802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition...

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 654 pages
• Published by: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
• Edition: 2nd Edition April 25, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0596100523
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0596100520
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Weighs: 2.1 pounds

Product Review
Among network designers and administrators, wired Ethernet is a known quantity. Plenty is known about how to build good twisted-pair network infrastructures, how to keep them secure, and how to monitor their excess capacity. Not so for the wireless Ethernet networks (built around the IEEE 802.11x standards)--these hold much more mystery for even experienced network designers. 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide aims to codify the body of knowledge needed to design and maintain wireless local area networks (LANs). The authors succeed admirably in this, covering what installation and administration teams need to know and digging into information of use to driver writers and others working at lower levels.

The only significant detail that's been excluded has to do with security--a notorious weak point of 802.11x LANs. The authors cover the feeble but widely used Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) authentication protocol in detail and devote another whole chapter to 802.1x, which is an emerging authentication scheme based on Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP). The author has considerable skill in communicating information graphically and does a great job of using graphs to show how communications frequencies shift over time and how conversations among access points and network nodes progress over time. This is indeed an authoritative document. --David Wall

Topics covered: How IEEE 802.11a and 802.11b wireless networks (also known as WiFi networks) work, and how to configure your own. The framing specification is covered well, as are authentication protocols and (in detail) the physical phenomena that affect IEEE 802.11x radio transmissions. There's advice on how to design a wireless network topology, and how to go about network traffic analysis and performance improvement. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description
As we all know by now, wireless networks offer many advantages over fixed (or wired) networks. Foremost on that list is mobility, since going wireless frees you from the tether of an Ethernet cable at a desk. But that's just the tip of the cable-free iceberg. Wireless networks are also more flexible, faster and easier for you to use, and more affordable to deploy and maintain. The de facto standard for wireless networking is the 802.11 protocol, which includes Wi-Fi (the wireless standard known as 802.11b) and its faster cousin, 802.11g. With easy-to-install 802.11 network hardware available everywhere you turn, the choice seems simple, and many people dive into wireless computing with less thought and planning than they'd give to a wired network. But it's wise to be familiar with both the capabilities and risks associated with the 802.11 protocols. And 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition is the perfect place to start. This updated edition covers everything you'll ever need to know about wireless technology. Designed with the system administrator or serious home user in mind, it's a no-nonsense guide for setting up 802.11 on Windows and Linux. Among the wide range of topics covered are discussions on:

• deployment considerations
• network monitoring and performance tuning
• wireless security issues
• how to use and select access points
• network monitoring essentials
• wireless card configuration
• security issues unique to wireless networks

With wireless technology, the advantages to its users are indeed plentiful. Companies no longer have to deal with the hassle and expense of wiring buildings, and households with several computers can avoid fights over who's online. And now, with 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition, you can integrate wireless technology into your current infrastructure with the utmost confidence.

Reader Reviews
This review is from: 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide (O'Reilly Networking) (Paperback) 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide lives up to its title and provides virtually everything you could need to know about 802.11 networks. 802.11 is a family of specifications for wireless networks developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). There are currently four specifications in the family: 802.11, 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g, all of which use the basic Ethernet protocols. Within the last few years, wireless networks have become extremely popular. No longer must a physical cable be run (at both a time and monetary expense) to each network host. With wireless technology, impromptu meetings can be set up just about anywhere, from conference rooms to airplanes, hotel rooms, and more. Anyone who has looked at network standards can attest to how boring they are to read. However, Gast does a wonderful job writing about wireless Ethernet in a way that is not only "not boring," but actually interesting. This is due to his expertise with the subject matter and the many real-world scenarios that he shares. Gast acknowledges that most readers who simply want a methodical, but not all-inclusive, overview of 802.11 can skip chapters 3 through 11, as they deal with the low level details of 802.11. He clearly states that just as it is quite possible to build a wired network without a thorough and detailed understanding of the protocols, the same is true for wireless networks. Nonetheless, there are a number of situations where one may need a deeper knowledge of the underpinnings of 802.11, and those underpinning are exhaustively detailed in chapters 3 through 11. Chapters 3 and 4 address the MAC layer and 802.11 framing. Chapter 5 deals with the greatest weakness of 802.11 -- namely its lack of security. Chapter 5 clearly states the problems and inadequacies associated with 802.11 security and use of the WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) authentication protocol. However, despite all of the security weaknesses in 802.11, Gast never directly advises security conscious organizations to stay clear of 802.11. He does provide information on a possible successor to WEP, the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP). WEP has numerous public security flaws. The first critical weakness was detailed in the now seminal paper, "Weaknesses in the Key Scheduling Algorithm of RC4." One of the paper's authors is Adi Shamir (Shamir is the S in RSA). Shamir's findings were considered somewhat of a death blow to WEP. Chapter 8 deals with an unimplemented aspect of 802.11 -- the PCF (Point Coordination Function). Like PCF itself, much of chapters 3 through 11 are quite dry. The book includes relevant diversions into such topics as RF physics and issues such as the nonexistent microwave absorption peak of water. Chapter 11 concludes the theory portion of the book, and chapters 12 and 13 deal with the very real issue of using 802.11 on Windows and Linux. Although most 802.11 installations are fairly straightforward, there are a number of specific configuration parameters that must be set correctly if the wireless network is to operate at peak efficiency. Perhaps the most important chapter of the book is Chapter 15, "802.11 Network Deployment." As a security professional, I have seen many companies hastily deploy wireless technology, oblivious to the many wireless security weaknesses. The ease with which 802.11 can be deployed has allowed many organizations to overlook such critical issues as eavesdropping, scaling, radio interference, stability, and topology. Gast points out that proper deployment of a wireless LAN is a considerable undertaking, and that significant planning is required before one should even start thinking about the hardware. Chapters 16 and 17 deal with network analysis and performance tuning. Gast describes what to look for when using a protocol analyzer on an 802.11 network and how to ensure its effective use. Chapter 16 includes three case studies using actual output from a sniffer. This chapter is quite valuable and also covers the use of AirSnort. AirSnort (http://airsnort.shmoo.com) is a wireless network tool used to recover WEP encryption keys. It works by passively monitoring network transmissions and then computing the WEP encryption key. AirSnort was one of the first publicly available tools to implement the attack described in the "Weaknesses in the Key Scheduling Algorithm of RC4" paper. Overall, 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide is an excellent guide for any network administrator or architect who needs to understand the ins and outs of 802.11 networking. It has all the necessary information for design and deployment of wireless networks in an easy to read and enjoyable style. Comment | | (Report this)