[?] Sleep mode with MSN running

[TWLreal]

I want to keep MSN running to receive messages but would like to put the MacBook to sleep mode.

However, making it sleep disconnects my connection and therefore, I'm not signed in.

So, my solution right now is to dim the screen brightness to the lowest, it's not lit at all and I leave it like that.

Any better way?

 

[adrianblaine]

As far as I know, that is as good as you can get. Turning the brightness all the way down actually saves tons of power if that is what you are worried about. It should last quite awhile if all you are using is MSN.

 

[WildCowboy]

Unfortunately not...as we've been discussing in this thread (and others), the current third-party utilities for preventing Macs from sleeping when closing the lid were broken by the 10.4.8 update.

 

[TWLreal]

As far as I know, that is as good as you can get. Turning the brightness all the way down actually saves tons of power if that is what you are worried about. It should last quite awhile if all you are using is MSN.

Guess that's what I'll do.

(...)

That's not really my problem. I wouldn't want it running with the lid closed anyway. If I close it, I want it to sleep.

On a side note, my MacBook never wants to sleep with the lid open when I'm connected to the Internet at home by DSL. The sleep light comes on and stays lit, no blinking. The hard drive is still running at full speed, screen is energy saving mode.

However, when I'm at school on the ethernet network, it goes to sleep by itself correctly after a while even with the lid open.

It's strange.

I made a thread about it: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/228366/

Still not fixed.

 

[WildCowboy]

That's not really my problem. I wouldn't want it running with the lid closed anyway. If I close it, I want it to sleep.

Okay, sorry for misunderstanding your question. You can't "sleep" your Mac and maintain network activity. So yes, about the best you can do is turn down your display brightness. Energy Saver preferences give you an option to turn the display completely off after a set period of inactivity...as I see you have set in the screenshot in your other thread.

Why your MacBook isn't displaying proper automatic sleep behavior, I don't know. But if it did behave correctly, the Energy Saver display preference is the best option for maintaining network activity.

 

[TWLreal]

Okay, sorry for misunderstanding your question. You can't "sleep" your Mac and maintain network activity. So yes, about the best you can do is turn down your display brightness. Energy Saver preferences give you an option to turn the display completely off after a set period of inactivity...as I see you have set in the screenshot in your other thread.

That's fine then, I just wanted to make sure it was the best way to keep my connection active while minimizing battery use.

Why your MacBook isn't displaying proper automatic sleep behavior, I don't know. But if it did behave correctly, the Energy Saver display preference is the best option for maintaining network activity.

It's been bugging me for the last few months when I use it.

It goes to sleep at school even when connected to the Internet but when I get back home, I have to manually force it to sleep.

It's kind of annoying. :/