I recently set up a network to share internet to my various wifi enabled devices, and as I don't have a wireless router I set up an ad-hoc network on my laptop with some iptables rules to route traffic. However, after several days of use, it appears that being connected to an ad-hoc network on the N800 (with OS2008 I might add) appears to have a very noticeable effect on battery life.

Connecting to a regular access point, the battery life estimation is around 6-8 hours (while in use). However, when connected to an ad-hoc network, the estimation is at most three hours, and I regularly find the device dead (I've counted it dead 6 times in the last week).

I admit I am not fluent in the differences in power consumption between access point-based and ad-hoc networks, and I realise that using an ad-hoc network might consume more battery power, provided that each node has to send beacons (or the ad-hoc equivalent?).

Has anyone had experience with this? I can't tell that it is an OS2008 problem because I changed my network configuration around the time of the upgrade, but I suspect it would be the same for OS2007.

Furthermore, are there any configuration changes I can do to reduce power consumption for ad-hoc connections (rather than just simply changing the power setting to 10mW)?

Thanks,
Donn