Like others, the problems seemed to start around 2.6.39.
Thought I should note here, my system showed this problem with 2.6.36 through 2.6.39. It seems to have stopped showing the problem (possibly due to a memory upgrade many months ago), but it still has chronic instability of the connection (drops out for varying intervals), and often, network-manager doesn't seem aware of the failure - reloading the driver isn't a reliable solution (sometimes appears to work, often does not)
FWIW. Shannon C. Dealy | DeaTech Research Inc. dealy@deatech.com | - Custom Software Development - Phone: (800) 467-5820 | - Natural Building Instruction - or: (541) 929-4089 | www.deatech.com