Comment 409 for bug 461419

Finaly I think I've found a break through on the problem of certain ThinkPad adapters (MAC:0xa3, PHY: 0x61) recorded in this tread, regarding the issue that they doesn't work with the default ath5k module installed by *buntu. While trying to capture communication between the adapter and a AP, I changed channel of the AP from a high channel to a rather low one. Suddenly I was able to connect and transfer bandwidth was now perfect (above 18 Mbps). After further testing I've found that using channel 1 to 6 on the AP if okay, using channel 7 and 8 was somewhat suspicious, and channel 9 to 13 was unusable.

So if you still experience the connection/performance issue and you have configuration access to your AP, you could try changing the channel to one between 1 and 6 (or 2.412 and 2.437 Mhz). This issue only concerns this particular adapter, while other Atheros adapters types I've used do not suffer from this excact issue.

Find if your driver is "ath5k" using : "lsmod | grep ath"
Find if your chipset is "MAC:0xa3 and PHY: 0x61" executing : "dmesg | grep -i phy"
Find what frequency in Mhz is used when connected : "nm-tool"

Please let us know if this solved the problem for you - thanks in advance.