If I disable the WIFI card from the device manager, is it truly off?

[forty-nine]

49.....that must be your IQ

No, it's my IQ squared.
Get out your calculator, and within an hour I'm sure you can get it right
this time.

 

[JohnO]

OK, well think about this...RF energy in that part of the spectrum is
generated by a whole lot of devices other than wireless NICs. While I
applaud your effort to reduce an additional exposure, and that's not a bad
goal IMO, be aware that WiFi devices are everywhere, Bluetooth is in the
same frequency band, and that 2.4 GHz is a popular band for a wide variety
of consumer and professional devices.

I'd suggest that turning off the wireless NIC by the normal means is going
to put the laptop's 2.4 GHz emissions in the range of the typical 2.4 GHz
background noise you'd find in any commercial location, such as a hospital.

In the end, a site survey would be interesting.

Good luck with your project, it sounds pretty cool.

-John O

 

[Val]

Probably the only way you're going to know for sure is to test one of your
laptops.

Get a copy of Netstumbler. http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/

Running it on one machine, make sure you can detect the candidate machine
in AdHoc mode.

Turn off the candidate machines WiFi. Can you hear it now?


my question is for a hospital with disabled kids
that they will be given a charity with laptops, they will have lan cables
and wifi but it would be good to know
if turning on and off the wifi would reduce their exposure

some are under 10 and some are very sick

any more awful mean comments?

 

[Val]

Oops, sorry, Netstumbler doesn't work in Vista (yet). There are several
similar tools for Vista, such as
http://www.techidiots.net/project-pages/vistumbler


Probably the only way you're going to know for sure is to test one of your
laptops.

Get a copy of Netstumbler. http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/

Running it on one machine, make sure you can detect the candidate machine
in AdHoc mode.

Turn off the candidate machines WiFi. Can you hear it now?


my question is for a hospital with disabled kids
that they will be given a charity with laptops, they will have lan cables
and wifi but it would be good to know
if turning on and off the wifi would reduce their exposure

some are under 10 and some are very sick

any more awful mean comments?

 

[smlunatick]

my question is for a hospital with disabled kids
that they will be given a charity with laptops, they will have lan cables
and wifi but it would be good to know
if turning on and off the wifi would reduce their exposure

some are under 10 and some are very sick

any more awful mean comments?

Not sure about all hospitals but do they let cell phone use with-in
them? WiFi is still a wireless signal and might cause interferrence
with the medical device, just as cell phone use is prohibited for this
reason.

 

[Val]

And, FWIW, I just did a test using Vistumbler to see if my Gateway M285's
WiFi goes radio silent when "turned off"

It did.

YMMV


Oops, sorry, Netstumbler doesn't work in Vista (yet). There are several
similar tools for Vista, such as
http://www.techidiots.net/project-pages/vistumbler


Probably the only way you're going to know for sure is to test one of your
laptops.

Get a copy of Netstumbler. http://www.netstumbler.com/downloads/

Running it on one machine, make sure you can detect the candidate machine
in AdHoc mode.

Turn off the candidate machines WiFi. Can you hear it now?


my question is for a hospital with disabled kids
that they will be given a charity with laptops, they will have lan cables
and wifi but it would be good to know
if turning on and off the wifi would reduce their exposure

some are under 10 and some are very sick

any more awful mean comments?