[NTLUG:Discuss] USB NIC issue

[Fred]

Anyone ever run across this problem?

First, my systems 1 & 2: 
OS 13.1, KDE 4.11.5
One is 32 bit, one is 64 bit. 

Each is using an Asus USB-N13 wireless NIC because of it
being included in the Linux hardware compatability list. 
Both systems exibit the same behavior. 

>lsusb
Bus 002 Device 009: ID 0b05:17ab ASUSTek Computer, Inc. USB-N13 802.11n Network Adapter (rev. B1) [Realtek RTL8192CU]

>lsmod |grep 8192
rtl8192cu             102305  0
rtl8192c_common        71013  1 rtl8192cu
rtl_usb                18877  1 rtl8192cu
rtlwifi                90192  2 rtl8192cu,rtl_usb
mac80211              635601  3 rtl8192cu,rtl_usb,rtlwifi 

The nics work. Linux auto detects them and, after the nic
is configured via Yast, there is network connectivity.
For a while. An indeterminate time, really. Maybe a few minutes,
maybe and hour, maybe a day.

I doubt it is the nic, it ain't the hardware, either so it has to be 
the operating system. I have applied updates but nothing has 
changed the behavior. It is quite frustrating. I have a workaround 
which is to keep an su term open with 
"systemctl restart network.service" which re-initializes the nic but 
having to do that really sucks. The 32 bit system is at my 
grandkid's place and she is definitely computer challenged but 
she seems to understand the issue and is able to restart the 
networking when necessary. 

I suspect something to do with USB device handling but don't
know enough to point fingers. Any ideas?

Fred