The Atheros Weak Antenna

[VentGrey]

So i noticed something funny after installing a Qualcomm Atheros card to replace the Broadcom Card i was having touble with. WiFi managed to work but things do not turn to be happy now, this new wireless card seems to have a little trouble to keep up with the network, it has a shorter signal reach and sometimes the connection dies randomly, i leave some details to see if i can do something:
Debian Details

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Linux debian 4.6.0-0.bpo.1-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.6.4-1~bpo8+1 (2016-08-11) x86_64 GNU/Linux

lspci results

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02:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)

and some pieces from the dmesg command

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[   14.596634] ath9k 0000:02:00.0 wlp2s0: renamed from wlan0
[   27.763681] wlp2s0: associated
[   27.883975] ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x81e4
[   27.883982] ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a country code
[   27.883984] ath: doing EEPROM country->regdmn map search
[   27.883986] ath: country maps to regdmn code: 0x10
[   27.883988] ath: Country alpha2 being used: MX
[   27.883989] ath: Regpair used: 0x10
[   27.883991] ath: regdomain 0x81e4 dynamically updated by country IE
[   27.884494] wlp2s0: Limiting TX power to 23 dBm as advertised by b0:aa:77:c4:b1:00

I look forward for some help, thanks in advance.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Check the output of:

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/sbin/iwconfig

https://packages.debian.org/jessie/wireless-tools

If "Power Management" is on then on can try disabling it with:

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# iw dev wlan0 set power_save off

https://packages.debian.org/jessie/iw

Should that help, you can make a udev rule to set that automatically on bootup:

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# /etc/udev/rules.d/70-wifi-powersave.rules
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="net", KERNEL=="wlan*", RUN+="/sbin/iw dev %k set power_save off"

If that doesn't help try switching to software-based encryption by creating a file at /etc/modprobe.d/atheros.conf (as root!) with this content:

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options ath9k nohwcrypt=1

Reboot to test this, delete the file if it doesn't work.

[VentGrey]

Tried the above solution, power management was off by default and i noticed that the atheros.conf file was named ath9.conf file but nothing changed atm.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Bugger

Well, it looks like my advice was rubbish then, sorry.

The Atheros cards I have tried have been good but I suppose that does not constitute evidence.

[VentGrey]

I saw something about a "txpower" thing, is it safe to use?

[VentGrey]

bump? (hope it works)

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean.

Probably faster to "suck it & see" than to await a response from somebody who does

[VentGrey]

Now im on a dilemma, return to horrible support but good wifi reception or get with open support but horrible reception.