ath card problem

[kalin mintchev]

ok. for the last almost 3 weeks i've been trying to get the ath0 driver to
work properly with the dlink dwl-ag650 card i got for my t20 thinkpad with
5.2.1.
it kinda works sometimes. that sometimes is driving me nuts. i understand
that there is the possibility that i'm really retarded and not being able
to make a simple piece of hardware work properly on this laptop. usually
that's not the case but for some reason this piece of hardware has been
very stubborn. i have to say that unfortunately it works with no problem
on a windows laptop with the windows driver.

all that being said can somebody explain the outputs below.
ifconfig says it's associated but appears that it's not really. that
happens a lot. i tried 2 different access points. did reset the routers
about a dozen times. i'm back at the point where i'm about the rip this
card off the machine and trow it against the wall and then burn it until
it converts to a fluid...

thank you..

chon# ifconfig ath0
ath0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
	inet6 fe80::280:c8ff:fe16:eb4b%ath0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x3
	inet 192.168.1.100 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
	ether 00:80:c8:16:eb:4b
	media: IEEE 802.11 Wireless Ethernet autoselect (DS/11Mbps)
	status: associated
	ssid whatever 1:whatever
	channel 6 authmode OPEN powersavemode OFF powersavesleep 100
	wepmode MIXED weptxkey 1
	wepkey 1:104-bit
chon# ping 192.168.1.1
PING 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1): 56 data bytes
ping: sendto: Host is down
ping: sendto: Host is down
ping: sendto: Host is down
ping: sendto: Host is down
ping: sendto: Host is down
ping: sendto: Host is down
ping: sendto: Host is down
ping: sendto: Host is down
ping: sendto: Host is down
ping: sendto: Host is down
^C
--- 192.168.1.1 ping statistics ---
278 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss
chon# dmesg
........................................
ath0: hardware error; resetting
ath0: ath_reset: unable to reset hardware; hal status 3
ath0: device timeout
ath0: ath_reset: unable to reset hardware; hal status 3
ath0: device timeout
ath0: ath_reset: unable to reset hardware; hal status 3
ath0: device timeout
ath0: ath_reset: unable to reset hardware; hal status 3
ath0: device timeout
ath0: ath_reset: unable to reset hardware; hal status 3
ath0: device timeout
ath0: ath_reset: unable to reset hardware; hal status 3
ath0: device timeout
ath0: ath_reset: unable to reset hardware; hal status 3
......................................