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Wireless Hacking: Projects for Wi-Fi Enthusiasts

Cut the cord and discover the world of wireless hacks!

  • 1st Edition - October 29, 2004
  • Latest edition
  • Author: Lee Barken
  • Language: English

Sales of wireless LANs to home users and small businesses will soar this year, with products using IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) technology leading the way, according to a report by Cahners… Read more

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Description

Sales of wireless LANs to home users and small businesses will soar this year, with products using IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) technology leading the way, according to a report by Cahners research. Worldwide, consumers will buy 7.3 million wireless LAN nodes--which include client and network hub devices--up from about 4 million last year. This third book in the "HACKING" series from Syngress is written by the SoCalFreeNet Wireless Users Group and will cover 802.11a/b/g (“Wi-Fi”) projects teaching these millions of Wi-Fi users how to "mod" and "hack" Wi-Fi access points, network cards, and antennas to run various Linux distributions and create robust Wi-Fi networks.

Cahners predicts that wireless LANs next year will gain on Ethernet as the most popular home network technology. Consumers will hook up 10.9 million Ethernet nodes and 7.3 million wireless out of a total of 14.4 million home LAN nodes shipped. This book will show Wi-Fi enthusiasts and consumers of Wi-Fi LANs who want to modify their Wi-Fi hardware how to build and deploy “homebrew” Wi-Fi networks, both large and small.

Key features

  • Wireless LANs next year will gain on Ethernet as the most popular home network technology. Consumers will hook up 10.9 million Ethernet nodes and 7.3 million wireless clients out of a total of 14.4 million home LAN nodes shipped.
  • This book will use a series of detailed, inter-related projects to teach readers how to modify their Wi-Fi hardware to increase power and performance to match that of far more expensive enterprise networking products. Also features hacks to allow mobile laptop users to actively seek wireless connections everywhere they go!
  • The authors are all members of the San Diego Wireless Users Group, which is famous for building some of the most innovative and powerful "home brew" Wi-Fi networks in the world.

Readership

Sales of wireless LANs to home users and small businesses will soar this year, with products using IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) technology leading the way, according to a report by Cahners research.

Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Technical Editor & Contributor

Contributors

Foreword Contributor

Foreword

Introduction

Part I: Introduction to Wireless Hacking

Chapter 1: A Brief Overview of the Wireless World

Introduction to Wi-Fi

The History and Basics of 802.11

Why Wi-Fi?

Summary

Chapter 2: SoCalFreeNet.org: Building Large Scale Community Wireless Networks

Introduction

Wireless Distribution System (WDS)

5-GHz Links

Working with Client Devices

Competing with the Phone/Cable Companies

Outfitting Coffee Shops and Retail Locations

Getting the Neighborhood Involved

Summary

Chapter 3: Securing Our Wireless Community

Introduction

The Captive Portal

Building a PPTP VPN

Hacking the Mind of a Wireless User

Other Hacks

Part II: Hacking Projects

Chapter 4: Wireless Access Points

Introduction

Wi-Fi Meets Linux

Soekris Single-Board Computers

Proxim 8571 802.11a Access Point

Summary

Chapter 5: Wireless Client Access Devices

Introduction

Notebook Computers

Desktop Computers

PDAs

WarDriving

Other Resources

Part III: Software Projects

Chapter 6: Wireless Operating Systems

Introduction

m0n0wall—Powerful, Elegant, Simple

Pebble—Powerful, Raw, Complete

Chapter 7: Monitoring Your Network

Introduction

Enabling SNMP

Getif and SNMP Exploration for Microsoft Windows

STG and SNMP Graphs for Microsoft Windows

Cacti and Comprehensive Network Graphs

Additional References

Chapter 8: Low-Cost Commercial Options

Introduction

Sputnik

Sveasoft

MikroTik

Summary

Chapter 9: Mesh Networking

Introduction

Real-World Examples

Summary

Additional Resources on the Web

Part IV: Antennas and Outdoor Enclosure Projects

Chapter 10: Antennas

Introduction

Before You Start: Basic Concepts and Definitions

Building a Coffee Can Antenna

The Future of Antennas

Summary

Chapter 11: Building Outdoor Enclosures and Antenna Masts

Introduction

Building Outdoor Enclosures

Building Antenna Masts

Chapter 12: Solar-Powered Access Points and Repeaters

Introduction

Appendix A: Wireless 802.11 Hacks

Index

Product details

  • Edition: 1
  • Latest edition
  • Published: October 29, 2004
  • Language: English

About the author

LB

Lee Barken

Affiliations and expertise
co-director of the Strategic Technologies And Research (STAR) Center, San Diego State University, U.S.A.

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