Comment 9 for bug 549140

This bug is definitely not related to NetworkManager. Running regular scans while having established a manually configured connection (wpa_supplicant) and no NetworkManager involved, the connection also died intermittently, leaving the wireless device unusable afterwards.

I have already filed a bug against bugzilla.kernel.org describing this specific issue, but so far to no effect; as far as I know, the developer of the ar9170usb module currently focuses on a replacement driver (still experimental though). This is actually sad news, as it means this issue probably won't be fixed in the near future, rendering an otherwise good wireless device useless.