Get APLawrence.com by RSSThe Book of Wireless, 2d Edition
2008/02/18
- The Book of Wireless, 2d Edition
- John Ross
- No Starch Press
- 9781593271695
I admire authors who cover their subjects completely yet remain readable. It's not easy to do that, but John Ross did so here. This is very complete coverage of wireless networking from all points of view. The technical level isn't what someone designing hardware or software would need, but it's far beyond "don't worry about those details". For example, I've never before seen the suggestion that you might want to query your neighbors to find out what channels they are using because nearby channels have enough overlap to cause some interference which can slow down your networks. I also didn't know that there is not one channel that can be used anywhere in the world (10 and 11 come close but are illegal in Israel).
I am also appreciative that he doesn't ignore Linux, Unix and Mac OS X, and it's not just lip service that they exist. They get their own chapters and aren't ignored throughout the rest of the book either. Having Mike Kershaw, the author of Kismet as the books technical reviewer probably helped the attention paid to non-Windows operating systems.
Beyond that, the network admin will find coverage of access points, advice on antennas for point to point networks.. the roaming user gets a chapter on hot spots.. as I said, complete coverage. The author doesn't ignore the future, either. 802.11n is covered and so is broadband wireless.
Of course security is not ignored, and again it's not just one chapter covering WPA and WEP. Indeed, you'd likely miss a lot of good security tips if you didn't read every chapter. I probably should be ashamed to admit that I wasn't aware of some of the security points brought up here (I don't personally use wireless very often so I'll forgive myself this one time).
Good book, well done. Note that this is the second edition; I've not seen the prior book so don't know what's changed here.
Tony Lawrence 2008-02-18 Rating:
Order (or just read more about) The Book of Wireless, 2d Edition from Amazon.com
Have you tried Searching this site?
Unix/Linux/Mac OS X support by phone, email or on-site: Support Rates
This is a Unix/Linux resource website. It contains technical articles about Unix, Linux and general computing related subjects, opinion, news, help files, how-to's, tutorials and more. We appreciate comments and article submissions.
Many of the products and books I review are things I purchased for my own use. Some were given to me specifically for the purpose of reviewing them. I resell or can earn commissions from the sale of some of these items. Links within these pages may be affiliate links that pay me for referring you to them. That's mostly insignificant amounts of money; whenever it is not I have made my relationship plain. I also may own stock in companies mentioned here. If you have any question, please do feel free to contact me.
Specific links that take you to pages that allow you to purchase the item I reviewed are very likely to pay me a commission. Many of the books I review were given to me by the publishers specifically for the purpose of writing a review. These gifts and referral fees do not affect my opinions; I often give bad reviews anyway.
We use Google third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here.
I sell and support
Kerio Mail server
Click here to add your comments
Don't miss responses! Subscribe to Comments by RSS or by Email
Click here to add your comments
If you want a picture to show with your comment, go get a Gravatar