Wireless Hacking: Projects for Wi-Fi Enthusiasts

Book 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.
  • 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.

Table of contents

  1. Cover image
  2. Title page
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Register for Free Membership to solutions@syngress.com
  5. Copyright
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. Technical Editor & Contributor
  8. Contributors
  9. Foreword Contributor
  10. Foreword
  11. Introduction
  12. Part I: Introduction to Wireless Hacking
    1. Chapter 1: A Brief Overview of the Wireless World
      1. Introduction to Wi-Fi
      2. The History and Basics of 802.11
      3. Why Wi-Fi?
      4. Summary
    2. Chapter 2: SoCalFreeNet.org: Building Large Scale Community Wireless Networks
      1. Introduction
      2. Wireless Distribution System (WDS)
      3. 5-GHz Links
      4. Working with Client Devices
      5. Competing with the Phone/Cable Companies
      6. Outfitting Coffee Shops and Retail Locations
      7. Getting the Neighborhood Involved
      8. Summary
    3. Chapter 3: Securing Our Wireless Community
      1. Introduction
      2. The Captive Portal
      3. Building a PPTP VPN
      4. Hacking the Mind of a Wireless User
      5. Other Hacks
  13. Part II: Hacking Projects
    1. Chapter 4: Wireless Access Points
      1. Introduction
      2. Wi-Fi Meets Linux
      3. Soekris Single-Board Computers
      4. Proxim 8571 802.11a Access Point
      5. Summary
    2. Chapter 5: Wireless Client Access Devices
      1. Introduction
      2. Notebook Computers
      3. Desktop Computers
      4. PDAs
      5. WarDriving
      6. Other Resources
  14. Part III: Software Projects
    1. Chapter 6: Wireless Operating Systems
      1. Introduction
      2. m0n0wall—Powerful, Elegant, Simple
      3. Pebble—Powerful, Raw, Complete
    2. Chapter 7: Monitoring Your Network
      1. Introduction
      2. Enabling SNMP
      3. Getif and SNMP Exploration for Microsoft Windows
      4. STG and SNMP Graphs for Microsoft Windows
      5. Cacti and Comprehensive Network Graphs
      6. Additional References
    3. Chapter 8: Low-Cost Commercial Options
      1. Introduction
      2. Sputnik
      3. Sveasoft
      4. MikroTik
      5. Summary
    4. Chapter 9: Mesh Networking
      1. Introduction
      2. Real-World Examples
      3. Summary
      4. Additional Resources on the Web
  15. Part IV: Antennas and Outdoor Enclosure Projects
    1. Chapter 10: Antennas
      1. Introduction
      2. Before You Start: Basic Concepts and Definitions
      3. Building a Coffee Can Antenna
      4. The Future of Antennas
      5. Summary
    2. Chapter 11: Building Outdoor Enclosures and Antenna Masts
      1. Introduction
      2. Building Outdoor Enclosures
      3. Building Antenna Masts
    3. Chapter 12: Solar-Powered Access Points and Repeaters
      1. Introduction
  16. Appendix A: Wireless 802.11 Hacks
  17. Index

Product information

  • Title: Wireless Hacking: Projects for Wi-Fi Enthusiasts
  • Author(s): Lee Barken
  • Release date: October 2004
  • Publisher(s): Syngress
  • ISBN: 9780080481784