Bug 889904

Description of problem: The laptop connects without any issue via wifi to a 802.11n router. I can then ping how many machines I want. But if I start browsing any web page. After a few seconds, the connection blocks. 

Network manager still indicates the status as connected but no pages dare to load in a web browser, and it is then also impossible to ping anything. 
It is required to reload the wireless driver module via modprobe to get the connection pinging again, but no page can ever be accessed. 

Nothing shows up in the dmesg output. 


lspci | grep -i wireless
06:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)


lspci -vv -s 06:00.0
06:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Foxconn International, Inc. Device e01f
	Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
	Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
	Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
	Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
	Region 0: Memory at f0200000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: ath9k
	Kernel modules: ath9k


modinfo ath9k
filename:       /lib/modules/3.6.7-4.fc16.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ath/ath9k/ath9k.ko
license:        Dual BSD/GPL
description:    Support for Atheros 802.11n wireless LAN cards.
author:         Atheros Communications
alias:          platform:qca955x_wmac
alias:          platform:ar934x_wmac
alias:          platform:ar933x_wmac
alias:          platform:ath9k
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000037sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000034sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000033sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000032sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000030sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd0000002Esv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd0000002Dsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd0000002Csv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd0000002Bsv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd0000002Asv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000029sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000027sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000024sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000168Cd00000023sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
depends:        ath9k_hw,ath9k_common,mac80211,ath,cfg80211
intree:         Y
vermagic:       3.6.7-4.fc16.x86_64 SMP mod_unload 
parm:           debug:Debugging mask (uint)
parm:           nohwcrypt:Disable hardware encryption (int)
parm:           blink:Enable LED blink on activity (int)
parm:           btcoex_enable:Enable wifi-BT coexistence (int)  


uname -r
3.6.7-4.fc16.x86_64


How reproducible:
Start your computer with Fedora 17 freshly installed, and try to access a webpage via Firefox.



Workaround:
A workaround I found was to add the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/ath9k.conf

options ath9k nohwcrypt=1

This disables the hardware encryption, leaving it to the software (whatever this means).