Customer Reviews

Hacking Wireless Networks For Dummies (For Dummies (Computers))

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Think your wireless network is secure from unauthorized use or attack? It's probably not. I just finished reading Hacking Wireless Network For Dummies by Kevin Beaver and Peter T. Davis, and this is one of the most practical books I've ever read for testing a network against attack.

Contents:
Part 1 - Building the Foundation for Testing Wireless Networks: Introduction to Wireless Hacking; The Wireless Hacking Process; Implementing a Testing Methodology; Amassing Your War Chest
Part 2 - Getting Rolling with Common Wi-Fi Hacks: Human (in)Security; Containing the Airwaves; Hacking Wireless Clients; Discovering Default Settings; Wardriving
Part 3 - Advanced Wi-Fi Hacks: Still at War; Unauthorized Wireless Devices; Network Attacks; Denial-of-Service Attacks; Cracking Encryption; Authenticating Users
Part 4 - The Part of Tens: Ten Essential Tools for Hacking Wireless Networks; Ten Wireless Security-Testing Mistakes; Ten Tips for Following Up after Your Testing
Part 5 - Appendixes: Wireless Hacking Resources; Glossary of Acronyms
Index

The target of this book is the security professional involved in testing networks to make them more secure. There's a heavy emphasis on "ethical hacking", or learning how to test a network's security without doing harm or using the information in a destructive fashion. A security consultant using this book would learn how to pre-plan a test, work with the company to make sure they were properly authorized, and then write up the results in a professional manner. That aspect of the book is impressive, and it helps to frame the information in the right light (not as a textbook on how to break into networks).

From a practical standpoint, this book excels. Each of the chapters covers the theory behind how or why a certain aspect of a wireless network would be vulnerable to an attack or exploit. Then the authors cover a number of open source and commercial software packages that are available to focus on that area. For instance, chapter 14 goes into why WEP encryption is flawed and how it can be broken with relatively little effort. It's followed by an explanation on how WPA addresses some of those issues. Finally you get coverage on available tools that are used to crack WEP and how you can use them to test your own network.

Highly practical and heavy on application... If you're a security professional with responsibility for your organization's wireless network, you need to read this book. And if you're a techno-geek with your own wireless network, you'll want to get this book to play around. I know I will be doing a little hacking at Chez Duffbert...

This is the real specialty the authors of this book have mastered...
I am astonished at how many positive reviews this horrible, stinky title has received ... how many friends do this guys have? In fact this has got to be one of the worst tech book I have ever read, a total waste of money and paper.
My advice is , avoid this book, and any other book form the same authors, like plague! You will learn NOTHING from them.
The authors go on and on babbling about how unsecure wireless networks are, and are nonetheless unable to clearly indicate you any technique to take advantage or to protect form this weakness. All you get (apart from the boring and repetitive author's ruminations) are a few screenshots of NetStumbler (hey man, I can see by myself what it looks like, teach me how to use it instead ..), one screenshot of Kismet running on a linux xterm and a list of some of its command options (come on do you think that a beginner would ever be able to figure out how to use a open source tool like Kismet all by himself?)
Ah we also get a little advertisement for a couple of non-free tools like AiroPeek ... like a beginner should spend money on that? And , wait, there is no tutorial or intro on those tools as well. Just the usual couple of screenshots to make the book look good if you flip through it at the bookstore.
Seriously, I know this is hard to believe, but this pathetic excuse for a book is just a series of boring trivialities
For example ... did you ever think about the fact that installing a non-authorized, non-encrypted access point in your office network might actually be a security risk? I am sure you didn't, but thanks to this beautiful book you know, as the author spends pages and pages rambling and babbling about this absurd topic!
Years ago the "For Dummies" series used to be the right choice if you needed a humorous, tutorial-like but solid intro to a 'foreign' technology, but now the title is not a joke anymore.
"Hacking Wireless Networks for Dummies".. true to its title!

There are two or three reasons you would want to read this book. If you're responsible for the security of a wireless network, there are two possibilities:

1. someone has broken into your network, gotten sensitive information or used your system to send out 500,000 SPAM e-mails, or
2. they haven't broken in yet, and you're being pro-active (good for you). The third possibility is that you're looking for or even thinking about going to work as a wireless security expert.

In all three of these cases, this is a good place to start. The book starts with a description of how to go attack your own system from the outside and thereby learning what an outside hacker could get by doing the same thing. Then when you find a hole in the security, it tells you how to secure it.

One nice thing about this book, like all 'For Dummies' books is the writing style. It tells you what you want to know without being either too simple or so overloaded with jargon that you can't make sense out of it. Another nice thing is that this book tells you specifically what software/hardware devices you need to get to accomplish the tasks, and it does so without concentrating on multi thousand dollar expenses.

Valuable in my work as a consultant, installing and troubleshooting WiFi networks. The "ethical hacker" is a valuable tool.

I just installed my own home-based-business wireless network in May, and I have found this book to be incredibly useful in setting up security and also figuring out the odd interruptions and accessibility anomolies that tend to happen with wireless. I like to use this book to quickly find information about basically any security-related wireless topic. It is written clearly and explains what the various codes and messages mean. Of course the messages generated through a wireless system will look geek-like. However, the writing in the book is not geek-speek. This would make a good reference book for anyone in any size of organization to have if they use wireless. It is especially great for those with home wireless systems, as well as small- to medium-sized businesses that typically do not have staff solely dedicated for information security. If you rely upon yourself or others who are not technical to secure your wireless network, then you would definitely benefit from this book.

Demonstrating all of the weaknesses of each wireless security control that you can put in place, this book proves that Wireless will always be a Layer 2 problem by the in-ability to physically secure the network by it's physical location...period. They have shown me in this book that wireless should be treated like an Internet connection and apply as many controls as you can to prevent penetration. This resource is for users from home, small office, medium businesses, to large corporation's security personnel. This book covers the most common used wireless security measures to the more advanced wireless security standards that are not even fully supported by all wireless vendors yet (802.11i/WPA2). I recommend this book for anyone who has a wireless network or even thinking about it.

Hacking Wireless Networks for Dummies is a terrible book. If you are a regular person with social skills you have likely noticed that computer guys do not know how to communicate. They enjoy being geeky and learning all the techno speak of certain topics so they can try and sound smart. This is exactly what this book is 387 pages of. The authors are classic computer geeks who love their nonsense talk.

Nothing is really explained. This is a "Dummies" book. That would suggest to me that the authors are going to drop the geek babble and talk like humans. They do not. Fortunately I have the computer knowledge to follow techno babble. What is unfortunate is these guys are very inaccurate. They babble on (they repeat sections of the book MANY times, cut and paste style) almost as if they just wanted to fill pages. Many of the tools discussed are known not to work. They recommend Linux and Unix tools knowing full well the "Dummie" audience will not be able to use this info.

The entire book is more of a 387 page advertisement for why wireless is insecure (the first chapter is an advertisement). You will not know how to hack anything after reading this book. The 387 pages could have easily been pared to 150. Take out all the repetition and nonsense (they babble on about garbage throughout the book)

I used to like and recommend Dummies books years ago. However I haven't found many in the last few years that really cover a topic well. It seems like they simply want to put the title on the shelves. The content is not a concern. If you are a regular person this book will put you to sleep. If you do manage to get thru it you will learn very little. If you are a computer expert this book contains absolutely nothing that you cannot find in any forum on the net. There is no useful info in this book. Internet forums are free and up to date. A few Google searches would provide more value then this 387 pages of repetitive nonsense.

If you see it in the bargain bin for $1 ... PASS.

Most of the Dummies series books are appetite wetters at best and that's where they end.

They touch on the advanced things but don't explain enough for you to really fully realize the potential of anything. It's sort of like going into a suntan studio with a 3/4 raincoat on. You might get something out of being there but not enough for it to really be useful.

This book is no exception.

While it does touch on things such as ARP poisoning and Net Stumbler as well as some other useful starting points, it leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to expanding enough to make things worthwhile. It's a good introduction book but if you're planning on doing some real penetrations or penetration testing there are better books suited for this.

I would call this one a pre-reference reference book. At best.