Comment 28 for bug 481432

Aside from restarting my computer, the surest way to reset my wireless connection is to issue:
sudo /etc/init.d/network-manager restart

I've tried turning off power management and increasing broadcast signal strength. Hey, maybe the problem lies not in Ubuntu, but in the wireless signal strength? Turning off power management did little. I tried issuing this:
sudo iwconfig wlan0 power off
While that command sucessfully turned off power management, doing so did not help me with my wireless connection. I also tried changing signal strength:
sudo iwconfig wlan0 txpower 120mW
OR
sudo iwconfig wlan0 txpower 25
However, neither of these commands completed sucessfully. I can, however, lower the broadcast strength of my wireless signal. For example, I can set the txpower to less than 100mW, and less than 20dBm. It appears that there is a limit on how much power I can sent to my wireless card. My default signal strength is 20dBm anyway, so these settings don't help me.

I suspect that the problem with my connection, may be as simple as a low broadcast power. Here's why:
1) From where I'm sitting, my laptop detects a connection strength of approx. -77dBm. It varies between -73 and -83. (oops -- my connection just dropped. Moving closer to WAP)
2) From where I'm sitting, my iPod touch detects a connection strength of approx -57dBm. It also varies between -53 and -61.
3) Both my wireless router, my iPod touch, and my laptop all include wireless N capable chipsets. All devices are operating at the 2.462GHz frequency.
4) All other (two) laptops used in this house have no problems connecting to WAP. They use wireless G.
5) Even when my laptop is THREE feet away from WAP, signal strength is still -55dBm (-53 to -59). That is TERRIBLE. iPod touch reports signal strength between -32 and -42 dBm.
6)From experimentation at school, I have found that my iPod touch does not establish a wireless connection if signal strength is below -75dBm. As a good rule of thumb, I try to make sure that the signal strength is above -72dBm.
7) When running Vista on this laptop, connection strength is MUCH better. I'll have to boot into Vista to check out how it treats wireless.