Password-protected wifi access points invisible

[mrund]

I have an enigmatic problem with the wifi on my new Asus ultrabook. It is not a hardware problem, as it worked fine under the hated Win 8.

Wifi works fine on my unlocked access point at home as long as I stay close to it. If I go to the other end of the house, where other wifi devices still work well, my ultrabook can't even see the access point. And my biggest problem is that password-protected access points, e.g. my neighbour's and the one at the library, are never visible at all. What gives?

* I. scanning WIFI PCI devices...
-- Atheros Communications Inc. AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
==> PCI ID = 168c:0032 (rev 01)
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* II. querying ndiswrapper...
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* III. querying iwconfig...
eth0 no wireless extensions.

lo no wireless extensions.

wlan0 IEEE 802.11bgn ESSID:"pmor"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.462 GHz Access Point: 00:13:10:7C:D8:33
Bit Rate=54 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=35/70 Signal level=-75 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:51 Invalid misc:117 Missed beacon:0

-------------------------
* IV. querying ifconfig...
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 74:d0:2b:d8:64:bb
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:19

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:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:594 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:594 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:120169 (120.1 KB) TX bytes:120169 (120.1 KB)

wlan0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 24:0a:64:31:e7:e9
inet addr:192.168.1.102 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::260a:64ff:fe31:e7e9/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:15840 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:13103 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:11665378 (11.6 MB) TX bytes:3085393 (3.0 MB)

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* V. querying DHCP...
Rather than invoking init scripts through /etc/init.d, use the service(8)
utility, e.g. service smbd reload

Since the script you are attempting to invoke has been converted to an
Upstart job, you may also use the reload(8) utility, e.g. reload smbd
-------------------------
* VI. querying nslookup google.com...
Server: 130.244.127.161
Address: 130.244.127.161#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.40.226
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.40.227
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.40.228
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.40.229
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.40.230
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.40.231
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.40.232
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.40.233
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.40.238
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.40.224
Name: google.com
Address: 173.194.40.225

[orion2014]

The software tells the hardware how to behave. Drivers work differently across different OS's, each OS uses the hardware differently. Windows 8, is a virtual OS, and works differently from Windows 7, It does sound like a driver issue, every machine I've fixed with those drivers has had some sort of problem with connectivity. My mom has those drivers on her Dell machine, that's about a year old, so it has the latest hardware, and she can never find the network, and is always rebooting the router, while I'm playing Zombies:( She won't update any of her drivers, so she keeps having that problem. Try installing proprietary drivers from device manager. Worst case scenario if you have to reinstall, connect through ethernet.

[mrund]

Pardon? Device Manager seems to be a Windows program, not a linux program.