Alfa AWUS036NHV ?!

Maybe so, but this looks like some kind of European ALFA site, and well, they are also selling non-fake REAL ALFA models and gear, like the 16 listed here along with the 036NHC and AWUS036EAC (same as 036AC but without the twin antenna's) :

http://www.alfanete.eu/de/wireless-lan/wireless-usb-adapter/

I really don't know what the real truth is about that site, whether they are just upcoming product lines, or actually fake...

As you can see, there is no available stock on these items yet, so I guess they aren't faking anything, or fooling anybody, unless they're actually in stock and selling the things, which (as of yet) they're not. In any case of the 036NHC, if you are going to be building a built in signal amplifer like that has, then maybe it needs to be bulky and have convection cooling vents in the top to release the extra heat, which the 036NHC as shown indeed has, and maybe it runs off an independent power supply with USB just for data, who knows...too early to say.

I was right about the NHV coming out soon @ post #1 in this thread, spotted from a disc I happened to get with my 051NH

And well, here it is for all to see released just a few months later...

 

There are some recent Realtek MacOS drivers v 2.2.2 in the 1026.12 archive I linked in the 8188EU/8812AU specifc driver thread

 

Look, for all those who have 036NHV or an 036NHR or 036AC and can't be bothered to read, or use search buttons...

For the *third* and *final* time I am going to be making it obvious where to look, I linked 1026.12 in the "Wireless Drivers and Utilities Section" here :

https://xiaopan.co/forums/threads/awus036ac-and-awus036nhv-newest-drivers.6715/

It's really *not* that difficult to find it, because *all* the drivers I ever post for whatever adapter *always* end up in that section...

* The 1024.6 drivers provided on the ALFA CD that comes with the NHV has a bug under Windows XP at least, where the LED will be constantly on instead of flashing with network activity on the 8188EU/NHV (Fixed by driver version 1024.9 and above).

 

I haven't tested them on an 036AC adapter, simply because I don't have that adapter, nor plan on adding it to my lineup because I don't have USB 3.0 ports.

All I did was just hunted and found more recent drivers from Realtek from June that were *signed* unlike the stock ones off the CD, ones that are being given out primarily for an 8811AU/8812AU adapter no less, and linked them for others to do with what they want to do with them is all. I didn't provide any guarantees that they would work for every case, OS, or every adapter.

It's up to yourselves personally to evaluate "what works" the best, and what to keep and throw away, because it's infeasible and unrealistic for me to be able to test "everything" for every adapter, or OS flavour, or for 64 or 32-bit. I simply don't have the time nor inclination to do that.

For my 036NHV at least, the originals (1024.6) provided by ALFA has a bug where the LED shows no link activity and is constantly locked to "on or off". The whole 1024.xx series drivers are generally better under Windows 7 x64 for my NHR v2 (1024.2 has good speeds, 1024.6 not so great), while for my 036NHV the 1026.xx series shows the most networks, and ironically the 1024.xx series for the NHV suck (yes even 1024.9 stock driver for the 036AC sucks and shows less networks on the NHV than the 1026.xx series under my Win7 x64 system).

While there is nothing wrong with 1026.7 provided for Win7 x64 and an 036NHV per se, I searched more recent ones were out there such as 1026.8 and 1026.12.

Which is what provoked me into looking for more recent drivers for the 8188EU because the stock drivers off the ALFA CD were at least in one case, flaky in some way.

I think which OS is being used and x86 or x64 also depends to a large extent to what results you will get with different drivers.

The stock drivers for an 036AC are 1024.9. Have you tested 1024.11 from the RTL8188RU thread to compare with 1024.9 ?

It may be the case the 036AC hates the whole 1026.xx series in general and that anything from 1024.xx is generally fine like my NHR v2, because this is when they unified/added into the drivers for Windows 8.1 support.

As you can see, depending which adapter your on, and what OS you use, as well as 32 or 64 bit, and despite being a "unified" Realtek driver that caters for a multitude of chipsets, there are still a lot of pitfalls in performance and results depending what driver is selected, and what adapter you happen to have along with flavour of OS.

 

The stock driver that comes for the 036AC has improvements to beamforming, and switching to usb 2/3 modes for 2.4/5.8Ghz.

No I don't own an 036AC nor plan to, and....

I'm not entirely sure if those improvements made it into 1026.12, but 1026.12 taking the 036AC out of the picture works decently enough on the NHV and NHR, and they are the latest usable Realtek generic drivers I could find out there, up to and including Windows 8.1. (That fix a few annoying nasty BSOD's according to the release notes I might add, which seem to plague Win 8.1 owners)

 

...And providing you have USB 3,0 ports, or you will be crippled to 480Mbps, which is all USB 2.0 will allow.

Of course, disregarding the USB issue, 867Mbps full speed is only possible at such relatively close ranges before falling away as the distance is increased, with the added problem of 5Ghz having less range and penetration through obstacles than 2.4ghz, and if I was going to be doing that configuration practically sat next door to a router with the ac adapter, well....

I might as well be on the faster Ethernet with a bit of wire, more security, and less latency overhead instead (up to 108ft), because 5Ghz doesn't appear to penetrate concrete walls nearly as well as 2.4Ghz. ;-)

 

It's primarily designed for the draft AC standard, but it has the advantage of MIMO which is something the 036NHV doesn't have.

And since there are no power output specifications I could find for the 036AC anywhere at all, it's hard to say.

 

Enjoy the wait...it took long enough for the NHR, and then only a handful of drivers where it works properly.

I'm actually waiting for the 1027.xx series of Realtek drivers as I discovered that 1026.12 has a connectivity bug trying
to connect to AP's sometimes with the adapter having to be re-inserted to connect, so I've backed off meanwhile to 1026.8.

I fear 1026.12 may have actually been a beta...

You said previously that you got more networks using the XP drivers for your NHV. The reverse seems to be true for me. The 1026.xx drivers show the most networks, while the 1024 series for my NHV is horrible and shows less (along with a missing functional LED, 1024.9 drivers for the 036AC fixes that but there are even just as less networks with this driver too compared to using the 1026.xx series)

Did you mean you used the XP designated drivers on another OS, or just actually used Windows XP itself with those XP designated NHV drivers ?!?

I'm on Win7 x64 Ultimate.

 

You need download & run WirelessNetView by NirSoft which does a constant scan of networks in the background, not bound to using the Realtek utility for doing the scanning...

Set update rate in this util to high.

Then compare both 1024.6 driver to 1026.7 using the utility on each driver as to how many networks really show up under Win7 and the 036NHV, trying both drivers using this same util, and you'll see what I mean when I say 1026.7 is much better at finding much more networks in my case.

I get double the amount of networks using 1026.7 and more...even if they are just a single packet, which indicates to me that the 1026.7 driver is more sensitive and the correct one for use on Win7 than 1024.6 is for the 036NHV.

I don't know about 1024.6's performance under XP taken alone. I haven't gotten around to testing it yet even though I'm on dual boot OS.

The Realtek Network scan used by itself, is not a reliable indicator of how many networks can actually be detected any more than which way the wind is blowing.

You'll see what I mean about the amount of networks found on Win7 for 1026.7 v 1024.6 when you have tried what I have suggested playing with the utility above testing different drivers...