802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition (Definitive Guide)

Average customer rating: 4.0

Very good, but dated
Excellent book
\_/\_/
802.11 Networks 2nd Edition. By Mathew S. Gast.
Good timing

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802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition (Definitive Guide)
Matthew Gast
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Product Group: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0596100523

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Among 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.

Book Description

As we all know by now, wireless networks offer many advantages over fixed (or wired) networks. Foremost on that list is mobility, since going wireless frees you from the tether of an Ethernet cable at a desk. But that's just the tip of the cable-free iceberg. Wireless networks are also more flexible, faster and easier for you to use, and more affordable to deploy and maintain. The de facto standard for wireless networking is the 802.11 protocol, which includes Wi-Fi (the wireless standard known as 802.11b) and its faster cousin, 802.11g. With easy-to-install 802.11 network hardware available everywhere you turn, the choice seems simple, and many people dive into wireless computing with less thought and planning than they'd give to a wired network. But it's wise to be familiar with both the capabilities and risks associated with the 802.11 protocols. And 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition is the perfect place to start. This updated edition covers everything you'll ever need to know about wireless technology. Designed with the system administrator or serious home user in mind, it's a no-nonsense guide for setting up 802.11 on Windows and Linux. Among the wide range of topics covered are discussions on: <ul>

deployment considerations </li>

network monitoring and performance tuning </li>

wireless security issues </li>

how to use and select access points </li>

network monitoring essentials </li>

wireless card configuration </li>

security issues unique to wireless networks</li></ul> With wireless technology, the advantages to its users are indeed plentiful. Companies no longer have to deal with the hassle and expense of wiring buildings, and households with several computers can avoid fights over who's online. And now, with 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition, you can integrate wireless technology into your current infrastructure with the utmost confidence.

Customer Reviews:

Very good, but dated.......2007-05-13

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

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

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.

802.11 Networks 2nd Edition. By Mathew S. Gast........2007-01-21

802.11 Wireless Networks 2nd Edition is the book for the serious administrator. You should already have solid understanding of TCP/IP protocols and have had some experience working with IEEE 802 networks. Network administrators who about to deploy or are managing 802.11 networks, the book is particularly for you.

The book goes over many details and examines many frame types. You won't find great explanations about what a specific topic is. Instead, Gast, explains how they work into the headers and sometimes just short of using mathematics. Some topics include: WEP, 802.1X, 802.11i, 802.11n MMIO-OFDM, Access Points, 802.11 Hardware, and even Framing in Detail.

Gast doesn't expect the book to be read chronologically and even recommends those in a hurry to go ahead and skip the first 16 chapters. Following that you're into the more practical stuff like installing wireless cards, designing and implementing a 802.11 network, security, and site planning and project management.

Mathew Gast understands wireless networks better than I know the back of my hand.

Good timing.......2007-01-20

When I ordered this item too close to Christmas, Amazon said it would arrive after the holiday, which wasn't a problem. However, the book arrived the day before and my father was able to open it up on Christmas Day.

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