I am using Wireless to connect to the internet (router). My laptop has Atheros wireless (AR 242x/542x) adapter but the router is a little bit far-away from my room so I have to use an external wireless adapter i.e. Alfa (Realtek 8187) for connectivity. However, since I have started using Ubuntu I noticed that Alfa is not working in full power, internet speed in Ubuntu is much slower than in Windows on my laptop. When I am using Windows 7 the LED (bulb) on Alfa blinks as it should, but when in Ubuntu, it doesn't blink rather it is on but very dim. Connection using Atheros adapter is also the same (slow)... I have tried 4 methods (I found on the Internet) to troubleshoot this matter but no success. It seems to me that Ubuntu/Linux is not letting these wireless adapters to operate in full strength. iwconfig shows that power management is off for both. So what's the problem? Details: ifconfig eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1f:16:1e:36:ec UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B) Interrupt:45 Base address:0x6000 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:1657 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:1657 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 RX bytes:241697 (241.6 KB) TX bytes:241697 (241.6 KB) wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:22:5f:9b:24:b5 inet6 addr: fe80::222:5fff:fe9b:24b5/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:715460 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:694246 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:493539292 (493.5 MB) TX bytes:235159393 (235.1 MB) wlan1 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:c0:ca:42:14:62 inet addr:192.168.100.102 Bcast:192.168.100.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::2c0:caff:fe42:1462/64 Scope:Link UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1 RX packets:171053 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:181363 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 RX bytes:74094659 (74.0 MB) TX bytes:59474204 (59.4 MB) iwconfig lo no wireless extensions. eth0 no wireless extensions. wlan0 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:off/any Mode:Managed Access Point: Not-Associated Tx-Power=20 dBm Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Power Management:off wlan1 IEEE 802.11bg ESSID:"Zia" Mode:Managed Frequency:2.412 GHz Access Point: 00:0D:F0:9C:A6:18 Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power=20 dBm Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off Power Management:off Link Quality=70/70 Signal level=-31 dBm Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0 Tx excessive retries:204 Invalid misc:6610 Missed beacon:0