Product Description
* Fun projects and valuable content join forces to enable readers to turn their wireless home network into a high-performance wireless infrastructure capable of entertainment networking and even home automation
* Step-by-step instructions help readers find, buy, and install the latest and greatest wireless equipment
* The authors are home tech gurus and offer detailed discussion on the next-generation wireless gear that will move the wireless LAN beyond computers and into telephony, entertainment, home automation/control, and even automotive networking
* The number of wireless LAN users in North America is expected to grow from 4.2 million current users to more than 31 million by 2007

From the Back Cover
Connect the old, the new, the practical, and the fun!

Play multiplayer games, set up home surveillance, or take your network outside

Now that you've got a wireless network going, you're getting the urge to see what else it can do, right? Hook up with this book and find simple, fun ways to expand its possibilities. Add your home entertainment gear, beef up speed and performance, discover wireless on the go, and get more out of your network!

Discover how to
* Extend broadband throughout your home
* Protect your network from snoops
* Boost cellular signals
* Set up a wireless hot spot
* Take wireless to your car
* Make calls with your wireless network and VoIP

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For Dummies Wireless Home Networking For Dummies

Wiley Publishing, Inc. | ISBN: 978-0-470-25889-7 | English | PDF | 406 Pages | RAR Compressed 3.73 MB | No Password

Introduction
Welcome to Wireless Home Networking For Dummies, 3rd Edition.Wireless networking for personal computers isn’t a new idea; it has been around since the late 1990s. The emergence of an industry standard, however, has caused the use of wireless networking technology to explode. One of the most appealing things about the current crop of wireless networking equipment is the ease with which you can set up a home network, although its reasonable price may be its most attractive aspect. In some cases, setting up a wireless home network is almost as simple as opening the box and plugging in the equipment; however, you can avoid many “gotchas” by doing a little reading beforehand. That’s where this book comes in handy.

About This Book
If you’re thinking about purchasing a wireless computer network and installing it in your home — or if you have an installed network and want to make sure it’s operating correctly or want to expand it — this is the book for you. Even if you’ve already purchased the equipment for a wireless network, this book will help you install and configure the network. What’s more, this book will help you get the most out of your investment after it’s up and running. With Wireless Home Networking For Dummies, 3rd Edition, in hand, you have all the information you need to know about the following topics (and more):
1. Planning your wireless home network
2. Evaluating and selecting wireless networking equipment for installation in your home
3. Installing and configuring wireless networking equipment in your home
4. Sharing an Internet connection over your wireless network
5. Sharing files, printers, and other peripherals over your wireless network
6. Playing computer games over your wireless network
7. Connecting your audiovisual gear to your wireless network
8. Securing your wireless network against prying eyes
9. Discovering devices that you can connect to your wireless home network

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Wi_Foo - The Secrets of wireless Hacking Book Free Download

Publisher : Addison Wesley
Pub Date : June 28, 2004
ISBN : 0-321-20217-1
Pages : 592

The definitive guide to penetrating and defending wireless networks.

Straight from the field, this is the definitive guide to hacking wireless networks. Authored by world-renowned wireless security auditors, this hands-on, practical guide covers everything you need to attack -- or protect -- any wireless network.

The authors introduce the 'battlefield,' exposing today's 'wide open' 802.11 wireless networks and their attackers. One step at a time, you'll master the attacker's entire arsenal of hardware and software tools: crucial knowledge for crackers and auditors alike. Next, you'll learn systematic countermeasures for building hardened wireless 'citadels''including cryptography-based techniques, authentication, wireless VPNs, intrusion detection, and more.
Coverage includes:

Step-by-step walkthroughs and explanations of typical attacks
Building wireless hacking/auditing toolkit: detailed recommendations, ranging from discovery tools to chipsets and antennas
Wardriving: network mapping and site surveying
Potential weaknesses in current and emerging standards, including 802.11i, PPTP, and IPSec
Implementing strong, multilayered defenses
Wireless IDS: why attackers aren't as untraceable as they think
Wireless hacking and the law: what's legal, what isn't
If you're a hacker or security auditor, this book will get you in. If you're a netadmin, sysadmin, consultant, or home user, it will keep everyone else out.

About the Authors

The authors have been active participants in the IT security community for many years and are security testers for leading wireless equipment vendors.

Andrew A. Vladimirov leads the wireless consultancy division at Arhont Ltd, one of the UK's leading security consultants. He was one of the UK's first IT professionals to obtain the coveted CWNA wireless certification.

Konstantin V. Gavrilenko co-founded Arhont Ltd. He has more than 12 years of IT and security experience, and his expertise includes wireless security, firewalls, cryptography, VPNs, and IDS.
Andrei A. Mikhailovsky has more than a decade of networking and security experience and has contributed extensively to Arhont's security research papers.


Why Does Wi-Foo Exist and for Whom Did We Write It?

There are multiple white papers and books available on wireless security (only two years ago you would have hardly found any). Many of them, including this book, are centered around 802.11 standards. Most explain the built-in security features of 802.11 protocols, explain future 802.11 security standards development and requirements, list (and sometimes describe in detail) known security weaknesses of 802.11 networks, and describe the countermeasures that a wireless network manager or system administrator can take to reduce the risks presented by these flaws. However, all books (except this one) do not describe how "hackers" can successfully attack wireless networks and how system administrators can detect and defeat these attacks, step by step, as the actual attack takes place.

We believe that the market needs above all else a hands-on, down-to-earth source on penetration testing of wireless networks. Such a source should come from the field and be based on the practical experience of penetrating a great number of client and testing wireless networks, an experience that many in the underground and few in the information security community possess. As a core of the Arhont wireless security auditing team, we perform wireless penetration testing on an almost daily basis and we hope that our experience will give you a good jump start on practical wireless security assessment and further network hardening.
If you are a curious individual who just got a PCMCIA card and a copy of the Netstumbler, we hope that this book will teach you about real wireless security and show, in the words of one of the main heroes of The Matrix, "how deep the rabbit hole goes." You will, hopefully, understand what is possible to do security-wise with the wireless network and what isn't; what is considered to be legal and what crosses the line. In the second, defense-oriented section of the book, you will see that, despite all the limitations of wireless security, an attacker can be successfully traced and caught. At the same time, we hope that you will see that defending wireless networks can be as thrilling and fascinating as finding and attacking them, and you could easily end up as a local wireless community security guru or even choose a professional path in this area. If you do participate in a wireless community project, you can raise awareness of wireless security issues in the community and help educate and inform others and show them that "open and free" does not mean "exploited and abused." If you run your own home wireless LAN, we take it for granted that it will be far more difficult to break into after you finish reading this book.

If you are a system administrator or network manager, proper penetration testing of your wireless network is not just the only way to see how vulnerable your network is to both external and internal attackers, but also the only way to demonstrate to your management the need for additional security safeguards, training, and consultants. Leaving the security of your wireless network unattended is asking for trouble, and designing a network with security in mind from the very beginning saves you time, effort, and perhaps your job. Unless the threats are properly understood by top management, you won't be able to implement the security measures you would like to see on your WLAN, or make the best use of the expertise of external auditors and consultants invited to test, troubleshoot, and harden the wireless network. If you decide (or are required) to tackle wireless security problems yourself, we hope that the defense section of the book will be your lifeline. If the network and company happen to be yours, it might even save you a lot of cash (hint: open source).

If you are a security consultant working within the wireless security field or expanding your skills from the wired to the wireless world, you might find a lack of structure in the on-line information and lack of practical recommendations (down to the command line and configuration files) in the currently available literature; this book will fill the vacuum.

The most prestigious and essential certification in the wireless security area at the time of writing is the Certified Wireless Security Professional (CWSP; see the "Certifications" section at http://www.cwne.com). People who have this certification have shown that they have a sufficient understanding of wireless security problems and some hands-on skills in securing real-life wireless networks. Because the CWSP certification is vendor-independent, by definition the CWSP preparation guide cannot go into specific software installation, configuration, troubleshooting, and use in depth. Thus, this book is a very useful aid in CWSP exam preparation, helping the reader comprehend the studied issues on a "how-to" level. In fact, the structure of this book (planned half a year before the release of the official CWSP study guide) is similar to the guide structure: The description of attack methods is followed by chapters devoted to the defensive countermeasures. After that, as you will see, the similarities between the books end.

Finally, if you are a cracker keen on breaking into a few networks to demonstrate that "sad outside world" your "31337 2k1LLz," our guess is what you are going to read here can be useful for your "h4x0r1ng" explorations, in the same manner that sources like Securityfocus or Packetstorm are. Neither these sites nor this book are designed for your kin, though (the three categories of people we had in mind when writing it are listed earlier). We believe in a free flow of information and sensitive open disclosure (as, e.g., outlined by a second version of the infamous RFPolicy; see http://www.wiretrip.net/rfp/policy.html). What you do with this information is your responsibility and the problems you might get into while using it the illicit way are yours, and not ours. The literature on martial arts is not banned because street thugs might use the described techniques against their victims, and the same applies to the informational "martial arts" (consider this one of the subreasons for the name of this book). In fact, how often are you attacked by the possessors of (rightfully earned) black belts on streets or in bars without being an offender yourself? Real masters of the arts do not start fights and true experts in information security do not go around defacing Web sites or trying to get "a fatter free pipe for more w4r3z." If you are truly keen on wireless security, you will end up as a wireless security application developer, security system administrator, or consultant. Although it is not an example from the wireless side of the world, take a close look at Kevin Mitnick, or read his recent "The Art of Deception" work. If you remain on the "m3 0wnZ j00" level, you will end up living without the Internet behind bars in some remote prison cell, and no manuals, books, or tools will save you. It's the mindset that puts "getting root by any means to impress my mates and satisfy my ego" before knowledge and understanding that is flawed.

How This Book Is Organized

Practically every wired or wireless network security book available starts with an outline of the seven Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) layers, probably followed by explaining "the CISSP triad" (confidentiality, integrity, and availability), basic security principles, and an introduction to the technology described. These books also include an introductory chapter on cryptography normally populated by characters called Bob, Alice, Melanie, and of course, Eve, who tends to be an evil private key snatcher.

This book is different: We assume that the reader has basic knowledge of the OSI and TCP/IP layers, understands the difference between infrastructure / managed and independent / ad-hoc wireless networks as well as can distinguish between common IEEE 802 standards. Describing the basics of networking or detailed operations of wireless networks will constitute two separate books on their own, and such well-written books are easily found (for 802.11 essentials we strongly recommend the Official CWNA Study Guide and O'Reilly's 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide).

However, you'll find a lot of data on 802.11 network standards and operations here when outlining it is appropriate, often in form of the inserted "foundations" boxes.

Also, there is a cryptography part that isn't directly related to everything wireless, but is absolutely vital for the proper virtual private network (VPN) deployment, wireless users authentication, and other security practices outlined in the following chapters. We skimmed through a lot of cryptographic literature and have been unable to find anything written specifically for system and network administrators and managers to cover practical networking conditions taking into account the access media, bandwidth available, deployed hosts' CPU architecture, and so forth. Chapters 11 and 12 will be such a source and we hope it will help you even if you have never encountered practical cryptography issues at all or aren't an experienced cryptographer, cryptanalytic, or cryptologist.

We have divided the book into two large parts: Attack and Defense. Although the Attack half is self-sufficient if your only aim is wireless security auditing, the Defense part is heavily dependent on understanding who the attackers might be, why they would crack your network, and, most important, how it can be done. Thus, we recommend reading the Attack part first unless you are using Wi-Foo as a reference.

This part begins with a rather nontechnical discussion outlining the wireless security situation in the real world, types of wireless attackers, and their motivations, objectives, and target preferences. It is followed by structured recommendations on selecting and setting up hardware and software needed to perform efficient wireless security testing. We try to stay impartial, do not limit ourselves to a particular group of vendors, and provide many tips on getting the best from the hardware and utilities you might already have. After all, not every reader is capable of devoting his or her resources to building an ultimate wireless hacking machine, and every piece of wireless hardware has its strong and weak sides. When we do advise the use of some particular hardware item, there are sound technical reasons behind any such recommendation: the chipset, radio frequency transceiver characteristics, antenna properties, availability of the driver source code, and so on. The discussion of standard wireless configuration utilities such as Linux Wireless Tools is set to get the most out of these tools security-wise and flows into the description of wireless penetration testing-specific software. Just like the hardware discussion before, this description is structured, splitting all available tools into groups with well-defined functions rather than listing them in alphabetic or random order. These groups include wireless network discovery tools, protocol analyzers, encryption cracking tools, custom 802.11 frame construction kits, and various access point management utilities useful for access point security testing.

Whereas many "network security testing" books are limited to describing what kind of vulnerabilities there are and which tools are available to exploit them, we carry the discussion further, outlining the intelligent planning for a proper audit (or attack) and walking the reader step by step through the different attack scenarios, depending on the protection level of the target network. We outline advanced attack cases, including exploiting possible weaknesses in the yet unreleased 802.11i standard, accelerating WEP cracking, launching sneaky layer 2 man-in-the-middle and denial of service attacks, and even trying to defeat various higher layer security protocols such as PPTP, SSL and IPSec. Finally, the worst case scenario, a cracker being able to do anything he or she wants with a penetrated wireless network, is analyzed, demonstrating how the individual wireless hosts can be broken into, the wired side of the network assaulted, connections hijacked, traffic redirected, and the firewall separating wireless and wired sides bypassed. The Attack chapters demonstrate the real threat of a wireless network being abused by crackers and underline the statement repeated throughout the book many times: Wireless security auditing goes far beyond discovering the network and cracking WEP.

In a similar manner, wireless network hardening goes beyond WEP, MAC address filtering, and even the current 802.11i developments. The later statement would be considered blasphemy by many, but we are entitled to our opinion. As the Attack part demonstrates, the 802.11i standard is not without its flaws and there would be cases in which it cannot be fully implemented for various administrative and financial reasons. Besides, we believe that any network security should be a multilayered process without complete dependence on a single safeguard, no matter how great the safeguard is. Thus, the primary aim of the Defense part of the book is giving readers the choice. Of course, we dwell on the impressive work done by the "i" task force at mitigating the threats to which all pre-802.11i wireless LANs are exposed. Nevertheless, we spend a sufficient amount of time describing defending wireless networks at the higher protocol layers. Such defense methodologies include mutually authenticated IPSec implementations, authentication methods alternative to 802.1x, proper network design, positioning and secure gateway deployment, protocol filtering, SSL/TLS use, and ssh port forwarding. The final chapter in the book is devoted to the last (or first?) line of defense on wireless networks, namely wireless-specific intrusion detection. It demonstrates that wireless attackers are not as untraceable as they might think and gives tips on the development and deployment of affordable do-it-yourself wireless IDS systems and sensors. It also lists some well-known high-end commercial wireless IDS appliances.

Even though we have barely scratched the surface of the wireless security world, we hope that this book will be useful for you as both a wireless attack and defense guide and a reference. We hope to receive great feedback from our audience, mainly in the form of fewer insecure wireless networks in our Kismet output and new exciting wireless security tools, protocols, and methodologies showing up to make the contents of this book obsolete.

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Deploying secure wireles Networks with windows Book Free Download

How This Book Is Structured
Deploying Secure 802.11 Wireless Networks with Microsoft Windows is structured to provide a conceptual overview of not only wireless networking but also all the other components of the authentication infrastructure such as Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) and certificates. Many companies have not implemented RADIUS or a public key infrastructure (PKI), so this book takes the time to explain them in detail and how they apply to the authentication and authorization of wireless connections. It then describes the steps of deploying secure wireless connections using certificate and password-based authentication in a large organization as well as SOHO and public access wireless networks. Finally, it describes how to troubleshoot wireless problems from the wireless client, the wireless AP, and the authentication infrastructure.

Part I, “Wireless Network Technology and Components,” provides an introduction to the various elements of secure wireless networking. To understand how to deploy and troubleshoot a secure wireless network, you must have an understanding of the underlying technologies and how they work. These technologies include 802.11 wireless LAN networking, wireless security, the various Windows wireless clients, and the elements of the authentication infrastructure. This background is provided in Part I, which includes the following chapters:

Chapter 1, “IEEE 802.11 Overview,” briefly describes the advantages of wireless LAN networking and then describes the IEEE 802.11 standards including 802.11b, 802.11a, and 802.11g; components of wireless networking; and operating modes.

Chapter 2, “Wireless Security,” provides an overview of how authentication, confidentiality (encryption), and data integrity are supported with both the original 802.11 standard and the new Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) standard. Authentication with the 802.1X standard is also discussed.

Chapter 3, “Windows Wireless Client support,” details the support for wireless networks provided in Windows XP (prior to Service Pack 1 [SP1]), Windows XP SP1 and later, Windows Server 2003, and Windows 2000 (with Microsoft 802.1X Authentication Client). The Wireless Zero Configuration (WZC) service and the set of configuration dialog boxes for each operating system are described in detail. This chapter also discusses the manual configuration of wireless settings and the automated configuration using the Wireless Network (IEEE 802.11) Policies Group Policy extension.

Chapter 4, “RADIUS, IAS, and Active Directory,” presents a detailed look at Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS), a protocol and infrastructure for providing authentication, authorization, and accounting for network connections. Internet Authentication Service (IAS) is the Microsoft implementation of a RADIUS server and proxy. This chapter describes the configuration dialog boxes for IAS global settings, remote access policies, and connection request policies. Finally, this chapter presents an overview of the Active Directory directory service and how user accounts, computer accounts, and groups are used to provide wireless access.

Chapter 5, “EAP,” details the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) and its support in Windows for secure authentication of wireless access. This chapter provides detailed explanations of EAP-Transport Layer Security (EAP- TLS) and Protected EAP-Microsoft Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol version 2 (PEAP-MS-CHAP v2) with their corresponding client and server-side configuration dialog boxes in Windows.

Chapter 6, “Certificates and Public Key Infrastructure,” presents an overview of public key encryption and the role of certificates in providing authentication. This chapter includes discussions of PKI, certification authorities, certification hierarchies, certificate revocation and validation, and how Windows supports certificates using the Certificates snap-in and Certificate Services. This chapter also details the various methods of obtaining a user or computer certificate on a Windows wireless client or an IAS server.

After you understand the basic concepts and components of secure wireless networking, the next step is to begin the planning and deployment of secure wireless connectivity in your organization. Part II, “Wireless Network Deployment,” provides you with the information you need to plan and deploy your secure wireless network solution. Part II includes the following chapters:

Chapter 7, “Wireless AP Placement,” includes wireless LAN design guidelines such as wireless access point (AP) requirements, signal propagation modifiers and sources of interference, and the number of wireless APs needed. This chapter then gives you step-by-step instructions on how to deploy your wireless APs to provide adequate coverage for all desired areas.

Chapter 8, “Intranet Wireless Deployment Using EAP-TLS,” provides detailed step-by-step instructions on how to deploy the authentication infrastructure (PKI, Active Directory, and IAS) and wireless clients for EAP- TLS authentication.

Chapter 9, “Case Study: The Microsoft Wireless Network,” details the history, design and deployment considerations, and phases of the deployment of the wireless network that is in place at the Microsoft Corporation. This chapter also provides details on the authentication infrastructure, including domains, PKI, and IAS RADIUS proxies and servers.

Chapter 10, “Intranet Wireless Deployment Using PEAP-MS-CHAP v2,” provides detailed step-by-step instructions on how to deploy the authentication infrastructure (certificates, Active Directory, and IAS) and wireless clients for PEAP-MS-CHAP v2 authentication.

Chapter 11, “Additional Intranet Wireless Deployment Configurations,” details the following additional wireless configurations: Internet access for business partners, cross-forest authentication, using RADIUS proxies to scale authentications, and using both EAP-TLS and PEAP-MS-CHAP v2 authentication.

Chapter 12, “Secure Wireless Networks for the Home and Small Business,” provides detailed step-by-step instructions on how to deploy a secure wireless network in a SOHO using either infrastructure mode or ad hoc mode, and either Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or WPA.

Chapter 13, “RADIUS Infrastructure for Public Place Deployment,” details the configuration of RADIUS proxies and servers for a wireless Internet service provider (WISP) that is offering public wireless access to its own customers or wireless users that have a benefactor (another telecommunications provider or a private organization).

After you deploy secure wireless networking, you must know how to troubleshoot the common problems with obtaining wireless connectivity. Part III, “Troubleshooting Wireless Networks,” includes the following chapters:

Chapter 14, “Troubleshooting the Windows Wireless Client,” describes the troubleshooting tools available to gather troubleshooting information on a Windows wireless client and provides a discussion of common connectivity and authentication problems that can be solved from the Windows wireless client.

Chapter 15, “Troubleshooting the Wireless AP,” describes the typical troubleshooting tools provided with wireless APs to gather troubleshooting information and discusses common connectivity and authentication problems that can be solved from the wireless AP.

Chapter 16, “Troubleshooting the Authentication Infrastructure,” describes the troubleshooting tools provided with Windows to gather troubleshooting information for IAS and discusses IAS-authentication, certificate-validation, and password-validation problems that can be solved from the authentication infrastructure.

Part IV, “Appendixes,” includes the following:

Appendix A, “Wireless Deployment Best Practices,” is a single location for the best practices for all the elements of a secure wireless deployment, as described in Chapters 1–16.

Appendix B, “Wireless ISPs and Windows Provisioning Services,” is a brief overview of the upcoming Wireless Provisioning Services update for Windows XP wireless clients, which attempts to solve various security, automated configuration, and consistency issues that WISPs and public wireless users now have to face.

Appendix C, “Setting Up Secure Wireless Access in a Test Lab,” provides detailed step-by-step instructions on how to configure secure wireless access using IEEE 802.1X and PEAP-MS-CHAP v2 and EAP-TLS authentication in a test lab using a wireless AP and four computers.

Conventions Used in This Book

Throughout the book, you will find special sections set aside from the main text. These sections draw your attention to topics of special interest and importance or to problems that implementers invariably face during the course of a deployment. These features include the following:

Note This feature is used to underscore the importance of a specific concept or to highlight a special case that might apply only to certain situations.

More Info When additional material is available on a subject, whether in other sections in the book or from outside sources such as Web sites or white papers, the links to these extra sources are provided in the More Info features.

Caution The Caution feature points out the places where you can get yourself into trouble if you do something or fail to do something. Pay close attention to these sections because they could save you a great deal of aggravation.

Tip This feature directs your attention to advice on timesaving or strategic moves.

Best Practices Getting the most stable performance and the highest quality deployment often means knowing a few ins and outs. The Best Practices features are where you’ll find such pieces of knowledge.

Planning There are times when an ounce of prevention through planning is worth many hours of troubleshooting and downtime. Such times merit the Planning feature.


Table Of Contents

Introduction

Part I - Wireless Network Technology and Components

Chapter 1 - IEEE 802.11 Overview
Chapter 2 - Wireless Security
Chapter 3 - Windows Wireless Client Support
Chapter 4 - RADIUS, IAS, and Active Directory
Chapter 5 - EAP
Chapter 6 - Certificates and Public Key Infrastructure

Part II - Wireless Network Deployment

Chapter 7 - Wireless AP Placement
Chapter 8 - Intranet Wireless Deployment Using EAP-TLS
Chapter 9 - Case Study: The Microsoft Wireless Network
Chapter 10 - Intranet Wireless Deployment Using PEAP-MS-CHAP v2
Chapter 11 - Additional Intranet Wireless Deployment Configurations
Chapter 12 - Secure Wireless Networks for the Home and Small Business
Chapter 13 - RADIUS Infrastructure for Public Place Deployment
Chapter 14 - Troubleshooting the Windows Wireless Client

Part III - Troubleshooting Wireless Networks

Chapter 15 - Troubleshooting the Wireless AP
Chapter 16 - Troubleshooting the Authentication Infrastructure

Part IV - Appendixes

Appendix A - Wireless Deployment Best Practices
Appendix B - Wireless ISPs and Windows Provisioning Services
Appendix C - Setting Up Secure Wireless Access in a Test Lab
Index
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Sidebars

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Wireless Networking: Preventing a Data Disaster Book Free Download

Introduction
Welcome to Caution! Wireless Networking: Preventing a Data Disaster. Wireless networking is quickly replacing Ethernet networks in many of our homes and offices. The pace of adoption of Wi-Fi technology has been remarkably quick, primarily because wireless networking equipment is easy to set up and use. In fact, in most cases it’s less complicated than setting up an Ethernet network.

Unfortunately, the downside to user-friendly Wi-Fi gear is that the majority of people setting up wireless networks in their homes or offices are not securing them correctly, if at all. Unlike Ethernet networks that require a user to be attached or plugged-into the network, Wi-Fi networks broadcast their signal in all directions, allowing anyone with a wireless adapter to access the network. If you haven’t taken the time to secure your Wi-Fi equipment, you may be sharing your files and Internet connection with your neighbors, or worse, hackers.

There are plenty of wireless books available that address basic wireless networking or the setup of specific products. In this book, I focus on the security and safety consequences of using these devices and try to explain these issues in a manner that’s helpful to new and intermediate wireless users.

I won’t discuss specific brands or provide step-by-step instruction for setting up your access point or router; my goal is to illuminate you about the risks associated with your new wireless equipment and provide some solutions for improving the security on your network. Using this book you’ll learn the following things:

How TCP/IP networks work

How Wi-Fi networks operate

Why wireless technology is insecure

How you are vulnerable

How you can protect your computer and networks

Once you have a basic understanding of the topics covered in this book, I hope you’ll be interested enough to learn more about them. Continued education is one of the most important things that you can do to maintain security of your computer and network.
Whom This Book is For

If you’re an average computer user — beginning or intermediate — and you’ve recently installed your own wireless network, then this book is for you. You don’t need to be a technical guru to benefit from the information I’ve presented inside this book. While a general knowledge of computing and familiarity with basic networking and Internet concepts is desirable, Part I provides an intro to networking that will have you up to speed in no time.

This book is for beginning or intermediate computer users who need a better understanding of the security issues surrounding wireless networks, and how to address them on their own network before they become a victim.

How This Book Is Organized

I’ve divided this book into two parts; each part includes chapters that address a common topic. If you’re relatively new to networking or only have a passing familiarity with TCP/IP and wireless security, I suggest you start in Part I and read the book in order. If you’re in a hurry or concerned that your network may be compromised, you can skip ahead and return to the earlier material later. Here’s how the parts are organized:

Part I: Understanding the Threat —

Part I introduces wireless technology and basic TCP/IP networking. It introduces the security and safety problems associated with wireless networks and with networking in general.

Part II: Protecting Yourself —

In Part II, I discuss the steps you can take to secure your network, protect your equipment from viruses, protect and recover your data, and maintain your privacy. If you’re concerned that your network is not secure, and you already have a grasp of the issues presented in Part I, you can start here.

Appendixes —

The appendixes provide useful resources relating to wireless networks. I’ve also included a glossary of many of the terms I’ve used in this book.

It’s my goal to acquaint you with wireless technology and the related security issues so that you’ll be encouraged to pursue more information and improve your computing knowledge. Wireless networks are here to stay, and I want you to get the most out of them without leaving yourself vulnerable.

Special features and icons

At the beginning of each chapter, you’ll find a short list of the broad topics covered therein. Throughout the text, you’ll encounter icons that I’ve used to bring different topics to your attention. Here’s what each of these icons indicates:

Note Note icons provide important related information about a subject.

On The Web The On the Web icon provides addresses to online resources about a topic.

Caution If I use the Caution icon, I’m warning you about something dangerous where you need to be particularly diligent. I don’t use this icon often, but if you see it please pay close attention to the information.

Cross-Reference The Cross-Reference icon directs you to related information elsewhere in the book.


I hope you find this book useful and informative and that it educates you about wireless networking and security and assists you in securing your wireless network.

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Building Wireless Community Networks Book Free Download

Building Wireless Community Networks is about getting people online using wireless network technology. The 802.11b standard (also known as WiFi) makes it possible to network towns, schools, neighborhoods, small business, and almost any kind of organization. All that's required is a willingness to cooperate and share resources. The first edition of this book helped thousands of people engage in community networking activities. This revised and expanded edition adds coverage on new network monitoring tools and techniques, regulations affecting wireless deployment, and IP network administration, including DNS and IP Tunneling.

New in This Edition
The most important addition to this book is the inclusion of Tim Pozar's excellent paper, "Regulations Affecting 802.11 Deployment." Tim is a microwave communications engineer and ham radio operator, and he has done terrific work in exploring the labyrinthine FCC Part 15 regulations. His paper helps us all to understand exactly what is required to operate wireless equipment legally in the United States.

I will also take a look at relevant technologies that have recently entered the wireless networking world, including 802.11a, 802.11g, and 802.1x. While 802.11b is still widely regarded as the champion technology of the community wireless networking effort, these newer technologies are poised to bring interesting new capabilities to networking projects everywhere.
In addition, I discuss a number of fun new home-brew equipment and software designs that have come to light, and evaluate some new security tools (and challenges). In particular, the Host AP driver has graduated to near-production quality, and can provide a very flexible alternative to traditional APs. More on that later.

Organization
Early chapters of this book introduce basic wireless concepts and essential network services, while later chapters focus on specific aspects of building your own wireless network. Experienced users may prefer to skip around rather than read this book from cover to cover, so here's an overview of each chapter:

Chapter 1

gives a brief history of the state of wireless connectivity, and some ideas (and warnings) about how things might proceed.

Chapter 2

is an overview of many important logistical considerations you will face in designing your own network, and describes some tools that may make your job easier.

Chapter 3,

provides a detailed description of critical network components that you will need to provide your users. Network design and security considerations are also addressed.

Chapter 4,

details how to use Wireless Access Point hardware effectively in your networking project.

Chapter 5,

is a step-by-step guide to building your own Access Point using Linux, inexpensive PC hardware, and conventional wireless client cards.

Chapter 6,

is about extending your range. It looks at using topographic mapping software to evaluate long distance links, and examines the myriad antennas, cables, connectors you are likely to encounter. It also provides a simple method for calculating the usable range of your gear.

Chapter 7,

investigates some really exotic (and useful!) applications of 802.11b. It includes practical pointers for setting up point-to-point links, some simple repeaters, assembling a 2.4GHz antenna from ordinary household objects, and lots of other fun hackery. We'll also see an implementation of a dynamic "captive portal" firewall using open source (http://www.opensource.org) software.

Chapter 8,

is a resource guide to some of the major players in the wireless network access revolution. Here you'll find out how people all over the globe are making ubiquitous wireless network access a reality, all in their free time.

Chapter 9,

is the (brief) history of my own experiences in setting up a wireless community network in Sebastopol, CA (and in meeting directly with the heads of some of the biggest community efforts in the U.S.).

Appendix A contains Tim Pozar's paper, "Regulations Affecting 802.11 Deployment."
Appendix B provides a path loss calculation table.
Appendix Coffers a shell script that makes network scheme management easier.

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Introduction
Absolute Beginner's Guide to Wi-Fi is a book for beginners who want to join the Wi-Fi revolution. Using easy-to-understand language, this book teaches you all you need to know about Wi-Fi, from choosing the Wi-Fi system that is right for you to adding a Wi-Fi card and related software to finding hotspots and access points. With the help of this book, you will be able to configure a home network and share internet connections quickly and easily. In addition, the book covers all important security issues so that a user is less exposed to threats, as well as the dos and don'ts of traveling with a Wi-Fi enabled laptop.

About the Author
Harold Davis is a strategic technology consultant, hands-on programmer, and the author of many well-known books. He has been a popular speaker at trade shows and conventions, giving presentations on topics ranging from digital photography through wireless networking and programming methodologies.

Harold has served as a technology consultant for many important businesses, including investment funds, technology companies, and Fortune 500 corporations. In recent years, he has been Vice President of Strategic Development at YellowGiant Corporation, Chief Technology Officer at an expert systems company, a Technical Director at Vignette Corporation, and a principal in the e-commerce practice at Informix Software.

Harold started programming when he was a child. He has worked in many languages and environments, and has been lead programmer and/or architect in projects for many corporations, including Chase Manhattan Bank, Nike, and Viacom.

He has earned a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from New York University and a J.D. from Rutgers Law School, where he was a member of the law review.

Harold lives with his wife, Phyllis Davis, who is also an author, and their two sons, Julian and Nicholas, in the hills of Berkeley, California. In his spare time, he enjoys hiking, gardening, and collecting antique machines including typewriters and calculation devices. He maintains a Wi-Fi access point and a mixed wired and wireless network for the Davis menagerie of computers running almost every imaginable operating system.

Introduction by the Author
If you are new to Wi-Fi—wireless networking—I'd like to be your guide to this wonderful technology. I am no industry flak or starry-eyed gadget freak (although I do appreciate technology that makes life easier for people, like Wi-Fi).

I want to be your guide to Wi-Fi, so it is fair for you to ask (and me to answer) some questions:

* What are my qualifications?

* What is my approach?

*Who is this book for, and why an "Absolute Beginner's Guide?"

I'd like to start with my qualifications. I take qualifications in this context to be a pretty broad issue, meaning (in part) who am I?

I am a normal human being, whatever that means, who is interested in technology (among other things). I have a wife, two kids, another one on the way, and a house with a mortgage. Besides my interest in technology, I like to read, write, garden, take photographs, and hike.

I've been involved in technology as a professional for more than 20 years. (Because technology years actually compare with dog years, that probably is the equivalent of hundreds of experiential years!) I've seen technologies come on strong, grow up, mature, and burst like a star that has gone nova too soon. I like to think I know what is important, and what is not, and what technologies matter.

I've been involved with Wi-Fi since its infancy, and have lectured about Wi-Fi and taught people how to construct Wi-Fi networks. I maintain a Wi-Fi network in my home for the convenience of myself and my family. I've been a road warrior and a stay-at-home. I enjoy sharing my knowledge with people and helping them get up to speed as quickly as possible.

Well, enough about me! Perhaps you are completely new to Wi-Fi and want to quickly get up to speed so you can surf at local hotspots, or while you're on the road. This book will give you the practical information you need to buy the right equipment, get your equipment working perfectly, find Wi-Fi hotspots, and get the best deal with Wi-Fi providers.

Perhaps you already use Wi-Fi in your local coffee shop, at the airport, or in hotel lobbies, and you want to set up a small office or home network. You already know how great Wi-Fi is, so you want to enjoy the benefits where you live and work. It is truly transformational to one's lifestyle to decouple computing from the wires!

If you are looking to set up a Wi-Fi network, you've come to the right place. I'll show you the best way to buy the equipment you need at the best prices, and how to set it up easily. I won't gloss over potential pitfalls, and I will save you time and money. I'll also show you some of the considerations you might want to think about if you are building a more complex network involving Wi-Fi.

Many people are looking to find out how to use Wi-Fi on the road, or in networks at home. An Absolute Beginner's Guide provides the perfect format for easily learning what you need to know to get up to speed with Wi-Fi, without wasting a lot of time.

In this book you'll find inspiration as well as practical information. I believe that Wi-Fi is a modest technology that has the power to have a huge and positive impact. Some of the items I've included in this book speak to that transformational power. For example, you'll learn how villages in southeast Asia use Wi-Fi on the fly to connect to the world, and how Wi-Fi was used to bring wireless networking to Pitcairn Island, a romantic flyspeck in the South Pacific Ocean (remember Mutiny on the Bounty?). You'll also learn about war chalking, and find out how to locate free Wi-Fi hotspots.

This is wonderful material, and it's lots of fun! So what are you waiting for? It's time to Wi-Fi!

How This Book Is Organized

Absolute Beginner's Guide to Wi-Fi is organized into five main parts, as follows:

*Part I, "Why Wi-Fi?" is a general introduction to the Wi-Fi technology and using Wi-Fi. This part explains why Wi-Fi is one of the fastest-growing technologies of all time and why it is important to all computer users.

*Part II, "Setting Up Your Computer for Wi-Fi" explains how to buy a Wi-Fi–enabled computer, shows you how to set up your computers to work with Wi-Fi, and surveys some of the cool Wi-Fi gizmos and gadgets that are available.

*Part III, "Going Mobile with Wi-Fi" shows you how to use your Wi-Fi laptop or PDA on the road, explains the best road warrior tools to bring, teaches you how to find the best places to connect, and gives you tips on making the best deal with Wi-Fi service providers.

*Part IV, "Creating a Wi-Fi Network" explains everything you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask about successfully setting up and managing a wireless network in your home or small office.
*Part V, "Securing Your Wi-Fi Computer and Network" explains how to safely and securely deploy Wi-Fi on the road and at home.

Besides the 19 chapters in five parts in this book, I've also provided several really useful appendixes:

*Appendix A, "Wireless Standards" provides more details about the ins and outs of the 802.11 wireless standards.

*Appendix B, "Finding Wi-Fi Hotspots" shows you how to find Wi-Fi hotspots, and provides specific information (which is hard to find in one place) about Wi-Fi locations such as airports, hotels, and retail stores. This appendix alone is worth the price of this book!

Because Wi-Fi rests at the intersections of a number of technologies—wireless broadcasting and computer networking, to name two—it is replete with jargon and technical terminology. To help you hack your way through this morass of incomprehensible techno-babble and acronym soup, I've also provided a complete glossary.

Taken together, the 19 chapters, two appendixes, and glossary in Absolute Beginner's Guide to Wi-Fi provide all the information you need to Wi-Fi successfully and happily!
Conventions Used in This Book
Although it is my hope that you can figure out everything in this book on your own without requiring an instruction manual, it makes sense to mention a couple of points about how information is presented in this book.

Web Addresses

There are tons of Web addresses in this book, mostly because these are places you can go for further information on a variety of related topics. Web addresses are denoted using a special font. For example:

www.wi-fiplanet.com

You should also note that in most cases I omitted the http:// with which Web addresses technically start (Web browsers insert it anyhow, so there is no need to type it).

Special Elements

This book also includes a few special elements that provide additional information not in the basic text. These elements are designed to supplement the text to make your learning faster, easier, and more efficient.

Tip

A tip is a piece of advice—a little trick, actually—that lets you use your computer more effectively or maneuver around problems or limitations.

Caution

A caution will tell you to beware of a potentially dangerous act or situation. In some cases, ignoring a caution could cause you problems—so pay attention to them!

A note is designed to provide information that is generally useful but not specifically necessary for what you're doing at the moment. Some are like extended tips—interesting, but not essential.

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Author’s Acknowledgments

We’d like to offer special thanks to Pat O’Brien, who started this rolling. Peter worked as the technical editor for Pat on Hacking For Dummies. Thanks for passing on Melody’s name.
Thanks to Melody Layne, acquisitions editor, for pitching the book to the edi­torial committee and getting us a contract. Much appreciated.

Thanks to Becky Huehls, who started us out on this project as editor but wisely got herself re-assigned. Thanks to Kelly Ewing for picking up the ball and running with it after Becky. Unfortunately, Kelly fumbled it, but Colleen Totz was able to struggle with it over the goal line.
Dan DiNicolo, technical editor, is commended for his diligence in reviewing the material. Thanks, Dan.

Peter would like to thank Kevin Beaver, Ken Cutler, Gerry Grindler, Ronnie Holland, Carl Jackson, Ray Kaplan, Kevin Kobelsky, Carrie Liddie, Dexter Mills Jr., and Larry Simon for responding to a request for wireless informa­tion. Thanks for answering the call for help. The provided information shows in this book.

Barry would like to thank his co-author Peter. Always a pleasure, sir. He would also like to acknowledge Craig McGuffin and John Tannahill who are always there for him, as friends and business associates , and never fail to lend a helping hand.

Introduction
Recently, a very knowledgeable speaker at a presentation for a wireless vendor talked about wireless as ubiquitous. We would have to disagree. Wireless is widespread, but it is not everywhere. But it is rapidly becoming ubiquitous.

In about 1990, cell phone users carried around a phone that looked and felt like a World War II walkie-talkie. You didn’t casually whip that baby out and start a conversation. At that time, you either had a deep wallet, a big ego, or a compelling need to talk to your mother. Now, depending on where you live in the world, the cell phone provides better quality at a lower cost — and in a much smaller form factor.

In about 1994, Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) equipment manufacturers sold gear that was comparable to the wireless phone market. The devices were large and very expensive and provided poor bandwidth. You had to have a compelling reason to spend the money on the low bandwidth. But that has changed. In 2004, you can buy a reasonably priced laptop with onboard sup­port for 802.11b and Bluetooth. You can add a fairly inexpensive 802.11a and g PC Card and easily connect wirelessly and, if you have a Centrino-based system or Microsoft Windows XP, somewhat seamlessly. The WLAN market of today is analogous to the Ethernet market of the mid 1980s. In those years, solutions were proprietary, and standards were being approved. Companies were jockeying for position. Now, you would have difficulty finding a desktop or laptop computer that does not come with Ethernet support. When we look back from the future, we will see some parallels between 802.3 and 802.11 development.

Telephone companies have wrestled with the issue of the “last mile” for a while. But forget the last mile; Bluetooth and IrDA provide the last foot. Mice, keyboards, phones, PDAs, and other devices support Bluetooth for wire replacement. When you have a Bluetooth-enabled printer, you no longer need to hook up to the network to print one page or a contact.

Vendors are trying to get along with each other to develop standards so that one day we can walk around with a phone, PDA, or laptop and connect to any network, anywhere, anytime. We wrote this book for those of you who want to release your company f its bondage. If you want to unfetter your clients so that they can access t e-mail before getting on the red-eye to New York or Toronto, this book is you. If your desktop looks like spaghetti junction and you want to rid you of all those wires, this book is for you. If you want to provide up-to-the-m stock quotes to the Chair of your company while she sits in the boardroo this book is for you. If you have a small to medium enterprise (SME) or b ness (SMB) or a small office/home office (SOHO) and don’t want to rewir (or pay someone to rewire) your office, this book is for you. If you have w less at home and want to learn about features that you can expect for ho gear, this book is for you.

About This Book

Mark Twain once wrote, “Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.” So we have done the easy part for you. We crossed ou all the wrong words and came up with this book. What are left are the wo that will help you plan for, install, acquire, protect, manage, and administ wireless networks from personal area to wide area.

We have started your journey by providing information on

*.Differentiating WPAN, WLAN, WMAN, and WWAN
*. Planning your wireless network
*.Doing a site survey
*.Using IrDA for transferring files
*.Using Bluetooth for wire replacement
*. Securing IrDA and Bluetooth
*. Acquiring the right equipment
*.Installing and configuring an access point
*.Acquiring and installing client hardware
*.Installing and configuring client software
*. Building a network to allow roaming
*.Connecting while on the go
*. Securing your WLAN
*. Understanding WEP, WPA, and RSN
*. Understanding EAP
*.Setting up a VPN using PPTP
*. Troubleshooting your network
*. Evaluating and fixing network performance
*. Using administrator software and utilities

How to Use This Book

You don’t have to start reading this book at the beginning — each chapter stands on its own, as does each and every part. In fact, if you are new to wireless networking but not new to networking, you may want to start with the radio frequency (RF) primer in Appendix C. It’s an exploration of radio frequency. We do suggest, however, that you consider starting at the begin­ning and reading to the end.

We encourage you to use the white space and the margins of this book. Mark it up and make it your own. Look up the links that we provideto find a wealth of information. You’ll want to write in the book because it will become an irre­placeable reference when you cross out words and add others yourself.

How This Book Is Organized

We grouped the chapters of this book into manageable chunks, called parts. Each part has a theme. For instance, the first part is like a handshake. We help you get started through planning and acquiring hardware and software. In between, we have some management parts. And the last part is an exchange of data.

Part I: Planning and Acquiring Your Network

Part I is the foundation required for the world of wireless networks. Chapter 1 breaks down the various types of wireless networks and provides examples of each type. If you’re trying to sell wireless within your organization, you will see some benefits of wireless you might want to use. Chapter 2 introduces the necessary planning for a successful implementation. You will see how to do a site survey. Chapter 3 sorts out more terminology and explains the differences between an ad hoc and an infrastructure network. You get the scoop on differ­entiating between BSS, IBSS, and ESS.

Part II: Implementing Your Wireless Network

Part II starts at 10 meters and moves to 100 meters and then beyond. Chapter 4 gives you an overview of IrDA and Bluetooth and security measures for both. You will understand how to use these technologies to replace wires in your office or on your body. Chapters 5 and 6 move on to wireless local area net­working. In Chapter 5, you see how to set up an access point. Chapter 6 talks about connecting Windows 2000, Windows XP, tablet PC, Linux, and Mac OS clients as well as Centrino-based systems. Chapter 7 moves you a little beyond your office through the use of bridges and switches. When you want to roam about your offices, you need to set your system up correctly. You can read how to do this in Chapter 7. Chapter 8 deals with accessing wireless wide area net­works. You will find a discussion about hot spots. But more important, you see how to get your e-mail wirelessly while on the road.

Part III: Using Your Network Securely

In Chapter 9, we introduce you to the additional risks of wireless networks — additional because you have all the risks of a wired network plus those specific to wireless. For instance, signal jamming is not a real risk in wired networks, but it is in wireless networks.

It wouldn’t be fair to just enumerate risks without providing some help. Chapter 10 provides a security architecture for your wireless network. You probably have a healthy paranoia when it comes to wireless and its security. Hopefully, Chapter 11 can allay some of your fears — and add some new ones. Chapter 12 helps you set up a secure channel because, quite frankly, who cares if WEP can be broken when you protect your data at a higher level?

Part IV: Keeping Your Network on the Air — Administration and Troubleshooting

Availability is an integral part of a network. So is administration. After we develop a network that is reliable, available, and secure, we must administer it. This includes documenting components. Chapter 13 highlights known wireless problems and practiced solutions. For instance, when you have a near/far condition, move one of the workstations closer. You’ll find pithy advice like this in Chapter 13. Chapter 14 discusses bridges and bridging technology. When you have a network, you have people complaining about connectivity

and performance. Chapter 15 provides some commonsense solutions to typi­cal wireless problems. Finally, Chapter 16 provides guidance for trying to wrap your hands (and heads) around your network. Whether you have an authorized wireless network or not, you won’t want to miss this chapter.

Part V: The Part of Tens

The Part of Tens provides top-ten that lists authors think are interesting. Our Part of Tens is no different. We provide a look at ten indispensable tools for network administrators and tinkerers alike (Chapter 17); ten ways to secure your WLAN (Chapter 18); and ten ways to use wireless in your busi­ness (Chapter 19).

Part VI: Appendixes

We also provide some valuable reference material in the Appendixes. Appendix A lists trade associations and user groups for wireless. You can find out whether there is a WUG (wireless user group) in your neighborhood. If you don’t have one, start one and send us the information. Appendix B pro­vides information on the 802 standards that you need to know for the wireless market. Appendix C, as mentioned earlier, provides the minimum necessary information that you need to set up a wireless network. If you want more infor­mation, refer to Appendixes A and B.a

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About This Book
If you’re thinking of purchasing a wireless computer network and installing it in your home, this is the book for you. Even if you’ve already purchased the equipment for a wireless network, this book will help you install and config­ure the network. What’s more, this book helps you get the most out of your investment after it’s up and running.

With this book in hand, you’ll have all the information that you need to know about the following topics (and more):

*. Planning your wireless home network

*.Evaluating and selecting wireless networking equipment for installation in your home

*. Installing and configuring wireless networking equipment in your home

*.Sharing an Internet connection over your wireless network

*. Sharing files, printers, and other peripherals over your wireless network

*. Playing computer games over your wireless network

*.Connecting your audio-visual gear to your wireless network

*.Securing your wireless network against prying eyes

*. Discovering devices that you’ll be able to connect to your wireless home network in the future

System Requirements
Virtually any personal computer can be added to a wireless home network, but some computers are easier to add than others. This book focuses on building wireless networks that connect PCs running the Windows operating system (Windows 95 or later) or the Mac OS (Mac OS 9 or later). Wireless networking is also popular among Linux users, but we don’t cover Linux in this book.

Because wireless networking is a relatively new phenomenon, the newest ver­sions of Windows and Mac OS do the best job of helping you quickly and painlessly set up a wireless network. However, because the primary reason for networking your home computers is to make it possible for all the com­puters (and peripherals) in your house to communicate, this book gives you information about connecting computers that run older versions of Windows and the two most widely used versions of Mac OS, as well as connecting those that run the newest versions of these two operating systems.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is organized into several chapters that are grouped into five parts. The chapters are presented in a logical order — flowing from planning to installing to using your wireless home network — but feel free to use the book as a reference and read the chapters in any order that you want.

Part I: Wireless Networking Fundamentals

The first part of the book is a primer on networking and on wireless network­ing. If you’ve never used a networked computer — much less attempted to install a network — this part of the book provides background information and techno-geek lingo that you need to feel comfortable. Chapter 1 presents general networking concepts; Chapter 2 discusses the most popular wireless networking technology and familiarizes you with wireless networking termi­nology; and Chapter 3 introduces you to several popular alternatives to wire­less networking.

Part II: Making Plans

The second part of the book helps you plan for installing your wireless home network. Chapter 4 helps you decide what you will be connecting to the net­work and where to install wireless networking equipment in your home, and Chapter 5 provides guidance on making buying decisions.

Part III: Installing a Wireless Network

Part III discusses how to install a wireless network in your home and get it up and running. Whether your computers are Apple Macintosh running Mac OS 9 or X (Chapter 8) or are PCs running a Windows 95 or later operating system (Chapters 6 and 7), this part of the book explains how to install and configure your wireless networking equipment. In addition, this part includes a chapter that explains how to use your wireless home network to share a single Internet connection (Chapter 9). The last chapter in this part covers securing your wire­less home network (Chapter 10).

Part IV: Using a Wireless Network

After you get your wireless home network installed and running, you’ll cer­tainly want to use it. Part IV starts by showing you the basics of putting the wireless network to good use: sharing files, folders, printers, and other periph­erals (Chapter 11). We spend some time discussing other cool things that you can do over a wireless network, including playing multi-user computer games (Chapter 12), connecting your audio-visual equipment (Chapter 13), and oper­ating various types of smart home conveniences (Chapter 14).

Bluetooth-enabled devices are becoming more prevalent these days, so you won’t want to miss Chapter 15 or Chapter 16, for that matter, where we describe how to use wireless networking to connect to the Internet through wireless hot spots in coffee shops, hotels, airports, and other public places. How cool is that?

Part V: The Part of Tens

Part V provides four top-ten lists that we think you’ll find interesting — ten frequently asked questions about wireless home networking (Chapter 17); ten troubleshooting tips for improving your wireless home network’s perfor­mance (Chapter 18); ten devices to connect to your wireless home network . . . sometime in the future (Chapter 19); and the top ten sources for more informa­tion about wireless networking (Chapter 20).

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Wireless Networks Hacks & Mods Book Free Download

Introduction
Welcome to Wireless Network Hacks & Mods For Dummies. This book was written to help you get the most out of your wireless network. Whether you’ve got one access point that you’d like to do more with, or a whole house full of wireless gear, you can do a lot to boost your performance and extend the core wireless functionality. Whatever your situation, we’re here to help you supercharge your wireless network.

Wireless Network Hacks & Mods For Dummies is not an electronics mod or software hacker’s guide to wireless gear. As intricate as these devices have gotten these days, if you think you know how to retool a motherboard for performance, you don’t need us to tell you what to do. Second, more and more off-the-shelf software can now help you accomplish what used to require backdoor hacking.

Our focus is on helping you use the current equipment on the market, with the current software tools and design techniques, to put together the most comprehensive and high-performance home wireless network you can possi­bly get. You’re not going to pry open your wireless access point and start sol­dering high-performance chips onto its motherboard (at least not under our guidance).

Wireless Network Hacks & Mods For Dummies picks up where our more beginner-level book, Wireless Home Networking For Dummies, published by Wiley, left off. If you have not installed a network yet, you might consider buying both books so that you can cover the more basic installation issues at the same time you read about how to broaden and optimize that network’s performance after it is installed.

About This Book
If you’ve installed some level of wireless capability in your home and want to take it to the next level, or are thinking of purchasing a wireless computer network and want a high-powered setup from the get-go, this is the book for you. Here’s the bottom line: If you want to (or have) cut the cord, we want to help you improve your network.

If you have a wireless network, you have probably realized that performance can vary wildly around your home. What’s more, you might be trying to add additional gear onto your network, only to find it does not seem to solve the problems you set out to fix. You’re not alone — many of those who have mas­tered the first stage of getting a wireless network up and running have won­dered how they can simply get more out of it. Towards that end, this book helps you get the most out of your network over the long term.

With this book in hand, you’ll have all the information that you need to know about the following topics:

*.Planning a wireless network that can cover your whole home, including in your car and outside the walls of the house

*. Evaluating and selecting advanced wireless networking equipment for installation in your home

*.Installing and configuring multiple wireless networking devices that work together seamlessly

*. Understanding the issues surrounding boosting your wireless signals to increase the range and throughput of your network

*. Securing your wireless network from nosy neighbors and hackers

*.Playing computer games over a high-performance wireless network and across the Internet

*.Connecting your audio-visual gear to your wireless network and sharing MP3, video files, DVDs, and more around the whole house

*.Talking with people worldwide, for free, over your wireless network

*.Protecting your home with wireless surveillance

*.Using your wireless gear on the road

*.Setting up your own hot spot to share wireless access with others

*. Outfitting your car with a wireless network

*. Discovering devices that you’ll be able to connect to your wireless home network in the future

System Requirements
There are no minimum requirements from a wireless equipment or computer perspective for this book. Just about any computer will work over a wireless connection, as long as it has some sort of networking capability (which covers most of the computers still working today).

If your home network is anything like ours, you want to end up with a wire­less network that connects old and new computers and devices, newer and older operating systems, Windows and Mac-affiliated devices, and a whole lot more. Wireless Network Hacks & Mods For Dummies will help you get there.

That having been said, the newest versions of Windows and Mac OS do the best job of helping you quickly and painlessly optimize your wireless net­work. Much of the sophistication in wireless networking has occurred rela­tively recently. Most of the advanced wireless gear and software, as well as most of the newer wireless audio/visual, gaming, and similar gear, have been designed around the latest operating systems and hardware interface capa­bilities. So if your computer does not have USB ports, Windows Wireless Networking, or other similarly “modern” computer conveniences, you’re likely to be at a huge disadvantage in trying to adopt at least some of the ideas and recommendations in this book.

As a result, we mostly cover optimizing wireless networks that connect PCs running the Windows operating system (Windows 95 or later) or the Mac OS (Mac OS 9 or later) — with a particular focus on Windows XP and Mac OS X. Although wireless networking is also popular among Linux users, Linux-specific instructions are not provided in this book.
How This Book Is Organized

This book is organized into several chapters that are grouped into five parts. The chapters are presented in a logical order — flowing from an intense tuto­rial on wireless technologies, to installing, optimizing, and using your wire­less home network — but feel free to use the book as a reference and read the chapters in any order that you want.

Part I: Making Your World Wireless

The first part of the book is an in-depth primer on networking and on wireless networking. If you are not overly familiar with the concepts of networking a computer, this part of the book provides a quick foundation on wireless gear, standards, and concepts, so that you can appreciate the advice provided in the rest of the book. Chapter 1 presents a total view of all the devices we intend to help you wirelessly network; Chapter 2 discusses the state of standards and important technology trends that affect the operation, optimization, and future-proofing of your network; Chapter 3 provides an overview of the key elements of a home wireless network; and Chapter 4 introduces you to the key broad­band Internet access technologies that your wireless home network uses to connect outside your home and gives you the information you need to connect the two networks (wireless and Internet access) together.

Part II: Boosting Performance on Your Wireless Network

The second part of the book helps you plan your extended and expanded wire­less home network. It helps you understand how to create a whole home wireless footprint; how to link your wireless network with other wired tech­nologies in your home; how to track and maintain the operation of your entire home network; how to optimize your network’s overall performance; and how to secure your wireless network. This is the part to turn to if you want to learn how to measure the performance of your wireless network and what to do to improve that performance.

Part III: Wireless on the Go

Part III discusses how to use your wireless network on the road. It helps you understand how you can access the Internet from remote wireless access sites called hot spots in coffee shops, hotels, airports, and other public loca­tions. We tell you how to keep your communications safe from eavesdroppers while on the road, and even how to put wireless connectivity in your car. The last chapter in this part covers how to set up your own wireless hot spot, so you can help others communicate wirelessly on the road too.

Part IV: Cool Wireless Toys

After you get your wireless home network running in perfect shape, now comes the fun. Part IV of the book presents many cool things that you can do over a wireless network, including playing multi-user computer games, connecting your audio-visual equipment, viewing rooms via wireless surveillance (even over the Internet!), and talking over your wireless network to anyone in the world. What’s the fun of a high-powered wireless network without cool toys?

Part V: The Part of Tens

Part V provides a couple of top-ten lists that we think you’ll find interesting — ten great online sources for specific areas of high-performance networking and the ten most frequently-asked security questions about Wi-Fi security (a topic that puzzles even the most experienced users sometimes)

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