[ibook] Airport works while lid closed?

[Tom Legare]

I have an original Airport Base Station hooked up to Comcast cable 
service, and we are running a few devices, all with 802.11b:

      - ibook 500
      - Windows 2000 laptop
      - 2 gaming consoles (using external ethernet wireless adaptors)

I'm having trouble with lag when online gaming, and after tracing the 
problem extensively, the problem seems to be more with my wireless 
network than anywhere else.    I will get very "bursty" response, 
meaning that 80% of the time I don't have any lag, and then 20% of the 
time I get huge lag.

For the windoze laptop I just pop out the wireless card when I'm not 
using it, otherwise that thing collects viruses in spite of all the 
spyware protection I have on it

For the iBook I just close the lid.

My question.... when the iBook is closed, is the airport card still 
transmitting?  I know that the optical external USB mouse that is 
attached keeps its laser beam on, so at a minimum the USB port is still 
powered.

Thanks,

Tom