I'm unable to get my WLAN to work for my Sony Vaio model VPCF23C5E No problem connecting from windows, smartphones etc.

$ sudo lshw -C network; lsb_release -a; uname -a; sudo rfkill list; dmesg | grep -i firm
  *-network               
       description: Wireless interface
       product: AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter
       vendor: Atheros Communications Inc.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       logical name: wlan0
       version: 01
       serial: 64:27:37:92:99:0f
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list rom ethernet physical wireless
       configuration: broadcast=yes driver=ath9k driverversion=3.2.0-29-generic firmware=N/A latency=0 link=no multicast=yes wireless=IEEE 802.11bgn
       resources: irq:16 memory:f7000000-f707ffff memory:f7080000-f708ffff
  *-network
       description: Ethernet interface
       product: RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller
       vendor: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:05:00.0
       logical name: eth0
       version: 06
       serial: f0:bf:97:dd:b2:bd
       size: 1Gbit/s
       capacity: 1Gbit/s
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress msix vpd bus_master cap_list ethernet physical tp mii 10bt 10bt-fd 100bt 100bt-fd 1000bt 1000bt-fd autonegotiation
       configuration: autonegotiation=on broadcast=yes driver=r8169 driverversion=2.3LK-NAPI duplex=full firmware=rtl_nic/rtl8168e-1.fw ip=192.168.1.4 latency=0 link=yes multicast=yes port=MII speed=1Gbit/s
       resources: irq:50 ioport:9000(size=256) memory:e2104000-e2104fff memory:e2100000-e2103fff
LSB Version:    core-2.0-amd64:core-2.0-noarch:core-3.0-amd64:core-3.0-noarch:core-3.1-amd64:core-3.1-noarch:core-3.2-amd64:core-3.2-noarch:core-4.0-amd64:core-4.0-noarch
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS
Release:    12.04
Codename:   precise
Linux siriedit 3.2.0-29-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 27 17:03:23 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
1: phy0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
2: hci0: Bluetooth
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no
[    1.287449] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored
[   18.273582] [Firmware Bug]: ACPI(NGFX) defines _DOD but not _DOS

Seen some proposed solution e.g. Wireless network cannot be enabled for Sony VAIO E series but answers there don't solve my problem...

I'm out of ideas :-( What else can I check?

update

$ ifconfig -a
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr f0:bf:97:dd:b2:bd  
          inet addr:192.168.1.4  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::f2bf:97ff:fedd:b2bd/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:5072 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:4444 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:4568435 (4.5 MB)  TX bytes:610624 (610.6 KB)
          Interrupt:50 Base address:0xc000 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:1498 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:1498 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:114156 (114.1 KB)  TX bytes:114156 (114.1 KB)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 64:27:37:92:99:0f  
          inet addr:192.168.1.5  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::6627:37ff:fe92:990f/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:1277 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:472 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:483155 (483.1 KB)  TX bytes:61031 (61.0 KB)