How do I get an Atheros AR9485 wireless card working?

Recently i updated my 12.10 ubuntu, ever since i got this strange wifi internet problem. Net works fine on the initial boot, after couple of web requests from a browser or command line or any tool, internet stopped working. I have to disconnect & connect the wifi to get it work again.

It happens every few minutes. Its frustrating. It was working fine before the upgrade. I am sure this is not the machine problem, because my dual boot win 8 works fine.

I tried iwconfig, this is the output

lo no wireless extensions.
wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"jumbotron" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 08:86:3B:8C:C0:74 Bit Rate=150 Mb/s Tx-Power=16 dBm Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Encryption key:off Power Management:off Link Quality=50/70 Signal level=-60 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:1 Invalid misc:2 Missed beacon:0

anybody know whats goin on?

Update:

I connected my android phone in wlan and enabled USB tethering with ubuntu machine. It works great.

So the problem is defenitly with wireless configuration or drivers

These are some configs i got

lshw -C network

 *-network description: Wireless interface product: AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Atheros Communications Inc. physical id: 0 bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0 logical name: wlan0 version: 01 serial: 00:08:ca:e6:6b:59 width: 64 bits clock: 33MHz capabilities: bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical wireless configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=3.2.0-23-generic-pae firmware=N/A ip=192.168.2.11 latency=0 multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn resources: irq:17 memory:dea00000-dea7ffff memory:dea80000-dea8ffff

ifconfig

lo Link encap:Local Loopback inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0 inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1 RX packets:1727 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:1727 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:137632 (137.6 KB) TX bytes:137632 (137.6 KB)
wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:08:ca:e6:6b:59 inet addr:192.168.2.11 Bcast:192.168.2.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::208:caff:fee6:6b59/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1400 Metric:1 RX packets:12133 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:11872 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:9352562 (9.3 MB) TX bytes:1851594 (1.8 MB)

nm-tool

NetworkManager Tool
State: connected (global)
- Device: wlan0 [jumbotron] ------------------------------------------------- Type: 802.11 WiFi Driver: ath9k State: connected Default: yes HW Address: 00:08:CA:E6:6B:59 Capabilities: Speed: 150 Mb/s Wireless Properties WEP Encryption: yes WPA Encryption: yes WPA2 Encryption: yes Wireless Access Points (* = current AP) *jumbotron: Infra, 08:86:3B:8C:C0:74, Freq 2437 MHz, Rate 54 Mb/s, Strength 57 WPA WPA2 IPv4 Settings: Address: 192.168.2.11 Prefix: 24 (255.255.255.0) Gateway: 192.168.2.1 DNS: 192.168.2.1

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3 Answers

About a year before, I was having problems with that same Atheros AR9485 on my Ubuntu "Natty Narwhal". Back then, Ubuntu not even recognized that hardware as integrated to the computer. I purchased a cheap USB wireless network adapter that has worked excellent on Ubuntu; it has the form of a USB pendrive, and I connect it through an extension wire (I read that for health purposes is better to place it 15 cm. far to your body).

The name of the adapter is "Realtek RTL8187B WLAN Adapter". --it works pretty good in Ubuntu by just conecting it to USB port. If you buy an adapter, I recomend you to take your laptop to the store and ask to try the adapter right there before buying it.

Today I have upgraded to Ubuntu Precise Pangolin LTS and now the atheros works..., but with that same problems you mentioned. So I prefer to go back to my Realtek adapter. I did it by disconnecting the Atheros network and allowing the Realtek:

1----Connect the adapter on USB port

2----left click in the network icon (on the top right of your screen)

3----click on "disconnect" atheros

4----click on "connect" the Realtek adapter (or whatever wireless adapter you have)

---

There is another method, but I haven't try it:

1----Obtain the Windows driver for your Atheros network card. (You can download it in
the official website of your computer)

2----Locate the specific file that ends with ".inf "

3----Install "ndisgtk" --use your linux repositories--.

4----Open ndisgtk

5----Select "install new driver"

6----choose the location of your windows ".inf" file and click "install"

7----click o.k.

for more information on this method google: "ndisgtk"

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I did all this comands and still not work - so I try just on the wifi using the keyboard combination FN+F2 | PROBLEM SOLVED

you should try to update the network manager:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:network-manager
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

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