I've had Linux Mint installed for about a month now, with no major issues, save for one.
I'll have good internet connection, but it will come in and out. For example I can try downloading any file, and it'll work for a few seconds and then just stop. I can disconnect from the wifi I'm on and reconnect or just shut off the wifi and turn it back on and it'll work again for a few seconds and then do the same thing.
I hadn't posted anything about this because orginally I was going to try running an ethernet cable from upstairs into my room to see if that would fix the problem but that has been delayed so I'm turning to you all for help..
ALSO if anyone can help please explain in easy to follow terms, as I'm still not very familiar with the technological side of linux yet 
Also was doing some digging and found other people with similarish problems and their adapters were showing up when they run lsusb in terminal. I don't know if this is relevant to my problem but the adapter does show up and I can't find the firmware file for ar9170 or ar9101
<code>
Bus 001 Device 008: ID 0846:9001 NetGear, Inc. WN111(v2) RangeMax Next Wireless [Atheros AR9170+AR9101]
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0409:005a NEC Corp. HighSpeed Hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bda:0111 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Card Reader
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 1532:002e Razer USA, Ltd
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 1038:0510 Ideazon, Inc.- </code>
Thanks in advance!