7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An Expanded Linksys Manual, January 22, 2006
This review is from: Home Networking: A Visual Do-It-Yourself Guide (Paperback)
This would be an excellent getting started guide if it was included with a Linksys product, but it is disappointing as a separate purchase. Most of the step-by-step instructions presume that you have purchased a Linksys product. If you use another brand, this book may not give you much help. Even if you have a Linksys product, don't expect much coverage of intermediate or advanced topics. For instance, the book mentions remotely controlling a network computer, but it doesn't explain how to do it other than to briefly mention a few programs. I was expecting a little better coverage based on the previous reviews.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Dummies Guide from Cisco with Linksys Plugs, April 10, 2005
This review is from: Home Networking: A Visual Do-It-Yourself Guide (Paperback)
Not that many years ago, many people felt they needed either a technician or a 12-year-old to install and set-up a PC. Many homes now are starting to have more than one PC. Yet broadband connections and high quality printers are expensive if you buy one for each PC. How can those costs be reduced? Add a home network.
Before you faint with anxiety, look at this very simple book. It will guide you through the few technical questions you need to address and give you complete and simple directions you can easily follow (but feel free to recruit a 12-year-old to help you).
Before you are done reading, you will also realize that you may also benefit from being able to put noisy printers in quiet places, eliminate cables, and do lots of neat applications (like visually monitor your children's rooms and front door) with your network.
If you are like me, you've heard that wireless networks can easily be hacked into. This book tells you how to address those very real security problems.
As I stand on the brink of our first home network, I am clutching this book in both hands . . . and am ready to launch myself into familial shared cyberspace saying, "I think I can do it. I think I can do it. I think I can do it." And I know you can!
The only annoying quality about this book comes from the many plugs for Linksys products. But that's better than not having photographs and examples, so I bore with it.
This book is not only simple; you can read it very quickly.
It could have been greatly improved though by concentrating the material throughout around whether you want a wired or wireless network after providing an initial chapter that helped you choose one or the other. Now, you have to slog through every page to find all the information you need for one or the other. Perhaps in a future edition, this book will be updated to deal with that problem.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Don't waste your money, March 24, 2006
This review is from: Home Networking: A Visual Do-It-Yourself Guide (Paperback)
This book has lots of nice pictures.. but for learning home networking it is juvenile and lacks depth of explanation across multiple network routers, connection nodes, and how-tos. Don't waste your money.
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