Hello, I'm still pretty new to linux and networks. I've recently installed ubuntu and after finally getting my usb wifi dongle up and working, I'm having some small issues with the rx packets dropping every so often. It's not as bad as my previous issue but, it does seem to affect the performance just enough to cause hiccups in gaming. I'm currently using a Belkin N300 wifi adapter under Ubuntu 12.10 with the 3.8.6-030806-generic kernel. I'm not sure how much the kernel version matters but, I upgraded to this in attempt to resolve another unrelated issue.

I think if you seriously want good reliable networking you have to be wired.
wireless by definition cannot be as reliable as wired.