WiFi Solutions for atheros on Ubuntu
First and foremost, the main issue was NetworkManager. I found it kept disconnecting me a lot, so I switched to wicd. No problems after switching and following the below steps. First, install wicd and remove NetworkManager:
sudo apt-get install wicd && sudo apt-get purge network-manager*
After that, reboot the computer, open the Dash by either clicking it or pushing the, dare I say it, Windose key and typing "wicd". Open it up and connect to your router.
I have an Acer Aspire laptop which I absolutely love. The only downside I've seem to have problems with is the WiFi. There have been a lot of people with problems regarding this specific wireless card, which is obviously not good. Wish I knew about it before I made the purchase. It shows a very weak signal, sometimes doesn't even connect at all. I did a lot of Google searches for the problem and came across this AskUbuntu question: Why is my internet slow with an Atheros wireless card? Thanks to an AskUbuntu user named Dante Ashton, this solution seems to do the trick:
I've found out the problem; it's some sort of problem with my wifi driver (ath9k) which was resolved with a simple command:
sudo echo "options ath9k nohwcrypt=1" > /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf
This doesn't just work with ath9k cards either; it's suppose to work with ath5, 6, etc cards as well. No idea why this bug appears with this card only, but least there is a work around for it.
UPDATE: I've been getting really slow connection speed so my Dad decided to do some investigating cause I told him I don't use Windose anymore :P Apparently the cause of the slow connection is due to power management being turned on for my network card. The solution is to enter the command:
sudo iwconfig wlan0 power off
And that should do it. The signal will still go up and down like it's suppose to, but it shouldn't disconnect you from the internet, nor will it stop pages from being loaded.
Also, this fix isn't permanent. After reboot, it will set power management to the on state. In order to make it permanent, you need to add a file to /etc called "local.rc". In this file, enter the following script:
sleep 10
iwconfig wlan0 power off
exit 0
This will turn the power management setting off upon 10 seconds after startup. And that should do it for fixing WiFi :D
