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Best way to leave MBP on overnight?

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macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 23, 2010
332
50
New Zealand
I have my 2011 MBP sitting on my desk, with my wired ethernet connection going into it. From my MBP I share the connection, so my iPad / iPhone can browse the web wirelessly etc.

I like reading online texts from bed on my iPad, and for now, I have been turning the brightness right down on my screen and just letting it sit there (so the wireless signal remains active). So far, it's worked good, but I'm just wondering if I could be doing any potential harm by leaving it on all night, or if there's a better method? I.E. putting it in a state that is less power hungry than just turning off the screen, but still allows it to broadcast the wireless signal?

I've heard of caffeine, insomniaX etc - Would these be better?

Talk about first world problems....

Thanks.
 
Isn't your (System Preferences > Energy Saver >) Display Sleep on? Set Computer Sleep at "never" and Display Sleep at any shorter duration. That's all you need.
 
if you dont want your macbook to sleep...set to never like the post above, and then press "shift+ctrl+eject" and your display will turn off
 
Alternatively, you could set a hot corner to turn off the screen. It'd take less time than pressing F1 20 times.
 
Why not get a wireleess router so that your devices can use the internet. Doesn't seem too intelligent to have to turn on your MacBook to do that.

And you would save more energy in the process.
 
snaky69 said:
Alternatively, you could set a hot corner to turn off the screen. It'd take less time than pressing F1 20 times.
Click to expand...

That's what I do, too.

In addition: set your preferences so a password is required to bring the screen back. You do NOT want any random passer-by (or thief) to be able to wake your machine and dig into your files. This is especially important while traveling. (My machines all have FileVault 2 turned on, and yours should too.)

It's great to be able to quickly flick my finger to turn my screen to black, leaving my machine locked and secure but still on and still running whatever I was running.

Also: Are you connected directly to your cable or DSL modem? If so, be sure your OS X firewall is turned on. I'm happier when I see a router between computers and the Internet, though. Good old NAT... Also, since your machine is connected via an ethernet cable, you might want to consider a surge suppressor for that cable (as well as for power) if your area is prone to electrical storms.
 
negativzero said:
Why not get a wireleess router so that your devices can use the internet. Doesn't seem too intelligent to have to turn on your MacBook to do that.

And you would save more energy in the process.
Click to expand...

This. If you do this regularly it's a no-brainer. Also let's you get the MBP off the desk and maintain a connection.
 
negativzero said:
Why not get a wireleess router so that your devices can use the internet. Doesn't seem too intelligent to have to turn on your MacBook to do that.

And you would save more energy in the process.
Click to expand...

bcaslis said:
This. If you do this regularly it's a no-brainer. Also let's you get the MBP off the desk and maintain a connection.
Click to expand...

I'm a student in student apartments, and the internet set up is slightly weird here - i.e. you need to log into your student account each time you want to connect, and then into your internet account. Long story short, I did attempt to put in a wireless router, but it kept losing connection, so attempted to install dd-wrt on it to try and make the process easier, but think I bricked it. Not too fussed - it was a cheap router anyway.

Also, thanks for all your replies - will look at all suggestions.
 
I want my MBP (2011) to always be available online with Splashtop

So I have my computer never sleep if it has a power cord in it. Display sleep is set to 10 minutes with the power cord.

I also leave it standing upside down like this (mind the wrong computer type in the picture) So It will cool better.
acer-aspire-s3-upside-down.jpg
 
So you're worried about leaving it on all night? Why don't you then just schedule it to turn off at a certain time (System pref > Energy Saver > Schedule)? That way it won't stay on all night.
 
Just go to system pref and set it so it wont go to sleep.
After you are done doing so, press control+shift+eject and turn the display off.
This is how I leave my on for several nights when downloading stuff.
 
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