this helped: http://askubuntu.com/questions/632719/my-wifi-drops-the-conn...
the fwlps=0 option disables the sleep feature altogether which might reduce battery life, but installing tlp gave me ~2 hrs extra per charge
I am honestly proud to be in a community of users who would read that thread and not reinstall Windows. It takes a special breed.
i've followed you on twitter. keep writing good content!
Cheers!