Kinda simple question - difference between wlan0 and wlan1 - why 2?

[lister]

Why when I put my ALFA driver in and "iwconfig" I get two wlan0 and wlan1?

I think these names like wlan0 and wlan1 are interfaces that are assigned by the drivers right?

I just want to be sure that I am doing this correct - thanks.

[linuxshell]

yes if you want to put your external alfa card in monitor mode then you use wlan1 (airmon-ng start wlan1) , wlan0 is your integrate wifi card they are usually weak with range and  with injection so just use your alfa...

[lister]

Thanks - I wanted to be 100% sure.

Also - would you kill wlan0 (i.e. the integrate built-in wifi card?)

[linuxshell]

well it depends , some of wlan hack need 2 connections but no need to kill....

[ostendali]

Why when I put my ALFA driver in and "iwconfig" I get two wlan0 and wlan1?

I think these names like wlan0 and wlan1 are interfaces that are assigned by the drivers right?

no, they are not assigned by drivers, but by kernel at OS level. It is pretty logic if you have more than one network device that they will have a sequence number given priority by kernel (which one first being detected during boot time). The integrated one has a priority because pci devices being detected before usb device by kernel when system is booting. however, you can change this priority! It is just kernel that manages for you those things but you can decide to do in your own manually.