Adapter Power Level Matters?

Hi all. i got a T60 with the Atheros 5006EX Chipset, and am able to set the different power modes / levels depending upon if the network I'm connecting to is a or b/g. Here at the university we have all 3, but A is the best as it is the "emptiest" of the 3. I always have mine set on max power, which is 40mW for my adapter. Should I always have it on max, normal, or minimal? we have access points ALL over the campus. Also, does this power level have a significant impact on my battery life ?

 

You should aim for a power level that still gets your a good signal; max power will obviously get you the best signal, but if normal or minimal get you good signals too, this can save quite a bit of battery power (maybe 10s of minutes or so, depending on usage)

 

My Atheros adapter adjusts it's power output itself.

 

How do you enable this automatic power management?

 

In the Atheros Client Utility, just set maximum power per connection, and it'll adjust as it needs to.

 

I keep my card in lowest power mode until I have a problem with the connection then I up the xmit power a notch or two. I never have any faith in these devices doing a great job conserving power.

Plus if you are just connecting to the web with your card (as in...to your router then the web via the router's wired connection to the web). As long as the connection speed to the router, or broadband modem, is above the speed of the router/broadband modem's connection to the web (run a web based speed test to check that connection) you are just fine.

It's pretty almost always the actual connection to the web that is rate limiting. So if you have a 3Mb broadband service as long as your card is connecting at 3Mb or above you are fine and not losing anything in terms of data transfer speed. Of course if you are a lucky sort with FIOS service then well, you might need as much as a 20Mb connection.

I only mention this because it seems to be a common misconception in questions about speed that the connection to your router is really the important thing. It's just not unless you are actually using it as a home network and even then it might not be that important if compared with more battery life.

And really few people will ever need the 54Mb speed of your G-mode network card. Let alone the 1000Gbit wired cards we are seeing now. The time is coming where home networking will make use of it but these days a 10Mb card and a 10Mb 10baseT connection is FINE and overkill still.

What I am saying is as long as you are getting connected it is likely fine...don't sweat it because you will never see any benefit for your worry.

 

WackyT, what version of ACU are you using? I'm using 4.2.0.358. Is there a newer one?

grumpy3b, I'm @ a University, so we have an EDU here.

 

d'oh!! of course...

 

Wireless Driver: 5.0.0.107
Configuration Utility: 5.0.0.292

ftp://lizzi555.dyndns.org/Download/WLAN/Atheros/5_0_0_107/