The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    low power wireless / wifi card?

    Discussion in 'Networking and Wireless' started by simonappleton, Mar 18, 2005.

  1. simonappleton

    simonappleton Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    26
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Anyone got any advice on a low power (ie least damage to notebook battery life) wifi card?

    Do usb adapters draw less power?

    Yours ignorantly...

    simonA
     
  2. olyteddy

    olyteddy Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    468
    Messages:
    1,369
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    The drivers for both my built in Broadcom and my dLink DWL-G630 have power controls available. You can set output power level and power saving (I presume that shuts the transmitter off unless needed) modes. These settings are available from the Device Manager.

    First PC = Vic-20, 8" 128KB Home-Brew Floppy Drive ... Current Rig = eMachines m6805 ... Quantum Leap?
     
  3. LucianSamosata

    LucianSamosata Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    44
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    If your existing adapter's driver does not provide a power throttle for output strength, which not all of them do, then you can either get one that does or, yes, buy a USB adapter because they do use less power (I've never seen one over 70 mW, whereas PCMCIA/CardBus/miniPCI can get up to 200mW).

    You can check out this nifty table of adapters (or this one, for g) which tells you what all of their transmit power ranges are in mW and dBm.

    --------------
    Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician
    CompTIA A+ and Network+ Certified
    "Why are you laughing? Change the name and the story is about you." ~Horatius
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 2, 2015