| OverviewAs 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. This
practical guide provides all the information necessary to
analyze and deploy wireless networks with confidence. It's
the only source that offers a full spectrum view of 802.11,
from the minute details of the specification, to deployment,
monitoring, and troubleshooting. Editorial ReviewsAmazon.comAmong 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. | Product DescriptionAs 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. |
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Reader Reviews From Amazon (Ranked by 'Helpfulness') Average Customer Rating: based on 31 reviews. 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. | Good overview , 2007-06-28 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. | Very good, but dated, 2007-05-12 Reviewer rating: This book is a very detailed and mostly thorough description of 802.11 wireless networking. The author clearly describes the protocols and how they are typically used, plus various wireless network topologies, and even information about deployment such as antenna types.
Where the book falls short is that it was clearly written before the growth in popularity of "wireless controllers" or "wireless switches", and the auther says almost nothing about them or how wireless networking works when using a wireless-controller-based network.
There also was not much information about wireless network management, although that might be beyond the scope of this book.
| Excellent book, 2007-04-15 Reviewer rating: I've been looking for a book that discusses 802.11 technical details but that is easier to follow than the standards themselves. I've been very happy with this book, as it has helped me find the answers I was looking for. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that I wish it had a few more sections that walked through sequences of actions (such as association and re-association). The information is there, but is sometimes scattered, so you have to pull together from different parts of the book and mentally reassemble. Othewise, it's very well written and I recommend it to anyone who needs a good working reference book for 802.11 operations. | \_/\_/ , 2007-02-21 Reviewer rating: The books in not very complete in what it teaches you. It is fine for beginners, but does not meet the needs of advanced users. |
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