Customer Reviews

How Secure is Your Wireless Network? Safeguarding Your Wi-Fi LAN

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4 star:		(6)
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I have 24 network jacks in my house. I don't want to install another network jack ever. Wireless is the answer from this point. The biggest problem with wireless is evident: security.

This is one of numerous books on wireless security. Fortunately, it's a well done book that is not meant to be read by rocket scientists. You know those kinds of books: written by ego-centric techie-geeks who pad their books with technical jargon and useless scientific theory that only people at MIT could understand. Instead, this book is relatively easy to understand as long as you have some knowledge on wireless technology (beyond the fact that there are no wires involved).

One chapter that I found to be very interesting covers the concept of war driving, which is the equivalent of driving around to pick up wireless networks in a neighborhood. It also covers how war drivers leave chalk identification markers for other war drivers to know that a wireless network has been detected.

The book also adequately covers the various types of authentication and encryption that can be used help to secure a wireless network. Once again, the very technical details about how the packets are designed and how the handshaking takes place tends to be a bit dry to those without much technical experience.

Using Windows 2000 Server as the example, the book goes through all of the steps necessary (with a large number of screen shots) to implement a VPN as well as set up an authentication and certificate server for enterprises. Fortunately, the home user is not forgotten. An entire chapter is dedicated to securing and managing a home wireless network; however, all of the home security methods that are covered in this book are Linux-based. Of course, if you're concerned about security, why are you thinking of using Windows in the first place?

The appendices have a lot of background information on radio frequency and antennae types. But the really geeky appendix is how to make a functional wireless antenna out of a Pringles potato chip can.

Overall, this is a good book to have. Obviously, computer technology being what it is means that the book will be obsolete in relatively short order. However, the fact that this book doesn't adhere to the mindless Windows centricity of most books of this kind also helps to give it that little boost of extra value.

I also like this book because it does not have the "I have a master degree so I'm going to speak like I'm addressing only brilliant people so as to impress you and add pages to the book to make it seem more important than it is" attitude. Yes, you should to have a grasp of some of the concepts behind networking protocols to understand this; but the majority of the book is not a difficult read.

If you're thinking of implementing a wireless network, this is a good book to have at your side.

Not being a wireless security expert, I liked this book for a concise intro to wireless technology as well as wireless security.

This relatively thin book provides balanced (in my opinion) coverage of attacks and defenses, enterprise and home. It deals well with high-level and low-level topics (such as various configuration settings). It also described both UNIX/Linux and Windows configuration options and solutions. For example, detailed guidelines for setting up a public hotspot with Linux are provided. The book mixes the wireless technology details with relevant security issues in a single coherent story. It is easy to read and well-written.

Anton Chuvakin, Ph.D., GCIA, GCIH is a Senior Security Analyst with a major information security company. His areas of infosec expertise include intrusion detection, UNIX security, forensics, honeypots, etc. In his spare time, he maintains his security portal info-secure.org

Congratulations to Lee and the Prentice Hall team, this is the clearest, most approachable material on wireless I have seen. The only reason I didn't give the book five stars is it will be functionally obsolete very soon. However at least for calendar year 2003, this is the best book on the subject, hands down.

The book explains wireless technology and the security problems that come with the ease of use. The wardriving chapter (how to audit your organization's wireless) is well done and then they discuss the range of security solutions. What more can you ask for?

Wireless is probably the most important IT security issue and managers and techies alike need to make every effort to keep abreast of the technology. This book is fluff free and will get you up to speed fast.

Barken goes into a reasonable amount of technical detail on this subject. He talks about a popular activity of WarDriving. You can do this, given the information he supplies. Then drive around town and gape at all the open wireless nets you find. A salutary incentive to read the rest of the book if you are setting up your own net. For you can learn how to avoid your net being one of those hapless open specimens.

If you are interested in running a public hot spot, then there is advice proferred specifically for this important case.

Wireless networks are popping up everywhere. They are hot for home users and for corporations. They are springing up in coffee shops and book stores. But, anyone can intercept those airwaves so you need to be sure that you know how to secure your wireless network and protect your network and your computers from prying eyes. How Secure Is Your Wireless Network? provides detailed coverage of the available wireless protocols and the pitfalls of each (like interference with common household devices such as cordless phones and baby monitors). This book is a very good resource, but may be a little too technical for the non-computer gurus. Barken does a good job of explaining most of the concepts and steps in relatively plain English though.

(...)

Wonderfully informative book, well structured in taking the reader through the development of security for WLAN's. This book could form the framework for a college WLAN Security 101 course syllabus. The book is comprised of 11 Chapters and for all intents and purposes two sections. The first section contains wireless communication security concepts and the state of security in the wireless industry; and the second section contains practical application solutions to secure (or prohibit the use of) the home or office WLAN. The only addition I would like to see in the book, is a glossary of terms.