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    Battery time with wifi WPA encryption

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by bluesboy, Jul 1, 2006.

  1. bluesboy

    bluesboy Notebook Consultant

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    I was just wondering if the battery time would be diminished if you used WPA encrytion with your wifi network as opposed to using an unsecured network. I think the processor has to work more for the WPA encrytion, right? Are the processors today so darn powerful that it really doesn't matter?
     
    bluesboy, Jul 1, 2006
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  2. cashmonee

    cashmonee Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

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    No, WPA encryption will not effect battery life. Definitely use it though, you really don't want to be without it.
     
    cashmonee, Jul 1, 2006
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  3. bluesboy

    bluesboy Notebook Consultant

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    I'm glad to hear that. I've used an older Toshiba notebook running at 266MHz (hey, don't laugh!), and it would get a little less than an hour on an open wifi network. On a WPA network it was about 10 min!
     
    bluesboy, Jul 1, 2006
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  4. matik

    matik Notebook Enthusiast

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    I think it may affect battery life indirectly. WPA weakens the the signal and consequently the effective range of the network. Won't matter if you are close to the access point but the further you are from the access point the more energy is required to communicate with the network.
     
    matik, Jul 4, 2006
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