Jeff Duntemann's Wi-Fi Guide, 2nd Edition - Page 2

Chapters Four through Nine then take you through one of the two core parts of the book, which is designing, buying, installing, and configuring a wireless network. Most of his examples are illustrated using Windows XP — this is a Windows-centric book, so if you have an Apple Airport or use Linux, you probably should buy something else. He's fond of talking about the "85 % Design" solution, the information that is all that is necessary for 85 percent of the readers. The advanced stuff --building souped-up antennas (souped-up can be a literal term, for he shows how you can make antennas out of tin cans), bridging networks, war-driving — get moved to separate chapters. Since most people are installing Wi-Fi networks to share a broadband Internet connection, that's what he concentrates on.

The second core part of the book is security. It is a core concept because Wi-Fi by default is an open standard. Unless you do something to secure your system your neighbor, or the hacker driving down your street, may be able to tap in to your system. A key point in his security discussion is the differences between WEP, an older and weaker security standard, and the newer WPA. As in the earlier section, he starts with an introduction to security and hacking that is very good. He also points out a very important point when he says "Being able to trust a security system last year says nothing about being able to trust it next year. The job of security a computer or a network — or anything else — is never 'done'."

In addition to the advanced topics mentioned above (building hardware, war-driving) he also has a chapter for road warriors learning how to tap in to the growing collection of free and pay hotspots available at airports, hotels, coffee shops and McDonald's. This segment of the Wi-Fi industry is moving a lot faster than changes in hardware, and while there's a risk that it could be the first part of the book to become out-of-date, there's still much to learn. (Wish I had read it before I opened my Boingo account.)

If there is any weakness to the book, it is that he mentions only in passing some of the network troubleshooting techniques, not related to wireless, that you may have to deal with when setting up your network. He recognizes the problem in a paragraph titled "The Weirdness of Networking" where he says

"I hate to say it, but networking can be a pretty freaky thing. If you spend enough time fooling with networks, and mix enough technologies, things will happen that defy easy analysis and troubleshooting. This is why you must keep on studying, and learn networking as deeply as you can find the time and intestinal fortitude to do. Even the experts encounter problems that they never entirely understand.... 95% of networking problems respond well to calm though, analysis, cold systematic testing, and reliance on good notes. The other 5% will make you nuts. Be ready.

The first time I set up a wireless network, I spent hours trying to get the network configured, with many choice curse words aimed at the manufacturer of the wireless hardware. It was only on the second day of struggling that I discovered that the problems getting the network going was really due to my personal firewall software, ZoneAlarm Pro. Once I made one configuration change there, the system worked like a charm. On the other hand, you do have to draw a line somewhere, when deciding what will go in a book. Once you get started on networking problems, you may not know when to stop, and pretty soon instead of 483 pages of text you have 800.

Article Author: Bruce Kratofil

Bruce Kratofil blogs on bugs and other things that can go wrong with your computer at The BugBlog, and writes about computers and economics at BJK Research

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