Linksys® Networks: The Official Guide, 3rd Ed. (One-Off) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is very much a how-to book. There is little on network principles. The other side of that is it misses little in how to install, bring to life, and manage a home network. If you have Linksys hardware, you'll find the content directly addresses your needs; yet, despite its name, the book is not that Linksys specific.
Glenn covers four topics especially well: network security, resource sharing, tips and troubleshooting, and advanced network tools. The latter, in an appendix, presents Windows graphical and command-line network tools. It makes Windows XP network diagnostic tools available to just about anyone, even those with no technical exposure to networking.
If you just want the practical details on how to set up a wired or wireless network, you would probably give Linksys Networks five stars. I wanted more on principles.


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Kismet Hacking Review

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(More customer reviews)My complaint. This book didn't even mention that they use Gentoo, sorta a major piece of info. This is kinda important if you need to recompile the kernel, which you do. And if you do..what optional software to have installed to make recompiling easier? That's all I can think of because I just set it down somewhere that it is likely to just collect dust. There were of course some information that would be great to know that was told. That information was that you had to do a recompile and a few other items necessary to install kismet.

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Kismet is the industry standard for examining wireless network traffic, and is used by over 250,000 security professionals, wireless networking enthusiasts, and WarDriving hobbyists.Unlike other wireless networking books that have been published in recent years that geared towards Windows users, Kismet Hacking is geared to those individuals that use the Linux operating system. People who use Linux and want to use wireless tools need to use Kismet. Now with the introduction of Kismet NewCore, they have a book that will answer all their questions about using this great tool. This book continues in the successful vein of books for wireless users such as WarDriving: Drive, Detect Defend.*Wardrive Running Kismet from the BackTrack Live CD*Build and Integrate Drones with your Kismet Server*Map Your Data with GPSMap, KisMap, WiGLE and GpsDrive

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Linksys WRT54G Ultimate Hacking Review

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(More customer reviews)"For those who want to make the most out of their WRT54G you can learn how to port code and develop your own software for the OpenWRT operating system."
"Full coverage on embedded device development using the WRT54G and OpenWRT"
Unfortunately due to publication deadlines, much of the technical content of the book was dropped; it nolonger contains the chapters referenced in the above Amazon description, instead it focuses on giving brief reviews of the various firmwares available, along with hardware and software hacks. While it offers a good overview, the book falls short in technical depth and accuracy.
There are several places in the book where the information is either outdated or innacurate. Some examples -
OpenWrt should not be upgraded through the use of the "ipkg upgrade"; OpenWrt uses a filesystem overlay where the filesystem (squashfs) is readonly but appears writable by redirecting write access to another filesystem (jffs2). Attempting to upgrade will result in filesystem duplication; there are several warnings on the OpenWrt site regarding this.
The failsafe feaure is not new to OpenWrt's RC5 release; there has always been a failsafe proceeedure, but the instructions prior to the RC5 release were slightly different; failsafe was redesigned in RC5 to make it easier to access.
The example of blackholing advertisers through the use of dns using dnsmasq suggests rewriting the dnsmasq.conf; while the example does work, it creates a mess out of the configuration and involves many unnecessary steps. The same task could be acomplished much more easily by simply adding the hostnames to the /etc/hosts file.
The nvram-clean script does not actually reset the nvram configuration to defaults as described. The nvram-clean script only has a handful of known superfluous variables to remove; these are variables created by other firmwares that are nolonger required. It will not set any variables to their defaults; the defaults are device specific and setting them incorrectly would result in an unbootable device.

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This book will teach the reader how to make the most of their WRT54G series hardware. These handy little inexpensive devices can be configured for a near endless amount of networking tasks.The reader will learn about the WRT54G's hardware components, the different third-party firmware available and the differences between them, choosing the firmware that is right for you, and how to install different third-party firmware distributions.Never before has this hardware been documented in this amount of detail, which includes a wide-array of photographs and complete listing of all WRT54G models currently available, including the WRTSL54GS.Once this foundation is laid, the reader will learn how to implement functionality on the WRT54G for fun projects, penetration testing, various network tasks, wireless spectrum analysis, and more!This title features never before seen hacks using the WRT54G.For those who want to make the most out of their WRT54G you can learn how to port code and develop your own software for the OpenWRT operating system.*Never before seen and documented hacks, including wireless spectrum analysis*Most comprehensive source for documentation on how to take advantage of advanced features on the inexpensive wrt54g platform*Full coverage on embedded device development using the WRT54G and OpenWRT

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PC Magazine Wireless Solutions Review

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(More customer reviews)The target reader seems to be a Win-XP user with a D-Link DI-624, who does not really want to learn much. If that is you, then this book may be fine for you. If you only want to run the wizards & menus & little else, great. I happen to use Win-XP on some machines, and have a D-Link DI-624 on one. But I actually was hoping to learn more, and this book disappointed me. I'm taking it back to Barnes & Noble.
The authors use acronyms(initials) but usually make you go to the index to find out what the initials stand for. Seldom is there an explanation of what it really means. Sometimes the acronyms/initials are not defined, and at least once, the initials were defined two ways at two points in the book (see MAC as medium access control on page 90 and media access control on page 123 & the index).
What I really disliked is the total omission of Linux, a bunch of the technologies & components involved in wireless, and a good explanation of the basics. This book omits way to much for me. The authors apparantly think readers do not need to understand wireless technology basics. I'm not looking for wireless network certification or employment, just good basic understanding and this book doesn't have it. It does have some good material for the newbie, and is not overly verbose, so 3 stars.

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Wireless is freedom. Wireless is now. And who better than PC Magazine to help you break free?Wireless is more than cell phones. It's Web surfing from your deck, or tuning up your Xbox? to take on opponents on the opposite coast. But whatever wireless is, it isn't simple--or it wasn't, until these two guys made it so. Here's the straight scoop on setup, security, trouble-shooting, wireless capabilities, and a whole lot more. Plenty of books will tell you how to build a wireless network, but only this one offers proven solutions from PC Magazine.No strings attached! Here's how to* Share printers, files, Internet connections and more--all without wires* Wirelessly connect your video, audio, and game consoles* Connect and control wireless "smart home" devices* Guard your Wi-Fi network against intruders withWEP and WPA encryption* Surf from anywhere in your home or office* Untether your employees for greater creativity and productivity* Take your wireless world on the road* Understand wireless standards and protocols* Learn how to choose the right wireless equipmentA Taste of HoneyA honeypot litters the airwaves with simulated access points, inviting intruders to take advantage of the network but. . . offering them no-where to go. Instead of trying to hide your real AP. . . you put it out with fake APs, hiding (it) by giving the intruder too much to do.-- From Chapter 8

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Absolute Beginner's Guide to Wi-Fi Wireless Networking Review

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(More customer reviews)It was with a little trepidation that I decided it was time to go Wi-Fi. Being a Harold Davis fan for some time, I picked up a copy of his book. Good decision! To start with he helped me decide whether to get a wirelss card for my old faithful laptop, or to get a new one. I went for a new machine (SONY VAIO TR3A). Setting it up was easy. With his book's step-by-step instructions, it was almost as though I had the author at my side. Highly recommended.

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Wi-Fi Hotspots: Setting Up Public Wireless Internet Access Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is perfectly focused on the intention of setting Public Wi-Fi Hotspots. By this I mean that the book doesn't load you down with all the technical details of how wireless networks work, but instead dives right into the business/organizational benefits of running such a network as a hotspot. There is a very brief chapter at the end that gives an overview of RF or wireless signals (literally 14 pages) and this is perfect. Great job staying on focus.
The book presents the implementation of Wi-Fi Hotspots from start-to-finish covering these topics:
-Why Implement a Hotspot
-Simple Quick-Install Hotspots
-Adcvanced Hotspot technologies
-Marketing your hotspot
-Avoiding freeloaders who consume your bandwidth
-Common problems and resolutions
-Hotspot safety and security
...among others. If you are considering implementing a hotspot for pay or for marketing purposes, this book is a great place to start. -Tom Carpenter, Author: Wireless# Certification Official Study Guide, CWNA Certification Official Study Guide 4th Edition, CWSP Certification Official Study Guide 2nd Edition

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