Customer Reviews

Wireless Lans: Implementing Interoperable Networks

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you're developing or implementing wireless LANs, this is definitely the book you should have! After reading the book, it's evident the author (Jim Geier) has a great deal of practical experience implementing wireless networks. His writing style makes the book very pleasant to read. The book does a great job of explaining up-to-date wireless LAN technologies and implemenation steps. The chapters on the IEEE 802.11 standard show how the protocol works and cleared up a lot of my previous confusion of what the standard can and can't do. Additional chapters show what you need to do in order to compensate for where 802.11 falls short. I especially enjoyed the many case studies and implementation notes spread throughout the book. They showed how the concepts can be used in the real world.

The value of any reference or text depends on your objective in using the book. Some of the prior reviews led me to buy this book. It is well written but did not address 802.11 issues at the level I needed. So, like a text, the value of a review also depends on whether you and the reviewer have similar objectives in mind.

I used this book when called upon to implement 802.11. The IEEE spec leaves a lot of issues open to product implementation, as it should. As we were not working from a product spec but only the IEEE standard, I hoped this book could clear up some of the implementation issues for us. It was to high a level for that purpose.

If you are looking for a text as an overview of wireless LANs, this is a very good book. It is well written and balanced. For this I give it four stars. For a text to guide you in implementation of the standard in a product, it is not worth the time or money - two stars.

I bought this book after seeing some of the flashy reviews on Amazon, but must say was extremely disappointed. This book is good if you are just looking for superficial information about where WLAN's are being used and how. It misses the mark entirely if you want details on the physical and the MAC layer. Also there is only a passing mention of the next standard that is expected to take off in the 5.6GHz frequency range (802.11a). It is a ok book if you are unfamiliar with the DS and FH modulation schemes employed in the 2.4GHz range (802.11b).

I found this book to be quite helpful. Each chapter is a new step in getting prepared and setting up a wireless LAN. There is a lot of good information provided in this book, from history of wireless to implementing your wireless. It gives both sides of the network too, the pro's and the con's- most books only do one or the other. In my opinion, this book is designed for both the amateur and the experienced network administrator- basic and technical at the same time. I would recommend this book to anyone.

Since this text was released 2 years after the IEEE 802.11 (1 to 2 Mbps)standard was ratified and in the same year that the IEEE 802.11b (11 Mbps) standard was ratified, the reader can imagine that the book focuses primarily on the 802.11 standard. The author was an active member of the IEEE 802.11 Working group and so he provides valuable information about the standard including the details of how the standard governs the Medium Access Control (MAC) Layer and the Physical (PHY) Layer of the OSI model. The author also gives detailed information regarding how to implement an 802.11 network.

Still, the most important part of the book is that it is replete with case studies. The author gives more than 30 examples of actual implementations in commercial environments (plus 1 federal government and 1 local government example). These case studies are nicely indexed in the front cover of the book. If you are interested in this book, you should definitely investigate his more recent book -- Wireless LANs, 2nd Edition. As usual, he explains wireless networking concepts clearly.

This book is an excellent book for anyone who wants to understand or implement IEEE 802.11 related products. It is so easy to read and was well organized.

Apart from covering the subject matter in comprehensively and in detail, it's one of the few books on communications and networking that's clear and well written. I hope the author decides to write more books on networking.