Aetheros AR9285 wireless issues!

[soryuu]

Ok, I posted about two hours ago on another post and thought I'd start a new one with my specs. I can see the networks but I can't connect to them and when I do its a very weak signal that I have. When I'm sitting next to the router I'm getting a weak signal.

I've been on various help sites today - ubuntu, mint, I've tried downloading a few things, following the mint wiki, I keep running into walls or bumps or plain old not working
If you have the time, please take a look. I could use a hand.
Here is my wifi info from the mintWifi icommand.py



* I. scanning WIFI PCI devices...
-- Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
==> PCI ID = 168c:002b (rev 01)
-------------------------
* II. querying ndiswrapper...
-------------------------
* III. querying iwconfig...
lo no wireless extensions.

eth0 no wireless extensions.

wmaster0 no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn Mode:Ad-Hoc Frequency:2.412 GHz
Cell: Not-Associated Tx-Power=20 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality:0 Signal level:0 Noise level:0
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

-------------------------
* IV. querying ifconfig...
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr e0:cb:4e:8d:60:c3
inet addr:10.0.1.105 Bcast:10.0.3.255 Mask:255.255.252.0
inet6 addr: fe80::e2cb:4eff:fe8d:60c3/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:42083233 errors:6 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:2
TX packets:45391 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:5
collisions:6 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:100872596 (100.8 MB) TX bytes:5234497 (5.2 MB)
Interrupt:29

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:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:480 (480.0 B) TX bytes:480 (480.0 B)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:25:d3:e9:6b:da
inet6 addr: fe80::225:d3ff:fee9:6bda/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:68 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:239 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:14085 (14.0 KB) TX bytes:63064 (63.0 KB)

wmaster0 Link encap:UNSPEC HWaddr 00-25-D3-E9-6B-DA-65-39-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
UP RUNNING MTU:0 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)

-------------------------
* V. querying DHCP...
There is already a pid file /var/run/dhclient.pid with pid 2088
killed old client process, removed PID file
Internet Systems Consortium DHCP Client V3.1.2
Copyright 2004-2008 Internet Systems Consortium.
All rights reserved.
For info, please visit http://www.isc.org/sw/dhcp/

Listening on LPF/wlan0/00:25:d3:e9:6b:da
Sending on LPF/wlan0/00:25:d3:e9:6b:da
Listening on LPF/eth0/e0:cb:4e:8d:60:c3
Sending on LPF/eth0/e0:cb:4e:8d:60:c3
Sending on Socket/fallback
DHCPDISCOVER on wlan0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67 interval 7
DHCPREQUEST of 10.0.1.105 on eth0 to 255.255.255.255 port 67
DHCPACK of 10.0.1.105 from 10.0.0.1
* Reloading /etc/samba/smb.conf smbd only
...done.
bound to 10.0.1.105 -- renewal in 40289 seconds.
-------------------------
* VI. querying nslookup google.com...
;; Got recursion not available from 10.0.0.1, trying next server
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached

[remoulder]

Try backports suggestion here http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=39142&p=224772&hilit=wireless+backports#p225328 and update your kernel by making level 5 updates visible in mintUpdate Preferences then Refresh, select all then Apply. Ensure you reboot after it has completed.

[soryuu]

When I look at the updates none say 'kernel update'. And they're all giving me a 'do not download' description because they're level 5. Do you know what I should be looking for? They're intimidating!

[remoulder]

Please reread my post, the instructions are in there.