Im useing Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick-Meerkat bought new desktop and wiped out windows and installed Ubuntu.
I have a hotspot and USB wifi adapter. Its setup to connect automatic to the hotspot, but only connects when it feels like it. Sometimes the hotspot shows up in available connection sometimes not. When it does it looks like its trying to connect then times out. Sometimes I get a keylogin message sometimes not!Sometimes I get an encryption login message with the key allready entered when I click it it tries to connect until it times out.Then sometimes I boot and it comes up fine.

Sounds a lot like my netbook (Acer Aspire One AOA150), which runs Fedora, Ubuntu, and Windows XP. In my case, I'm convinced it's a weak wifi radio in the netbook. Have you tried another wifi adapter?