As a network administrator, architect, or security professional, you need to understand the capabilities, limitations, and risks associated with integrating wireless LAN technology into your current infrastructure. 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide provides all the information necessary to analyze and deploy wireless networks with confidence. Over the past five years, the world has become increasingly mobile. Traditional ways of networking have altered to accommodate new lifestyles and ways of working. Wireless networks offer several advantages over fixed (or wired) networks, with mobility, flexibility, ease and speed of deployment, and low-cost at the top of the list. Large productivity gains are possible when developers, students, and professionals are able to access data on the move. Ad-hoc meetings in the lunch room, library, or across the street in the café allow you to develop ideas collaboratively and act on them right away. Wireless networks are typically very flexible, which can translate into rapid deployment. Once the infrastructure is in place, adding new users is just a matter of authorization. After a general introduction to wireless networks, this practical book moves quickly into the gory details of the 802.11 standard. If you ever need to debug a wireless network that isn't working properly, you'd better understand this material. 802.11 MAC (Media Access Control), detailed 802.11 framing, WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy protocol), 802.1x, management operations, and the PCF (point coordination function) are all covered in detail. Author Matthew Gast also supplies impressive detail on the physical layers. As for getting a wireless network up and running... Gast offers clear, no-nonsense guide for using 802.11 on Windows and Linux, using and selecting access points, making deployment considerations, and seeing to 802.11 network monitoring and performance tuning. In the final section of the book, he summarizes the standardization work pending in the 802.11 working group. If you're looking for one book that provides a full spectrum view of 802.11, from the minute details of the specification, to deployment, monitoring, and troubleshooting, 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide is worth its weight in gold.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 34 Ratings

Very practical, little theory - 2008-09-05
Reviewer Rating:
This book serves as a good, practical, "how-to" guide. The first 9 chapters are a
"TCP/IP Illustrated"-style detailed look at the low-level details of 802.11, covering the format of every packet involved, when each packet is used, what each format means and how configuration parameters on both the sending and the receiving side will affect the individual packets. This is by far the most detailed, and most useful, section of the book.

Chapters 10-13, which attempt to address the theoretical side of wireless networks (and 802.11 in particular), rush through the subject far too quickly to be of any practical value - if you have a very strong grounding in electromagnetic wave theory, you might get something from this section, but if that's the case, there's probably nothing here you don't already know. The author clearly knows what he's talking about, but he tried to cram an entire book worth of material into about 100 pages. (In his defense, he acknowledges this toward the start of the section).

The remainder of the book talks about specifics of installations and looks at Windows, Mac and Linux and examines various different hardware specifications for each. This part was interesting, but hopelessly out of date (I can't imagine how anybody could write about this topic and not be out of date before the ink dried on the print).

Missing was any coverage of WPA and WPA2. Chapter 6 talks a bit about EAP and LEAP;
I suspect that WPA & WPA2 were still undergoing standardization as this book was being written. Still, the content of the book gave me enough understanding of the building blocks of 802.11 networks to make sense of the IEEE documentation on WPA.

Intersting, fun, and informative - 2007-10-04
Reviewer Rating:
This book is based on the hack series from O'Reilly so the book is broken into categorical chapters, each of which cover a wireless networking topic.

There are 7 broad chapters each which average about 12 hacks. The hacks vary greatly from composition and varying according to platform (Windows, Mac, Linux), difficulty, and expertise required. All hacks are covered well with diagrams, examples, explanations, and links for further reading.

One of the best items about the hacks is that they can be done at home to improve modest networks. In fact, most are designed to show a home or SOHO network owner "how to" improve networks of modest means. The chapter on homemade antennas is particuarly interesting. I was inspired to build my own out of duct work sheet metal, masking tape, and a coat hanger after reading "Pringles Can Waveguide" hack. The antenna actually worked which was the best part.

There are 100 hacks covered so everyone will find something of interest. For the most part, each hack is a separate chapter in itself so it is not neccesary to flip back and forth to find information. In general, they are written in instructional prose and are meant to teach you how to accomplish each hack.

Other chapters of interest cover wireless network security (many of which could just be labeled basic network security - wired or wireless), network discovery, and hardware hacks.

There are also 2 appendices covering wireless standards (the 802.1x's) and various hardware components that can be used for do-it-yourselfers.

This book is a very good value for network admins, hobbiests, and those looking to improve home or SOHO wireless networks.

Artur 's 802.11 Definitive Guide Review - 2009-08-29
Reviewer Rating:
It's really amazing position for professionals and everyone who wants to get deep knowledge about 802.11 a/b/g/n world.

great book - 2009-02-04
Reviewer Rating:
Very good book lots of details on every wireless standard. I would recommend this book to anybody who wants to learn wireless networking.

Good overview - 2007-06-27
Reviewer Rating:
This is a great book to get started with 802.11 wireless networks. It gives a great overview and a decent amount of detail. For more detail I used open source available on the web, Linux drivers, and a book on 802.11i for more in depth knowledge on security.

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