Comment 23 for bug 378156

I just found a solution for RT2500 slow connection problem (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=7605785).
One proposes to install Wicd.

iwconfig
 returns : wlan0 Bit Rate=1 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm

where iwlist wlan0 bitrate
 returns
          wlan0 unknown bit-rate information.

          Current Bit Rate=54 Mb/s

iwconfig <-> iwlist ????

after setting sudo iwconfig wlan0 rate 54M I have a normal working wireless network again and both commands
are returning the same bitrate.

Well, for the time being I'll have to issue this command each time I boot Ubuntu