WiFi development

[fredme]

I am about to start a WiFi project which will need to poll a server on a regular basis. To prolong battery life I would like to turn on the WiFi capability only while polling. Does anyone know whether it is possible to turn on and off WiFi programatically?

Thanks,

Fred

[Pony99CA]

I am about to start a WiFi project which will need to poll a server on a regular basis. To prolong battery life I would like to turn on the WiFi capability only while polling. Does anyone know whether it is possible to turn on and off WiFi programatically?
I'm sure it is, because various WiFi drivers allow you to turn the radio on and off. I wonder if it varies depending on the WiFi card and/or radio, though.

Steve

[fredme]

Thanks for the reply.

If I find anything else I'll post here.

Fred

[lurch]

It does depend on the card -- some cards are more hardware controlled so things like turning it on and off, or doing more low-level operations are unavailable to software, but some cards are more driven by software, thus you have more control over it.
A lot of it depends on the device driver too -- how much the driver puts into the hands of the S/W developer and how much it handles.