I keep losing wifi, but Windows user stays online

[BostonPeng]

Last week I realized there's a Comcast Xfinity wifi router I can use at home but the connection is so flaky I can have problems getting on the net and then get to the Xfinity site to get past their clickwrap. I always see a signal strength of at least 35%, sometimes it's a strong as 50% but my requests to web sites don't seem to get through. Sometimes it seems their router will completely drop off the face of my network connections yet someone next to me on a Windows box stays online through the whole episode.

Here's the standard requested info:

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peng@acsrsk ~ $  inxi -Fxx
System:    Host acsrsk Kernel 3.9-1-686-pae i686 (32 bit) Distro SolydXK 1 solydxk
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core2 Duo T6670 (-MCP-) cache 2048 KB flags (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 ssse3 vmx) bmips 8771.92 
           Clock Speeds: (1) 1200.00 MHz (2) 2201.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card Intel Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller X.Org 1.12.4 Res: 1366x768@59.9hz 
           GLX Renderer Mesa DRI Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset x86/MMX/SSE2 GLX Version 2.1 Mesa 8.0.5 Direct Rendering Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller driver snd_hda_intel BusID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Version k3.9-1-686-pae
Network:   Card-1 Qualcomm Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) driver ath9k BusID: 02:00.0
           Card-2 Marvell 88E8057 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver sky2 v: 1.30 at port d000 BusID: 01:00.0
Disks:     HDD Total Size: 250.1GB (75.2% used) 1: /dev/sda TOSHIBA_MK2555GS 250.1GB 
Partition: ID:/ size: 40G used: 8.1G (22%) fs: rootfs ID:/ size: 40G used: 8.1G (22%) fs: ext4 
           ID:/home size: 186G used: 176G (100%) fs: ext4 ID:swap-1 size: 4.29GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 47.0C mobo: 47.0C 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A 
Info:      Processes 179 Uptime 20 min Memory 1082.7/3888.8MB Runlevel 2 Client Shell inxi 1.4.23 

[zerozero]

BostonPeng
just to rule out one possibility does the same behaviour happens if you boot into an older kernel, or is it specific of 3.9.6?

[BostonPeng]

It happened before the latest (testing) UP as well. I haven't thought to try even older kernels. Should I?

[zerozero]

shouldn't be needed, the previous (3.2) is already old enough to rule out a regression, imo.
can you please check some outputs for me

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sudo ifconfig

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dmesg | grep <the interface that is up in the ifconfig>

[BostonPeng]

I went ahead and booted into the older kernel this time (uname -a returned Linux acsrsk 3.2.0-4-686-pae #1 SMP Debian 3.2.41-2 i686 GNU/Linux) but I already lost the wifi router since lading in the reply page. (That seems to be happening a lot, and even more in the last day. Grrr!)

Here's what your commands return:

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peng@acsrsk ~ $  sudo ifconfig
eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:24:be:ad:ea:f4  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
          Interrupt:16 

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:1153 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1153 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:89959 (87.8 KiB)  TX bytes:89959 (87.8 KiB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 2c:81:58:e5:a0:9d  
          inet addr:50.153.65.100  Bcast:50.153.79.255  Mask:255.255.240.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::2e81:58ff:fee5:a09d/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:2454 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:2852 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:1762223 (1.6 MiB)  TX bytes:825440 (806.0 KiB)

peng@acsrsk ~ $  dmesg | grep wlan0
[  101.866039] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[  105.051960] wlan0: authenticate with 00:0d:67:29:dc:65 (try 1)
[  105.053628] wlan0: authenticated
[  105.073210] wlan0: associate with 00:0d:67:29:dc:65 (try 1)
[  105.086032] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:0d:67:29:dc:65 (capab=0x421 status=0 aid=1)
[  105.086036] wlan0: associated
[  105.086039] wlan0: No basic rates in AssocResp. Using min supported rate instead.
[  105.092860] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[  115.592035] wlan0: no IPv6 routers present
[  316.501131] wlan0: authenticate with 00:0d:67:29:dc:65 (try 1)
[  316.700244] wlan0: authenticate with 00:0d:67:29:dc:65 (try 2)
[  316.900245] wlan0: authenticate with 00:0d:67:29:dc:65 (try 3)
[  317.100059] wlan0: authentication with 00:0d:67:29:dc:65 timed out
[  317.907943] wlan0: direct probe to 00:0d:67:29:dc:65 (try 1/3)
[  318.104230] wlan0: direct probe to 00:0d:67:29:dc:65 (try 2/3)
[  318.304027] wlan0: direct probe to 00:0d:67:29:dc:65 (try 3/3)
[  318.504075] wlan0: direct probe to 00:0d:67:29:dc:65 timed out
[  324.975720] wlan0: direct probe to 00:0d:67:29:dc:65 (try 1/3)
[  325.172117] wlan0: direct probe to 00:0d:67:29:dc:65 (try 2/3)
[  325.372039] wlan0: direct probe to 00:0d:67:29:dc:65 (try 3/3)
[  325.572244] wlan0: direct probe to 00:0d:67:29:dc:65 timed out
[  387.065807] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): wlan0: link is not ready
[  388.450297] wlan0: authenticate with 00:0d:67:29:dc:65 (try 1)
[  388.452755] wlan0: authenticated
[  388.472250] wlan0: associate with 00:0d:67:29:dc:65 (try 1)
[  388.482138] wlan0: RX AssocResp from 00:0d:67:29:dc:65 (capab=0x421 status=0 aid=1)
[  388.482144] wlan0: associated
[  388.482150] wlan0: No basic rates in AssocResp. Using min supported rate instead.
[  388.489161] ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): wlan0: link becomes ready
[  399.464193] wlan0: no IPv6 routers present

And in case it changed this boot

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peng@acsrsk ~ $  inxi -Fxx
System:    Host acsrsk Kernel 3.2.0-4-686-pae i686 (32 bit) Distro SolydXK 1 solydxk
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core2 Duo T6670 (-MCP-) cache 2048 KB flags (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 ssse3 vmx) bmips 8770.52 
           Clock Speeds: (1) 1200.00 MHz (2) 1200.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card Intel Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller X.Org 1.12.4 Res: 1366x768@59.9hz 
           GLX Renderer Mesa DRI Mobile Intel® GM45 Express Chipset x86/MMX/SSE2 GLX Version 2.1 Mesa 8.0.5 Direct Rendering Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller driver snd_hda_intel BusID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Version 1.0.24
Network:   Card-1 Qualcomm Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) driver ath9k BusID: 02:00.0
           Card-2 Marvell 88E8057 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver sky2 v: 1.30 at port d000 BusID: 01:00.0
Disks:     HDD Total Size: 250.1GB (75.2% used) 1: /dev/sda TOSHIBA_MK2555GS 250.1GB 36C 
Partition: ID:/ size: 40G used: 8.2G (22%) fs: rootfs ID:/ size: 40G used: 8.2G (22%) fs: ext4 
           ID:/home size: 186G used: 176G (100%) fs: ext4 ID:swap-1 size: 4.29GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 49.0C mobo: 49.0C 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A 
Info:      Processes 173 Uptime 8 min Memory 1203.8/3889.2MB Runlevel 2 Client Shell inxi 1.4.23