So after recently installing Ubuntu 12.04 on my aging HP Compaq 6910p laptop and using it for about 5 hours continuously, I have noticed that the WiFi card (iwl4965 – Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN) nearly burned a whole through the table!
On further investigation it looks like Ubuntu is maxing out the TX power to 15!
Before lowering TX power:
iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"Internetz"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 68:7F:74:9F:E5:98
Bit Rate=144 Mb/s Tx-Power=15 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=59/70 Signal level=-51 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:1196 Invalid misc:125 Missed beacon:0
After lowering the TX power:
sudo iwconfig wlan0 txpower 5
iwconfig wlan0
wlan0 IEEE 802.11abgn ESSID:"Internetz"
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.437 GHz Access Point: 68:7F:74:9F:E5:98
Bit Rate=52 Mb/s Tx-Power=5 dBm
Retry long limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=61/70 Signal level=-49 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:1336 Invalid misc:100 Missed beacon:0
So yes the Bit Rate has been reduced immensely but also so has the heat from the card!
