Acer Aspire V3-731 Wifi

Same problem.. 

Did you go through the Network troubleshooting solutions?

Check the following:

Under Device Manager for the Qualcomm Atheros Wireless network adapte or whichever driver you installed,

Power Management tab, uncheck if the following is selected:

"Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power". 

Are you using a wireless router?  How close is your laptop to the router?  Can you get a clean connection if the ethernet adapter is plugged in?

Can you check to see if you are in Airplaine Mode?  If you are turn it off.

From the Microsoft Website:

This mode is also available for laptops that are running the new Windows 8 operating system and it is very easy to access, provided you know where to look.

Head to the Charms menu and click on “Settings”. From there choose “Change PC Settings”, which will open a “Metro” version of the Control panel. From there you can easily locate “Wireless” from the menu on the left side. Within Wireless you will see an “Airplane Mode” listed at the top with a simple “on” and “off” toggle switch.

There's only a few other options I can think of and a few additional questions:

1.  When you disconnect the ethernet cable, is the laptop in the same position or did you move it farther away from the router?  I'm asking because I had the same issue, within a few feet upto ten feet away the connection was fine, but when I moved the laptop fifteen feet away from the router I would lose the connection.

2. Have you used another laptop on the same router that did not have connectivity issues?  Just to verify that it is not an issue with your Internet provider.

3. Are there any large metal objects near the router and/or laptop?  Known to cause interference.

4. Have you tried unintalling the driver and then re-installing?

When I ran the Network troubleshooter I received a "faulty adapter" message, so I uninstalled and re-installed the driver.  It took three attempts before I finally got a "device is working properly message.  And it was at this point that I discovered that Acer is probably using a very low cost network adapter for their laptops, a network wifi dongle as it is called.   my only options now are to centrally locate my router, purchase a signal range extender (which can cost up to $200.00 and may not work) or utilize my laptop wired only or within ten feet of the modem.

Let me know if the re-install works?

Just out of curiosity, did you upgrade from Windows 7? Also, how do you know that you need the Atheros driver and not the Broadcom? Is it because it is the only driver available on the Acer site for your system? It doesn't necessarily mean that it's the right one for your system.

This is the Acer harware detection tool available on drivers page of Acer's website, right below where you choose your system.

http://global-download.acer.com/FilesDownload/HWID/HWVendorDetection.exe

Run it and look for Wireless. If you see broadcom it means that you're not downloading the right driver. In this case it can be downloaded here : http://goo.gl/mMGzK  OR on the Acer site under your model with Windows 8 upgrade option chosen for OS.