Turning off the WiFi and Bluetooth in MacBook

Hi all

I'm a new user of the macbook.

In previous laptops I have had, there was always sth like a button for turning the Wireless off (I mean turning the hardware not only disabeling it in software). It was in HP, Toshiba, Asus... I don't use Wifi and Bluetooth often, so I don't need it to be running and taking energy out of my battery. Whan I was turing it off (using the hardware button) I knew it was really off ! Now in macbook I can't see any button like this? I can disable the Wifi (Airport) or Bluetooth using software function on MAC OS X or Win XP but I'm not sure if it's really off or just invisible for other devices and is still radiating on me

Can anyone tell me how it works ?

To my knowledge there are no physical switches on Macs to control the wi-fi and/or bluetooth hardware.

When it's off in software it's off not using any power, not functional. It'll stay that way (even after a reboot etc.) until you switch it on again.

Many windows laptops are the same, some have hardware switches but not all. All the Tosh laptops I've had have had physical switches for wi-fi but software for bluetooth.

My 2 acer laptops had hardware buttons for both but they just switched using the software, i.e. you couldn't disable/enable either without the laptop being on.

that sounds logical.
What's funny fe. when I turn it on in Win and reboot to Mac OS in OS it's still off.
So I suppose that there is a command which turns the hardware on or off on the system startup, depanding on the last settings set on that specified system.

Anyway, I have no idea how to check if it's really off so I must just live with it

Thx for your answer!