Hardware

About wireless adapter and your kernel driver must support AP mode.

Recommended Wireless Adapters

Below is a list of USB Wi-Fi adapters that work well with Kali Linux, supporting both AP mode and Monitor mode.
These models are widely tested in penetration testing environments.

Model	Chipset	Speed	Notes
Alfa AWUS036NHA	Atheros AR9271	150 Mbps	Excellent AP & Monitor support, very stable
Alfa AWUS036NH	Ralink RT3070	150 Mbps	Good range, works out-of-the-box on Kali
Alfa AWUS036ACM	MediaTek MT7612U	867 Mbps	Dual-band, stable driver support
TP-Link TL-WN722N (v1 only)	Atheros AR9271	150 Mbps	Affordable, strong community support
Panda Wireless PAU06	Ralink RT5372	300 Mbps	Reliable and compact
Alfa AWUS036ACH	Realtek RTL8812AU	867 Mbps	Dual-band, requires driver installation
Edimax EW-7811UAC	Realtek RTL8812AU	867 Mbps	Compact dual-band adapter

💡 Note:
The Atheros AR9271 (e.g., Alfa AWUS036NHA, TP-Link TL-WN722N v1) is known for its excellent performance and compatibility.
Avoid newer TL-WN722N versions (v2/v3) — they do not support monitor mode properly.
For dual-band support (2.4GHz & 5GHz), prefer chipsets like MT7612U or RTL8812AU.

About wireless adapters

Your wireless adapter and its kernel driver must support AP mode.
To check this, run the following shell command:

 iw list

If there is ‘AP’ in the list of “Supported interface modes”, your card has support for the desired mode.

Another method:

Find the kernel driver module in use for your Wi-Fi card:

 lspci -k | grep -A 3 -i network

Example output may show a module like ath9k. next, use the below command to find out your wifi capabilities (replace ath9k by your kernel driver):

modinfo ath9k | grep depend

If the output includes “mac80211”, it indicates that your Wi-Fi card supports AP mode.

The adapter needs to have drivers for GNU/Linux.

• another website list devices supported here
• check kernel drive wireless.wiki
• alfa.docs