I booted my FSC Lifebook S-6120 with ipw2200 chipset with Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10 Alpha5. Again i'm sitting here inside our shiny still new 24/7 library. First I made some tests while I'm connected via cable to our university lan. 

=== Intrepid Ibex Alpha5, LAN ===
$ sudo vpnc
VPNC started in background (pid: 9353)...

$ time wget http://cachefly.cachefly.net/10mb.test
--2008-09-06 18:05:22--  http://cachefly.cachefly.net/10mb.test
Resolving cachefly.cachefly.net... 205.234.175.175
Connecting to cachefly.cachefly.net|205.234.175.175|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 10485760 (10M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: `10mb.test'

100%[======================================>] 10,485,760  8.48M/s   in 1.2s    

2008-09-06 18:05:23 (8.48 MB/s) - `10mb.test' saved [10485760/10485760]


real    0m1.245s
user    0m0.016s
sys    0m0.168s

$ ping -q -c 100 www.google.de
PING www.l.google.com (209.85.129.99) 56(84) bytes of data.

--- www.l.google.com ping statistics ---
100 packets transmitted, 100 received, 0% packet loss, time 99396ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 3.951/4.727/10.506/0.699 ms
=== /Intrepid Ibex Alpha5, LAN ===

Now i'm switching to WLAN. 

=== Intrepid Ibex Alpha5, WLAN ===
$ sudo vpnc
VPNC started in background (pid: 9353)...

$ time wget http://cachefly.cachefly.net/10mb.test
--2008-09-06 17:58:18--  http://cachefly.cachefly.net/10mb.test
Resolving cachefly.cachefly.net... 205.234.175.175
Connecting to cachefly.cachefly.net|205.234.175.175|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 10485760 (10M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: `10mb.test'

100%[======================================>] 10,485,760   142K/s   in 74s     

2008-09-06 17:59:32 (139 KB/s) - `10mb.test' saved [10485760/10485760]


real    1m13.712s
user    0m0.084s
sys    0m0.448s

$ ping -q -c 100 www.google.de
PING www.l.google.com (209.85.129.147) 56(84) bytes of data.

--- www.l.google.com ping statistics ---
100 packets transmitted, 99 received, 1% packet loss, time 99394ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 6.523/13.569/93.803/12.430 ms
=== /Intrepid Ibex Alpha5, WLAN ===

Back in Ubuntu Hardy Heron i repeat those tests

=== Hardy Heron 8.04, 2.6.24-19-generic, WLAN ===
$ sudo vpnc
vpnc: no response from target

$ time wget http://cachefly.cachefly.net/10mb.test
--20:20:15--  http://cachefly.cachefly.net/10mb.test
           => `10mb.test'
Auflösen des Hostnamen »cachefly.cachefly.net«.... 205.234.175.175
Verbindungsaufbau zu cachefly.cachefly.net|205.234.175.175|:80... verbunden.
HTTP Anforderung gesendet, warte auf Antwort... 200 OK
Länge: 10.485.760 (10M) [application/octet-stream]

100%[====================================>] 10.485.760    51.73K/s    ETA 00:00

20:21:50 (107.61 KB/s) - »10mb.test« gespeichert [10485760/10485760]


real	1m35.216s
user	0m0.104s
sys	0m0.320s

$ ping -q -c 100 www.google.de
PING www.l.google.com (209.85.129.104) 56(84) bytes of data.

--- www.l.google.com ping statistics ---
100 packets transmitted, 99 received, 1% packet loss, time 99005ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 4.998/16.177/67.245/9.824 ms
=== /Hardy Heron 8.04, 2.6.24-19-generic, WLAN ===

My experience with Kernel 2.6.27 inside Intrepid

 * The data rate is increased by about 30%
 * I can successfully establish a VPN connection with vpnc. In Hardy this fails while i use WLAN.

I think using Kernel 2.6.27 is a plus.