Airport Connection: Sleep vs. Sleep Display?

[wordy]

Hi,
I leave my Air on pretty much all the time, and put it to sleep while moving around etc. Sleeping it disconnect the Airport connection - which if very annoying. At a desk I've just been dimming the display all the way off in order to keep my connection.

However, I recently noticed that by setting a "sleep display" hot corner, my network connection is maintained.

I have 2 questions:
1) Is sleep display equivalent (functionally) to simply dimming the display all the way down?
2) Is there a way to either set up a shortcut to sleep the display (other than a hot corner) and/or set it so that only the DISPLAY sleeps after 'x' minutes?

Thanks in advance!

[iHerzeleid]

1. It just shuts down the monitor

2. go to energy saver -> sleep (tab)and select how long you want time to pass until it sleeps.

[eXan]

Closing the MBA is putting the computer in sleep mode - thus freezing all the processes it's been doing, including your downloading.

Sleeping the display just turns off the display, but the computer is still running.

Reducing the screen brightness to zero level is just reducing screen brightness, but not turing off the display. If you turn it all the way down and put it to sunlight or any other bright light you'll see the display is still on.

P.S.: why don't you like hot corner?

[wordy]

Reducing the screen brightness to zero level is just reducing screen brightness, but not turing off the display. If you turn it all the way down and put it to sunlight or any other bright light you'll see the display is still on.

Great insight! Thanks for the replies.

[Endorphinity]

As discussed here http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080407091837231 , it is Control-Shift-Eject.
Just a hint: use your brain and try Google first: the very first page of its search results with only four words in it: 10.5 sleep display shortcut ;)