Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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95 of 104 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Who ARE these people giving 5 star reviews?, May 21, 2004
The short review of this book is that if you're interested enough in the subject to buy this book, then you're unlikely to find anything - and I mean ANYTHING - new in this book. It takes two seperate chapters: one on installing the Windows utility Netstumbler (with pages and pages of screen shots, when a simple "click on the icon" would do), and one on using - not "advanced options" or anything, just using - Netstumbler. Similarly, three whole chapters are dedicated to the excruciating details of installation and use of the Linux tool Kismet, but again, nothing which couldn't be found in the README files or on the website which hosts the utility. They have a chapter on how to convert Kismet and Netstumbler logfiles to maps: if you already know about Stumbverter, WiGLE, and DiGLE (or can use Google), there's nothing new here. The authors pine on for a chapter about the wardrives that they've organized. If you've ever listened to your grandparents talk about the war, it's a lot like that. Then, they have a chapter on WiFi "attacks" - if you know how to manually set your SSID and MAC, and if you've ever even heard of Airsnort, you probably won't need this nontechnical, sub-script-kiddie, Windows screen-shot-laden chapter. If you're interested in war driving, or if you're interested in Wi-Fi security, then you're probably already conversant with the tools covered in this book. There is no real technical depth, as this book is written to a "manager's level" of technical competence. ("Click OK to continue.") Their chapter on Wi-Fi network defense essentially boils down to "change default SSID" and "use WEP"; there's a couple of pages on VPN, firewalls, and using authentication, but again, nothing to justify the purchase price of this book.
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Everything you need in one place - no searching the net, June 8, 2004
This book literally contains everything you might need to know to successfully engage in WarDriving. Starting from the most basic setup of homemade components to purchase and use of commercial ones it is one of the most thorough books available today on the subject. The authors wisely start out the book with defining what WarDriving is and what it is not. They define WarDriving as moving around a specific area and mapping the wireless access points for statistical purposes. It does not include actually accessing these points without prior permission. As such, the purpose of WarDriving is to raise awareness of the security issues related to wireless networks.The first section of the book covers setting up both a laptop and a PDA for WarDriving purposes. This includes important general concepts like antenna types and their advantages and disadvantages, and connecting antenna to a wireless NIC. It also includes very specific information like specific NIC cards that work well and are conducive to the connection of external antennas and the like. Once your hardware is set up you have to turn your attention to appropriate software. The authors detail both Windows and Linux software (free and commercial products) available to discover access points. It includes how to use NetStumbler, MiniStumbler, and Kismet to locate wireless LANs, the various options, and how to interpret the results. These are very detailed chapters and explain both the concepts and actual product use very well. Each of these chapters ends with additional software available to actually map the access points. The final section of the book covers the details of attacking wireless networks. It includes information on finding cloaked points, hijacking, man-in-the-middle attacks, defeating MAC address filtering, and even attacking encrypted networks. In addition they include the details of enabling security on several specific models of Linksys and D-Link access points. The last part of the book covers advanced security information including configuring WiFi Protected Access, Wireless Gateway, VPN setup, RADIUS, and LEAP. This is clearly one of the best books available on the subject of WarDriving. It provides a thorough examination of the subject, detailed explanations and instructions, and pretty much everything you need to know in this area. "WarDriving, Drive, Detect, Defend" is a very highly recommended book for anyone interested in wardriving.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
No WarChalking!, May 7, 2004
WarDriving is a (sub)cultural phenomenon that has emerged with the rapid growth in WiFi networks. As these have increasingly been adopted by the great unwashed, the vendors have gone to great lengths to simplify the WiFi access setup. Often, this has led to people turning off any encryption, and choosing the vendor's default settings, including for passwords. Hence, as the author points out, some hackers use their computers in cars and cruise around a city, looking for any open access points. This book has two audiences. The first is those who want to WarDrive. Here, you find all necessary nuts and bolts information about configuring your computer, be it running MS Windows or Linux. Plus descriptions of antennas. Enough to get you up and running, or driving, as the case probably is. You should find it quite facile, if you follow the book's guidelines. The other audience is those of you running a WiFi net, or planning to. By squinting a little at the text, you get simple and effective advice on preventing unwanted access. Did I say 2 audiences? There is a third, which may have some intersection with the others. Suppose you just want to learn more about WarDriving, perhaps out of pure curiosity. This book is ideal for that. The author is the organiser of the first 3 WWWarDrives. Well qualified to expound on this subject. The chapter on WWWarDrives will be good in later years, from a historical viewpoint. As a bonus, Hurley "exposes" WarChalking. This is a meme that spread widely in 2002. Hurley claims that amongst actual WarDrivers, few actually do this. Basically, WarChalking is a cute, easy to understand idea, especially because it is so visual. Which undoubtedly helped the general media latch onto it and spread it.
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