Bsrgvty

I have just installed Ubuntu 18.10. Great experience so far except for the following issue:

Whenever I try to access some websites like Netflix or Mathworks, the connection to the wireless router is lost and I have to reinitialize both for them to work. It seems that when the data-flow is high, the connection is lost, but I am not sure. The wireless router is a TP-Link model TL-WR841N(TPD) Ver: 10.0. I am using Ubuntu 18.10 on a Samsung laptop model NP910S3K. Both the laptop and the router are using the default configurations, I only changed the router passwords.

The same machine using Windows 10 and another machine (a macbook-pro late 2013) running MAC-OS High Sierra don't have this issue. They work well with the OS they came with. But I want to use linux, not windows or macOS.

I am not an expert user, I just like the idea of moving definitively to Linux. At the university, the machines work as a charm. I am having this problems just at home.

$ lspci -nnk | grep 0280 -A3
01:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac
Wireless Network Adapter [168c:003e] (rev 20)
 Subsystem: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter [144d:4125]
 Kernel driver in use: ath10k_pci
 Kernel modules: ath10k_pci

I notice that you said:

Both the laptop and the router are using the default configurations

First, check the settings in the router. WPA2-AES is preferred; not any WPA and WPA2 mixed mode and certainly not TKIP. Second, if your router is capable of N speeds, you may have better connectivity with a channel width of 20 MHz in the 2.4 GHz band instead of automatic 20/40 MHz, although it is likely to affect N speeds. I also have better luck with a fixed channel, either 1, 6 or 11, rather than automatic channel selection. Also, be certain the router is not set to use N speeds only; auto B, G and N is preferred. After making these changes, reboot the router.

Next, I recommend that your regulatory domain be set explicitly. Check yours:

sudo iw reg get

If you get 00, that is a one-size-maybe-fits-all setting. Find yours here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2 Then set it temporarily:

sudo iw reg set IS

Of course, substitute your country code if not Iceland. Set it permanently:

sudo nano /etc/default/crda

Change the last line to read:

REGDOMAIN=IS

Proofread carefully, save and close the text editor.

After rebooting the computer, please give us your report.

EDIT: As you noted, there are many instances of 'ath10k_pci firmware crashed' in an internet search. Here is one that I suggest you try as the last post mentions a firmware change but no further complaints. https://github.com/manjaro/packages-core/issues/131

Let's try it. From the terminal, first, we back up the existing file:

cd /lib/firmware/ath10k/QCA6174/hw3.0
sudo mv firmware-6.bin firmware-6.bak

Now we get the new firmware file:

sudo wget https://github.com/kvalo/ath10k-firmware/blob/master/QCA6174/hw3.0/4.4.1.c1/firmware-6.bin_RM.4.4.1.c1-00042-QCARMSWP-1

Any we rename it:

sudo mv firmware-6.bin_RM.4.4.1.c1-00042-QCARMSWP-1 firmware-6.bin

Reboot and let us see:

dmesg | grep ath

I had exactly the same problem as this (same wireless card and same exact router model) and contacted TP-Link. They sent me the following firmware binary for the router: http://static.tp-link.com/wr841ndv11_eu_beta.zip

After updating the router with this binary I haven't had a crash since. Kudos to TP-Link for getting back to me within 24 hours over a weekend with a perfect fix, posting here for posterity.