Didja Know? WiFi Sleeping

[640k]

Did you know there's a setting that will prevent WiFi from sleeping? When WiFi goes to sleep, it can cause data disconnects which may result in "unexpected bahvior" with apps that stream music or connect to chat clients.

home - menu - settings - wireless & networks - wi-fi settings - menu - advanced - wi-fi sleep policy:

you'll have the option to:
(Sleep) when screen turns off (default)
Never (sleep) when plugged in
Never (sleep)

 

[raven1911]

Definitely didn't know this. Reset my phone to "Never". No wonder I was having wifi issues.

 

[J*Bishop]

Definitely didn't know this. Reset my phone to "Never". No wonder I was having wifi issues.

ditto!! thanks for the info 640k!

 

[640k]

DISCLAIMER: I wonder what it does to battery life???

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Did you know there's a setting that will prevent WiFi from sleeping? When WiFi goes to sleep, it can cause data disconnects which may result in "unexpected bahvior" with apps that stream music or connect to chat clients.

home - menu - settings - wireless & networks - wi-fi settings - menu - advanced - wi-fi sleep policy:

you'll have the option to:
(Sleep) when screen turns off (default)
Never (sleep) when plugged in
Never (sleep)

Any info on the power drain when it's set to never if you use it a lot? I just set mine to never while plugged in, but don't wanna set it completely to never, as I keep WiFi on at home most of the time...

What's funny is, I'm pretty sure I looked in here, because I always browse through all settings options when I get a new phone, but I don't know that I clicked on sleep policy.

Thanks!

 

[Jonny Kansas]

DISCLAIMER: I wonder what it does to battery life???

You jerk...Beat me to it. Maybe I'll try it over my 4-day weekend coming up and report my findings...

 

[640k]

my guess would be that the phone would continually be scanning for wifi spots ALL of the time, which is a HUGE battery drain. i'd say, be prepared for wifi to jump above display in the usage graph.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

my guess would be that the phone would continually be scanning for wifi spots ALL of the time, which is a HUGE battery drain. i'd say, be prepared for wifi to jump above display in the usage graph.

Scanning, yes, but what if you're connected to a network? It doesn't keep scanning for new ones does it? That would be plain mad...Seems to me like it'd take a bit of extra power for the radio to be running, but as long as you're not sending/receiving copious amounts of data, you think it will be that drastic if connected for the whole time...?

[I really am going to do an experiment with this...]

 

[hookbill]

my guess would be that the phone would continually be scanning for wifi spots ALL of the time, which is a HUGE battery drain. i'd say, be prepared for wifi to jump above display in the usage graph.

I've always had my setting on this for WiFi and it doesn't seem to affect the battery. And I'm home all day so I'm usually on WiFi.

640K, got a question for you. Is there any advantage to using IP settings (Use Static IP)?

 

[640k]

not sure, but a wifi device on a PC/laptop would still give you updates of connections if your area, so i can only assume that it would still continue to scan.

 

[640k]

my guess would be that the phone would continually be scanning for wifi spots ALL of the time, which is a HUGE battery drain. i'd say, be prepared for wifi to jump above display in the usage graph.

I've always had my setting on this for WiFi and it doesn't seem to affect the battery. And I'm home all day so I'm usually on WiFi.

640K, got a question for you. Is there any advantage to using IP settings (Use Static IP)?

advantage: you can open ports, whatever, for your IP in your router, setup a VPN, do network management, etc., etc.

disadvantage: most routers are dhcp. anywhere you go, you'll have to turn that off to connect to "foreign"/public networks.

 

[hypatia]

I use this together with the "Y5" app to turn off wifi when I'm not near a known access point. "Near" is defined by GPS and/or Cell tower.

 

[jimnutt]

my guess would be that the phone would continually be scanning for wifi spots ALL of the time, which is a HUGE battery drain. i'd say, be prepared for wifi to jump above display in the usage graph.

I've always had my setting on this for WiFi and it doesn't seem to affect the battery. And I'm home all day so I'm usually on WiFi.

640K, got a question for you. Is there any advantage to using IP settings (Use Static IP)?

advantage: you can open ports, whatever, for your IP in your router, setup a VPN, do network management, etc., etc.

disadvantage: most routers are dhcp. anywhere you go, you'll have to turn that off to connect to "foreign"/public networks.

You can have the best of both worlds with the right router setup at home. Most routers can be configured to assign a particular IP address to a given MAC address (the MAC address is the unique ID every ethernet|wifi card has). For instance, my router gives my phone the IP address 192.168.1.7 and the host name "droid" every time I connect to it with the phone. That way you can leave the phone using DHCP, which is better if you use random hotspots and still get a fixed ip address.

 

[640k]

but not all routers. i've run across a few that don't allow it. sucks when you're used to it...

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Testing battery with wifi always on vs only always on while plugged in.

Ok. Had my phone unplugged for around 12 hours with my wifi sleep policy set to Never while plugged in. For 6 of those hours, I was awake browsing Droid forums occasionally, checking email, searching the market, downloading an app or two.

For the other six, I was asleep, so my phone sat idle.

Now, I've set the wifi sleep policy to never and plugged my phone back in for a little while to reset the battery usage %s.

I'll do my best to use the phone about the same way I did before.

Battery usage of wifi, toggle on, but allowed to sleep when the screen was off was listed at 14% after those 12 hours.

I have a feeling the biggest change will be in the idle time. Any other predictions?