DTIM and powersave on Trendnet TEW-510APB

Trendnet TEW-510APB 802-11a/b/g access point. I want to conserve battery
power as much as possible on my laptops by setting the DTIM value. This
should be the correct way to do that.

However, I find it difficult to understand how DTIM works om this AP.
Here is the relevant info from the Help file:

: Beacon Interval
:
: The default value is 100.
:
: Enter a value between 20 and 1000 milliseconds. The Beacon Interval
: value indicates the frequency interval of the beacon. A beacon is a
: packet broadcast by the Router to synchronize the wireless network.
:
: DTIM Interval
:
: The default value is 1.
:
: This value, between 1 and 16,384 bits per second, indicates the
: interval of the Delivery Traffic Indication Message (DTIM). A Data
: Beacon Rate field is a countdown field informing clients of the next
: window for listening to broadcast and multicast messages. When the
: Router has buffered broadcast or multicast messages for associated
: clients, it sends the next message with a rate value. Its clients hear
: the beacons and awaken to receive the broadcast and multicast
: messages.

The Beacon interval is in milliseconds, which is normal. But how should I
understand the setting for DTIM, bits per second? This value is usually a
Byte, an integer value.

I had DTIM set to 1600, about 10 pct of the maximum, but after the latest
software update of my Apple Airport driver (OS X 10.3.9) et al, the
Powerbook began to lose the connection.

There is no time-critical stuff like RSS feeds involved.

> There is no time-critical stuff like RSS feeds involved.

Then if you're using it for polling why not use a cron script to turn off
the radio entirely?

Bill Kearney <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> > There is no time-critical stuff like RSS feeds involved.
>
> Then if you're using it for polling why not use a cron script to turn off
> the radio entirely?

The access point is not using PCF as the coordination function.