Wifi - leave on or turn off?

Wifi - leave on or turn off if not using for few hours

  • leave on

    Votes: 7 77.8%

  • turn off

    Votes: 2 22.2%
  • Total voters
    9
T

techfan

Disciple
does anyone know how much power does the wifi card consume & whether it's a good idea to turn it off if not using wifi for few hours at a time (i'm doing this currently) & will this on-off-on cycle harm it in anyway?
 
It will take 5watts at most. No harm in keeping it turned on. Most are designed to be kept on most of the time.
 
Forgot to mention that most of them go into power saving mode if not used for some time too. They use less than a watt in that power saving state.
 
How long is 'not using for a few hours' ?

I only use wifi for a few hours a day. Its not used for longer than that so i switch it off. I can do this because my router has a convenient switch at the front. It goes off because its not being used. People who don't have a router with such a facility are more likely to leave it on because its a hassle to do it in the web ui. I think a wifi on/off switch should be a std feature on a router. Netgear routers have such a switch and i like it.

The security reason is moot nowadays if you have a 10-12 letter password and WPA2. But if you use WEP then it easier to hack. Older routers say b or g or even repeaters with some models may still use WEP encryption. So leaving wifi on is an invitation to drive-by sniffing.

Power consumption difference with wifi on vs off is very little, i did not notice any difference in the UPS with it on or off.

Crowds the spectrum for nothing. Though if you're not doing anything then it does not necessarily interfere with others.

Another reason is to hopefully extend the life of the wifi radio. Whether this is true or not i don't know.
 
Last edited:
I assume that you are talking about the laptop WiFi, then yes, its better to keep it turned off if you do not need it. The power consumption is negligible, but if it gives an additional few minutes, who cares.

On Routers : Mine is powered down at night thru the Advanced setting in DD WRT. During daytime, there is usually one device connected via WiFi, so I leave it on.

The power saving is minimal and not worth looking at. Security : use MAC filtering along with a good password. As far as life is concerned, heat is the biggest enemy - so if its cool then not an issue. Spectrum crowding - I dont think its that big an issue, unless you live in extremely crowded areas.
 
techfan said:
does anyone know how much power does the wifi card consume & whether it's a good idea to turn it off if not using wifi for few hours at a time (i'm doing this currently) & will this on-off-on cycle harm it in anyway?
Click to expand...
Which device are you referring to ?
 
sorry for not being clear... i meant the wifi card on the laptop (though laptop is connected to power outlet so i'm not looking at it from battery life point of view but generally from electricity consumption point of view)

'not using for a few hours' would mean not using wifi for atleast 2-3 hours at a time but more like 4 hours or so on average
 
There is efficent power management in Windows 8.1 especially for laptops so its almost neligible if you want to try
 
If it is an embedded device (in a laptop) I leave it running. If external (router) I turn it off when not in use. Specially at night. Have this syndrome to turn off things I do not need. Probably a post-runner of conserving money and an innate phobia of leakage of any kind. Like wise for taps, geysers, and all electrical switches. The gas regulator too.
 
Laptops have bigger batteries so the loss is negligible but tabs/mobiles do not. I turn of wi-fi whenever its not needed. Just cuts battery time.
 
i'm on win 7
yeah, i'm a bit of a environment friendly freak so dont like to keep things running unnecessarily thats why i was putting it off/disabling it.
was just worried that the wifi hardware shouldnt get damaged in any way with frequent on/off/enabling/disabling. is that a concern or it'll be fine?
 
Back
Top