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Anobody knows about any wifi routers that have a button (or switch) to turn the wifi signal off?
BTW: there are a few reasons I can think of why one would want to do this but not turn of the complete router:
- save energy / gain security, when no one is home, but you still want your wired network to be operational to have access to e.g. a NAS
- turn off the wifi signal when you go to bed because the basestation is close to your bed and you're are worried about too much RF signals slowly destroying your brain
- make sure children upstairs can't access the internet instead of doing their homework
The whole point of having a button instead of a software solution would be that anybody could do it, including your non-technical wife for example.
Rabarberski
Posted 2009-09-09T12:44:18.433
Reputation: 7 494
I have not seen one of these in a long time. Is there a reason you don't want to turn off the whole router, just Wifi? – Joshua Nurczyk – 2009-09-09T12:49:58.353
3Maybe he's got some machines connected via wire. – Rook – 2009-09-09T12:53:26.040
Given the tag "energy" (much appreciated!) I wonder if switching of Wifi actually saves energy for all such devices. – Arjan – 2009-09-09T12:57:08.550
I do have weird dreams of surfing the internet when my wireless is on - maybe that's that. – caliban – 2009-09-09T12:58:26.830
I've edited my question with some justification... – Rabarberski – 2009-09-09T13:00:39.513
I realise you might not have been totally serious about reason 2, but there's no evidence that wifi signals harm the brain or that they can be detected by so called "sensitives". – ChrisF – 2009-09-09T13:05:01.037
@Arjan: the typical RF output power of a basestation is 15-20 dBm, which corresponds to 100mW (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBm). So, indeed, even with some extra mW overhead, that wouldn't exactly count as 'saving energy'...
– Rabarberski – 2009-09-09T13:08:09.180@ChrisF: actually I am serious about it. My router was placed on a 2m high cupboard directly under the location of my bed one floor higher. With a baby in the house, I can assure you, you tend to be on the safe side and not have an RF-source 1m from where he is sleeping. There's no study yet detailing the impact of 30 years of wifi signals when sleeping :-) – Rabarberski – 2009-09-09T13:12:03.963
1@Rabarberski : Have you considered the alternative thinking that your kid might gain a few IQ points because of that? :P – caliban – 2009-09-09T13:17:03.180
I just wanted to make sure that the idea of turning the whole thing off was thought of. I know I've made that sort of thinking mistake before. – Joshua Nurczyk – 2009-09-09T13:21:24.763
As for make sure children upstairs can't access the internet -- I hope their computers cannot hook up to some unsecured network from some neighbour then. ;-) (Which by itself may impose some security threats, if these neighbours would like to listen into the communications, but well I guess you considered that already as well.) – Arjan – 2009-09-09T13:33:02.967