Comment 63 for bug 548992

I have solved this problem in hardware.

My card (Intel 5300 AGN) has three ports for antennas. It is a 3-way MIMO setup, and therefore requires all three antennas to be attached in order to be fully effective. It shipped in my laptop with just one antenna attached.

My laptop had trouble connecting and staying connected to various universities' wifi networks (perhaps due to having a number of APs to choose from; they might also be MIMO (I don't know whether they are or not) and any n-networks. It showed these symptoms.

Thankfully, my laptop vendor was tracking down the problems and shipped me several antennas to try out. Two made things better but still not perfect; three was perfect and fixed the issues (even though they're currently poorly placed).

So check your wifi cards! Maybe it'll work for you too.