[damiensmunki]

Hi! I just finished setting up my new wireless network, and at some points in my house, I'm getting 1 bar of signal but having no problem swiftly loading web pages. Will having this weak signal negatively affect my battery life on my PowerBook? Thanks!

[Socially Awkward Solo]

I really doubt it

[Tomster]

Nope. And with one bar of signal, I believe your multicast rate is still at 2BaseT so unless you have a really fast connection, your isp will still be the bottleneck. Now as for filesharing on the lan, then one bar of signal will slow you down.

[tooki]

There's no such thing as 2baseT. If you search for it, people are in fact referring to 10Base2 ethernet.

Regardless, 10Base2 has nothing to do with the question, nothing in the slightest.

What I think Tomster is trying to say is that for internet use, even with just 1 bar of reception (which will mean a lower transmission speed), the AirPort network is unlikely to be the bottleneck. And I agree.

As for battery life... I actually am not sure. Cellphones do indeed consume far more power in low-reception situations, but then again, they have a minimum data rate to maintain. My hunch is that it does not significantly decrease battery life.

tooki

[damiensmunki]

Originally posted by tooki:
There's no such thing as 2baseT. If you search for it, people are in fact referring to 10Base2 ethernet.

Regardless, 10Base2 has nothing to do with the question, nothing in the slightest.

What I think Tomster is trying to say is that for internet use, even with just 1 bar of reception (which will mean a lower transmission speed), the AirPort network is unlikely to be the bottleneck. And I agree.

As for battery life... I actually am not sure. Cellphones do indeed consume far more power in low-reception situations, but then again, they have a minimum data rate to maintain. My hunch is that it does not significantly decrease battery life.

tooki

Thanks for the responses. I did, indeed, have cell phones in mind when wondering if the weak signal would lessen battery life. If anyone else has any information, please share.

[Tomster]

Yes, there is no such animal as 2BaseT. What I meant was the multicast rate should be about two at that level, or about one fifth of 10BaseT.

[tooki]

Originally posted by Tomster:
Yes, there is no such animal as 2BaseT.

Indeed. All online references I've found to 2BaseT so far have been mislabeled references to 10Base2. But you can't just go inventing lingo, my friend! If you wanted to say to expect 2Mb/sec speeds, you should just have said so.

The original Ethernet specification (never used outside of Xerox, AFAIK) was 3Mb. By the time it was released to the public, it was 10Mb/sec, in the form of 10Base5 ("thicknet" coax). Later came 10Base2 ("thinnet" coax), and then 10BaseT (twisted-pair cable), which was later raised to 100 and 1000Mb/sec.

tooki