The Wi-Fi Experience: Everyone's Guide to 802.11b Wireless Networking [Paperback]

Harold Davis (Author), Richard Mansfield (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0789726629 | ISBN-13: 978-0789726629 | Publication Date: December 31, 2001

This book is a complete "experience" for Wi-Fi users, offering how-to instructions and software discounts, full versions on the CD, and recommendations for Wi-Fi projects. The author takes the reader beyond just wireless networking to explore Wi-Fi capabilities in real-world applications such as Wi-Fi with PDAs, VOIP, and building your own Wi-Fi phone.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

This book is a complete "experience" for Wi-Fi users, offering how-to instructions and software discounts, full versions on the CD, and recommendations for Wi-Fi projects. The author takes the reader beyond just wireless networking to explore Wi-Fi capabilities in real-world applications such as Wi-Fi with PDAs, VOIP, and building your own Wi-Fi phone.

About the Author

Harold Davis is currently a Managing Director at Julian Capital in Berkeley, California. He was Vice President of Strategic Development at YellowGiant Corporation, a provider of directory infrastructure software. He has served as a technology consultant to many of the most important high-technology companies, including Internet startups, Web infrastructure players, and Fortune 1000 technology companies. Harold has been a Technical Director at Vignette Corporation and a Principal in the e-commerce practice at Informix Software. In addition, he is the author of many best-selling books on programming and the Web including Red Hat Linux 6: Visual QuickPro Guide (Peachpit Press), Visual Basic 6 Visual QuickStart Guide (Peachpit Press), Visual Basic Secrets (IDG Books), and Web Developer's Secrets (IDG Books). Recently, he has written Understanding 802.11b and Bluetooth, Enterprise Web Architecture, and other executive briefings for MightyWords.

Richard Mansfield (High Point, NC) is an author and programmer whose recent titles include Visual Basic .NET ASP.NET Programming (Hungry Minds) and Visual Basic .NET Database Programming For Dummies (Hungry Minds). While he was the editor of COMPUTE! Magazinne during the '80s, he wrote hundreds of magazine articles and two monthly columns. From 1987 to 1991, Richard was editorial director and partner in Signal Research. He began writing books full-time in 1991, and has written 28 computer books. Over 500,000 of his books have been sold worldwide and have been translated into 11 languages.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Que (December 31, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789726629
• ISBN-13: 978-0789726629
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,313,040 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

For Harold Davis, a typical day's (or night's) work might involve photographing star trails from the top of Half Dome, investigating the close-up patterns of early morning dew drops with his camera, or finding a new location for photographing the Golden Gate Bridge.

Harold Davis is an award-winning professional photographer. He is the author of more than 30 books, including Photographing Flowers: Exploring Macro Worlds with Harold Davis (Focal Press), Creative Black & White: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques (Wiley),Creative Composition: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques (Wiley), Creative Night: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques (Wiley), Creative Close-Ups: Digital Photography Tips & Techniques (Wiley), The Photoshop Darkroom: Creative Digital Post-Processing (Focal Press) and Practical Artistry: Light & Exposure for Digital Photographers (O'Reilly). Harold writes the popular Photoblog 2.0, www.photoblog2.com.

Harold is a popular presenter on digital photography topics. His workshops are often sold out.

Harold is well known for his night photography and experimental ultra-long exposure techniques, use of vibrant, saturated colors in landscape compositions, and beautiful creative floral imagery. He is inspired by the flowers in his garden, hiking in the wilderness, and the work of great artists and photographers including M.C. Escher, Monet, van Gogh and Edward Weston.

Harold lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Phyllis Davis, a graphic designer and writer who frequently collaborates with Harold on book projects. They have four children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointingly Little Content, July 19, 2002

By 

Ramez Naam "Author" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Wi-Fi Experience: Everyone's Guide to 802.11b Wireless Networking (Paperback)

I bought this book with the hope that it would help me figure out a slightly more complex than average home wireless setup. The book is extremely thin, with most of the content being a walkthrough of various screens in windows to configure the client portion of a wireless network.

Very little attention is given to how to configure a house with a DSL connection and wireless networking internally. There was no useful information at all on the setup I would like to create, which would have one DSL line but multiple wireless zones in the house.

This book may be useful for those who have absolutely no knowledge of wireless networks, but for anyone beyond that level I would not waste the time or money on it.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful, practical -- and takes the long view., January 4, 2002

By 

Pradeep Giat, PhD (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wi-Fi Experience: Everyone's Guide to 802.11b Wireless Networking (Paperback)

If you are looking for a book to help you with the pragmatics of setting up a 802.11b (wi-fi) wireless network in your home or office, this book is filled with information. The installation tips saved me alot of time, and the chapter on Security was very helpful. I also liked the big picture material included by the authors, such as case studies and interviews with people who are wireless gurus.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent high-level overview of the technology!, May 29, 2003

By 

Michael J. Davis "The Krabler King" (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Wi-Fi Experience: Everyone's Guide to 802.11b Wireless Networking (Paperback)

(No relation to the author) It is true that dynamite sometimes comes in small packages and this book proves it. If you are in need of a starting point with Wi-Fi/802.11 based technology, this book will help you. If you or someone else you work with needs a high level overview of the technology and the benefits it provides, then this book is for you. It is not designed to go in depth or into all of the technical issues that revolve around this topic. But it does a fantastic job of giving you the basics in a very easy to read and understand manner. The only reason that I did not five this book five (5) stars is because it spends a large number of pages showing how to install and configure various clients. It really was not needed. I own 7 different WLAN adapters and they are all different. Other than give an idea as to what you might face or see, I don't think it really adds much and gets a little more technical than the general audience is going to want. Other than that, you can go wrong with this book.