New XPS 13 Ivy Bridge w Ubuntu 12.04 - no stable wireless

I ordered 3 XPS 13s for my research group and received the LX322 model with the Atheros AR9462 wireless card. 

*All three* had the disconnect problem on multiple wireless networks.  Implementing the following solution fixed the problem on my home network:

Open terminal and enter the following command:

sudo -s gksu gedit /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf

at the end of the file add this:

options ath9k nohwcrypt=1

Save an restart your OS.

I found this here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2081714

The problem persisted on my work network, but I have found a workaround based on this thread:   http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1865577&page=65&p=11647255#post11647255

The workaround is the following:

sudo iwlist wlan0 scanning|grep Address

This will display a list of BSSID addressses like this:

Cell 01 - Address: XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

Cell 02 - Address: ...

Enter the Address for 'Cell 01' into the network manager by clicking the wireless connection icon -> Edit Connections

In the Wireless tab, click the connection you want and Edit

Add the hex Address for Cell 01 after BSSID:

So far the first solution above has solved the disconnect problem for two computers on different home networks and the second workaround has worked for a WAP network I use at work on all three computers.  This is not a permanent fix since the procedure has to be repeated everytime I move close to a new router on the same network, but at least the computers are now usable. No disconnects in the last 5+ hours since implementing it...

I wanted to look into this in a little more detail.  Our initial concerns with wireless on this system were resolved with the PPA content from Canonical that was loaded from the factory.  It sounds like some of the recent comments in this forum suggest that a similar issue still exists. If you are still experiencing wireless connection issues, could you provide some additional information so we can try to replicate it here What WAP are you using (including firmware rev)? Have you run updates or changed the version of Linux? What BIOS rev are you currently running? Does the issue occur on both battery and AC power? Could any environmental issues be affectting the connection? Looking forward to any additional information that you could provide.  We have been unable to duplicate wireless connection issues in our lab, and any other variables that we could try would be helpful.

I just received yesterday my brand new XPS Developper edition, and I ran the same issue. It seems it has been resolved by switching from TKIP/AES to AES only authentication. In fact this morning on another wap I had not the issue, but I can't check now what setting does it have.

I'm lucky that I can change the router configuration, but I think this is an issue that should be fixed, DELL can't sell computers that have a problem directly after opening the package.

WAP is from Italian ISP Teleom Italia, don't know which chipset it uses.

No update on the system

Can't say the BIOS, but brand new XPS13 (produced after august 8 2013)

Occurs both with AC and battery

No environmental aspects, all other devices connect fine

If this happens again after apt-get dist-upgrade, I might call DELL support...

Authentication type didn't fix everything. I realize that I have anyway bad performance issue.

I got my XPS 13 Developer Edition a couple of weeks ago.  I also have huge problems with my wireless.  My system came with the Atheros AR9462, using the ath9k driver.  I was this week at the VMworld in San Francisco.  They had tons of wireless access points, and all of my colleagues had no problem connecting to the Internet (using Macs and Windows laptops).  However, the connection on my XPS 13 was so bad that it became unusable.  I upgraded the kernel from 3.2 to 3.5 and then to 3.8, but that did not help a bit.

A fix for this problem is urgently needed.

cheers,

Werner

Hi,

Check this: http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/os-applications/f/4613/p/19515554/20439038.aspx#20439038

Solution  posted by mhanby on 17 Jul 2013 8:59 PM works for me.

-- Jakke