WiFi Speed to Power consumption question

Aguiluz · Post by **Aguiluz** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 6:39 pm

I have a wireless 54Mbps connection. It is always a constant speed.

Now I have terrible battery life. 2 hours tops on WiFi.

I decided to slow down the router to just 2 Mbps because my internet is slower than that (1 Mbps). I never used the extra speed.

Would that help increase battery life?

totokan · Post by **totokan** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 8:34 pm

Unless the router is battery powered, why would that make a difference?

eurddrue · Post by **eurddrue** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:17 pm

how many A is your battery?, also what device is this on, because most companies sell longer lasting batteries.

Aguiluz · Post by **Aguiluz** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 9:49 pm

I was talking about my laptop's battery life.

Theory is slower speed, lesser power consumption of the WiFi radio.

nitro2k01 · Post by **nitro2k01** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 1:26 am

Go to Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager. Find your wireless network card. Right click and choose properties. Check the advanced tab and look for power settings. Eg, if there's a setting for transmission power, set it to the lowest setting. If you're lucky, your laptop comes with a utility that lets you have different profiles for battery and AC power usage.

Post by **bicostp** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:16 am

You have to turn down the transmitter power, not the speed. (At any speed, the transmitter is still spitting radio waves out at X watts.) Of course, turning the power down chips away at your useful range.

Do you always need wireless? (If you're sitting in the living room, for example, you can get away with a cable.) Wired networking is much faster and doesn't use batteries up as fast. (Either run some Cat-5e in the house or try power line networking.)

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 9:21 am

Also keep in mind that wireless speeds are like 50% slower than what they advertise. Theres tons of overhead and errors and crap. I.E dont match your wireless speed to your internet speed.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 10:08 pm

If you are mainly in just one place, just keep your laptop plugged in. I use wireless on my laptop, and I just lug the power adapter around if I have to move somewhere else.