know, but to tell you the truth as long as I ve been in this business (which is probably a lot less than some of you) I ve never been to a Black Hat, DefCon, Shmoocon, or any con for that matter. Funny thing is one of my strengths is wireless and I used to live in Baltimore MD. I know what you re thinking, WHY THE HELL DIDNT YOU GO TO SHMOOCON sp? I really dont know why? I think it would be a great way to network of course and learn a lot of cool stuff. But I ve never been. Oh trust me, I d like to get a trip to Vegas ( What happens there stays there right?) I ve just never been afforded the opportunity.
Take care all