It's an increasingly wired world, but many people are finding that the best way to get connected is to do away with wires entirely. From cable replacement to universal Internet connectivity, wireless technology is changing the way we connect to our machines and to each other. As with any new technology, buying your gear is only the first step. Understanding how to make the best use of it is another story. Wireless Hacks offers 100 industrial-strength tips about wireless networking, contributed by experts who apply what they know in the real world every day. Each Hack can be read in just a few minutes, but can save you hours of research. Inside, you will find a wealth of useful techniques for making the most out of wireless technology, including:

• Making sense of the alphabet soup of the 802.11 standards, and understanding which technology makes sense for your solving particular problem

• Using Bluetooth, mobile radios, mobile data networks, and other exotic methods to keep you connected, no matter where you are

• Practical methods for detecting, analyzing, and monitoring wireless networks

• Extending the range of your network, and making the best possible use of the available radio spectrum

• Designing and building your own antennas

• Engineering long distance network links that span several miles

• Understanding the security issues of wireless networking, and protecting yourself and your users from unauthorized access and eavesdropping

Written for the intermediate to advanced wireless user, Wireless Hacks is full of direct, practical, ingenious solutions to real-world networking problems. Whether your wireless network needs to extend to the edge of your office or to the other end of town, this collection of non-obvious, "from the field" techniques will show you how to get the job done.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 19 Ratings

VERY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!! - 2006-07-19
Reviewer Rating:
Are you one of the millions of users who suddenly need nothing more than a laptop and wireless card to get online? If you are, then this book is for you! Authors Rob Flickenger and Roger Weeks, have done an outstanding job of writing the 2nd edition of a practical book that gives you the reader, the most out of your wireless networking hardware and software.

Flickenger and Weeks, begin by demonstrating some of the uses for Bluetooth, Mobile Phones and GPS, which will keep your devices connected, without wires. Then, the authors show you the tools you need to detect the presence of wireless networks, coordinate spectrum usage to avoid interference, and visualize network performance. Next, they explore the current standards for securing wireless networks and suggest several strong methods for protecting yourself and your wireless users from abuse.
The authors then show you how to push wireless hardware to the limits, extending range and increasing performance and efficiency. They continue by covering software hacks in detail. Then, the authors present several homebrew designs for wireless networking made by contributors from all over the world. Finally, they present a collection of techniques to help simplify the job of building wireless networks that cover the area you require.

In this most excellent book, you will find practical techniques for extending range , increasing throughput, managing wireless resources, and generally making your wireless networking vision a reality. More importantly, this book brings you the knowledge of experts who apply what they know in the real world every day.

Collection of 100 clever wireless short-cuts - 2007-01-03
Reviewer Rating:
This book is about getting the most out of your wireless networking hardware and software. In this book, you will find practical techniques for extending range, increasing throughput, managing wireless resources, and generally making your wireless networking vision a reality. Remember that reality is what you can get away with, and wireless hackers have found that they can get away with quite a lot using surprisingly little. This book will show you some of the best bits of their collected experience. You can browse this book since each hack stands on its own. The following details the table of contents:

Chapter 1, Bluetooth, Mobile Phones, and GPS - The last couple years have brought hundreds of millions of tiny battery-powered wireless devices to market. Some will get you an Internet connection just about anywhere with mobile phone service, while others keep your devices connected to the "last 10 feet," and some cover the whole globe. This chapter demonstrates some uses for these technologies, which will keep your devices and yourself connected, without wires.

Chapter 2, Network Discovery and Monitoring - This chapter will give you the tools you need to detect the presence of wireless networks, coordinate spectrum usage to avoid interference, and visualize network performance. It also covers a number of advanced data-monitoring techniques to pinpoint networking issues and even get an idea of your users' online habits.

Chapter 3, Wireless Security - This chapter explores the current standards for securing wireless networks and suggests several strong methods for protecting yourself and your wireless users from abuse.

Chapter 4, Hardware Hacks - This extensive chapter tells you how to push wireless hardware to the limits, extending range and increasing performance and efficiency. It presents a large collection of components, along with sources and recommendations on how best to use them.

Chapter 5, Software Hacks - There would be no such thing as wireless networks without software, which ranges from the firmware that powers wireless cards and routers to the drivers required for those cards, up to general-purpose operating systems that can be used to build your own wireless access point, router, and firewall. This chapter covers all these topics.

Chapter 6, Do-It-Yourself Antennas - This chapter presents several home-brew designs for wireless networking made by contributors from all over the world. These are practical, tested designs that can significantly extend the range of your wireless network.

Chapter 7, Wireless Network Design - This chapter is a collection of techniques to help simplify the job of building wireless networks that cover the area you require.

Appendix A, Wireless Standards - This appendix will give you a good idea of what problems each wireless technology is designed to solve, their relative strengths and weaknesses, and how to make the best possible use of each to fulfill your communication needs.

Appendix B, Wireless Hardware Guide - This appendix provides a comprehensive list of wireless equipment retailers.

This second edition was published in November 2005, and this edition is almost a complete rewrite of the first edition published in 2003. Thus all lists of hacks prior to November 2005 are invalid for this second edition.

Extremely Necessary - 2008-10-05
Reviewer Rating:
This book is essential to who works security problems out in wireless networks. All tips are very useful and the most of them is a real find.

Lame Book - 2008-03-30
Reviewer Rating:
This book had some usefull information. That's the best review I could give it. I'm a Windows person like 99.9% of the world and less than 1/3 of the hacks can be used with windows. If you are not a Linux Power user and if you don't know the programming langauage Pearl you are in the dark. This book is also to general, going into Cellular technology, and 802.11x technology and more. I found this a big waste of time nothing more than an over view of the technology.

Excellent - 2007-10-10
Reviewer Rating:
Covers a wide range of platforms, linux, mac, wireless, cell phones, etc and gives a lot of fun little hacks to play with and learn from.

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