Wireless Hacking: Projects for Wi-Fi Enthusiasts

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 416 pages
• Published by: Syngress
• Edition: 1st Edition October 1, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 193183637X
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1931836371
• Book Dimensions: 9.2 x 8 x 1 inches
• Weighs: 1.5 pounds

Book Description
Sales of wireless LANs to home users and small businesses will soar this year, with products using IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) technology leading the way, according to a report by Cahners research. Worldwide, consumers will buy 7.3 million wireless LAN nodes--which include client and network hub devices--up from about 4 million last year. This third book in the "HACKING" series from Syngress is written by the SoCalFreeNet Wireless Users Group and will cover 802.11a/b/g (Wi-Fi) projects teaching these millions of Wi-Fi users how to "mod" and "hack" Wi-Fi access points, network cards, and antennas to run various Linux distributions and create robust Wi-Fi networks.

Cahners predicts that wireless LANs next year will gain on Ethernet as the most popular home network technology. Consumers will hook up 10.9 million Ethernet nodes and 7.3 million wireless out of a total of 14.4 million home LAN nodes shipped. This book will show Wi-Fi enthusiasts and consumers of Wi-Fi LANs who want to modify their Wi-Fi hardware how to build and deploy homebrew Wi-Fi networks, both large and small.

* Wireless LANs next year will gain on Ethernet as the most popular home network technology. Consumers will hook up 10.9 million Ethernet nodes and 7.3 million wireless clients out of a total of 14.4 million home LAN nodes shipped.
* This book will use a series of detailed, inter-related projects to teach readers how to modify their Wi-Fi hardware to increase power and performance to match that of far more expensive enterprise networking products. Also features hacks to allow mobile laptop users to actively seek wireless connections everywhere they go!
* The authors are all members of the San Diego Wireless Users Group, which is famous for building some of the most innovative and powerful "home brew" Wi-Fi networks in the world.

Reader Reviews
If you're highly interested in hacking together wi-fi networks and such, you'll probably enjoy Wireless Hacking Projects for Wi-Fi Enthusiasts by Lee Barken and the SoCalFreeNet.org Wireless Users Group. I personally had hoped for something a little different, however... Chapter list: A Brief Overview of the Wireless World; SoCalFreeNet.org: Building Large Scale Community Wireless Networks; Securing Our Wireless Community; Wireless Access Points; Wireless Client Access Devices; Wireless Operating Systems; Monitoring Your Network; Low-Cost Commercial Options; Mesh Networking; Antennas; Building Outdoor Enclosures and Antenna Masts; Solar-Powered Access Points and Repeaters; Wireless 802.11 Hacks; Index OK, to be fair, there's a lot of technical information in this book. SoCalFreeNet.org is a group committed to building community access wireless networks in order to offer free wireless coverage for everyone in the range of the network. They go into great detail on the hardware to use, how to configure it, the reason for setting up an access portal, building a firewall for the network, and so on. If this is your interest or if you're interested in starting this type of a network in your area, I don't think there's another book out there that would help as much. Having said that, I'd probably be a little less harsh if the book had been titled How To Build A Community Wireless Network Based On The SoCalFreeNet.org Model. Someone who is looking to play around with wi-fi in their own house, build cantennas, or possibly control devices over the wireless network will have to dig hard in the book to find what they are looking for. The information is there, but it seems to be secondary to the primary purpose (or what I perceive it to be), which is to spread wireless access to the masses. So, depending on what you're looking for, this may or may not be a good match for you. I was expecting something different from the title and cover, and was somewhat disappointed... Comment | | (Report this)