Building Wireless Community Networks, 2nd Edition 2nd Edition

by Rob Flickenger (Author)

20 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0596005023

ISBN-10: 0596005024

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Building Wireless Community Networks is about getting people online using wireless network technology. The 802.11b standard (also known as WiFi) makes it possible to network towns, schools, neighborhoods, small business, and almost any kind of organization. All that's required is a willingness to cooperate and share resources.The first edition of this book helped thousands of people engage in community networking activities. At the time, it was impossible to predict how quickly and thoroughly WiFi would penetrate the marketplace. Today, with WiFi-enabled computers almost as common as Ethernet, it makes even more sense to take the next step and network your community using nothing but freely available radio spectrum.This book has showed many people how to make their network available, even from the park bench, how to extend high-speed Internet access into the many areas not served by DSL and cable providers, and how to build working communities and a shared though intangible network. All that's required to create an access point for high-speed Internet connection is a gateway or base station. Once that is set up, any computer with a wireless card can log onto the network and share its resources.Rob Flickenger built such a network in northern California, and continues to participate in network-building efforts. His nuts-and-bolts guide covers:

Selecting the appropriate equipment
Finding antenna sites, and building and installing antennas
Protecting your network from inappropriate access
New network monitoring tools and techniques (new)
Regulations affecting wireless deployment (new)
IP network administration, including DNS and IP Tunneling (new)

His expertise, as well as his sense of humor and enthusiasm for the topic, makes Building Wireless Community Networks a very useful and readable book for anyone interested in wireless connectivity.

Building Wireless Community Networks, 2nd Edition

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Editorial Reviews

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Certain cities--Singapore is one example--have begun to outfit gathering places like airport lounges and downtown coffee shops as "hot spots" that are served by wireless Internet antennas. It's possible for anyone with an IEEE 802.11b card in a laptop to sit down in one and have Internet access immediately. The author of Building Wireless Community Networks, Rob Flickenger, thinks this is a great idea. He's written this small, thin volume to explain to readers why wireless networking is a community asset, and to bring them up to speed on the technologies available for creating wireless hot spots. Community here means a collection of people, as in a town or neighborhood.

Wireless networking protocols are complicated, but IEEE 802.11b and the products that have sprung up around it (like Apple's AirPort and similar offerings from Lucent Technologies and Cisco Systems) are pretty easy to set up and integrate into a network. Flickenger's treatment deals with these admirably but places more emphasis on configuring operating systems (notably Linux) to work as wireless gateways for transient users. The really fun reading has to do with custom antennas, though. Flickenger explains--no kidding--how to convert a Pringles potato-chip can into an antenna for wireless networking and goes into detail on how to work around the challenges posed by topography and human-made obstacles. This is a smart book about one of the most exciting frontiers in computer networking. --David Wall

Topics covered: Means of delivering wireless network access (mainly Internet access) to rooms, buildings, communities, and whole geographic regions of up to a few miles in diameter. Design and placement of access points, as well as configuration of network nodes, is covered in detail, as are the legal and political aspects of building a wireless network for general community use. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Read in conjunction with online sources for UK legal information such as the Radiocommunications Agency (www.radio.gov.uk) it provides a useful introduction to a complex and interesting subject, which, despite the small size, is good value for money." - Davey Winder, PC Pro, June "It's not only an informative volume, but a very good read too." MCAD, June 2002 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 2 edition (July 5, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0596005024
ISBN-13: 978-0596005023
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,842,975 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1172 in Books > Computers & Technology > Networking & Cloud Computing > Networks, Protocols & APIs > Networks
- #2060 in Books > Textbooks > Computer Science > Networking
- #2807 in Books > Computers & Technology > Certification

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Customer Reviews

3.3 out of 5 stars

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Top Customer Reviews

ByWilliam E. Gleasonon December 15, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Too out of date.

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Wireless Networks LITE

ByA customeron September 15, 2002

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This thin (124 page) book is a reasonable quick introduction to the topic of Wireless Community Networks. But don't expect the usual in-depth O'Reilly detail of many of their 600 page Unix or even Windows tomes.
A better title for this book might be either:
a) Here's What You Could Find on the Internet in an Afternoon,
b) A Preliminary Introduction to the Topic,
c) I've Played Around A Bit with Wireless Networks, or
d) My Grassroots Experience in Learning About Wireless Networks
...
The author admits to learning a bunch of stuff attending Seattle Wireless meetings, BAWUG (San Fran Bay Area Wireless Users Group), and the 2000 Open Source Conference.
He appears to be a nice, tech-savvy guy, but it's a bit unsettling to read that at these other meetings he met "a bunch of very sharp sysadmins, programmers and net monkeys who were gearing up to build a redundant, fully routed public network" suggesting that the author might not see himself in the same expert category.
The opening sentence of "About this Book" is itself a telling caveat: "The ultimate goal of this book is to get you excited about this technology...". It does not claim to be, nor is it a comprehensive review of all issues, topics, hardware or software related to Wireless [Community] Networks.
On the plus side, the book is a quick 2 hour read, sort of an in-depth New York Times feature on the early stages of community wireless.

0Comment 15 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

The format is a mess

ByI_HATE_THISon July 3, 2009

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Please note that the 1 star tha I give is for the kindle version, not the book itself. I cannot rate the content of this book, because the format of this book is so mess up, it made reading very difficult. I never notice that how important the layout and formatting of a book to the reading experrience. Don't buy it.

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Wlans in one night

ByMarco De Vivoon January 20, 2002

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Excellent. Short and useful. I recommend it to my students as a quick introduction to Wlans. You can read it easily in one night or a weekend. Yet, don't let this claim fool you. Even if concise, the book covers all the essential information to give you a very good understanding of Wlans.

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Good practical book on WLAN

ByM.Techyon August 19, 2004

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I found this book to be very practical and full of useful links. I read it cover to cover in two days. The book will have a greater value for people with no experience in the WLAN area. However I think readers at all levels will enjoy reading it.

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Relevant, accessible, and thin

ByG. Crispon December 30, 2002

Format: Paperback

Building Wireless Community Networks has three attributes I look for in a technology book:
- It's relevant
- It's accessible
- It's thin
For those who are unfamiliar with wireless networking, or those who are relatively new to it, this is a good introduction to the technology. For me, the book did a fine job of relating my knowledge of wired networking to that of wireless, showing how one is an extension of the other. It's a practicle introduction to how microwave technology enables wireless networking, and I found it to be a good primer on microwave communications in general.
The book's truer purpose, though, is as an introduction to the community of wi-fi enthusiasts, and to how this medium can (and is) being used to provide data bandwidth to places unheard of just a few years ago.
I found the sections on basic, networking configuration (ch. 3, I believe) a bit slow, but still a decent refresher. For someone who has never set up a network before, this section would be more informative. More useful were the sections on wireless tools, microwave antenna and cabling technology (with a wonderful discussion of signal loss that can occur at various points in the connection, and why), and site surveys and topology factors. Also, the discussion on the Pringles can antenna was amusing.
This book is for you if:
- You want a basic tutorial on wireless networking technology
- You have worked with wired networks, but are unfamiliar with RF and microwave communications
- You have an interest in setting up your own wireless community network (free or otherwise)
This book may not be for you if:
- You are looking for an in-depth discussion of the network protocols that are the basis of wi-fi
- You enjoy lugging around 500-page technical books that (also) only have about 80 pages or real, useful content.

0Comment 11 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Most Recent Customer Reviews

Product as advertised and fast shipping. Thanks

Published 8 months ago by Docs Radio Den

Excellent but outdated.

This is a good primer on building wireless networks, and it is thoughtfully and humorously written. However, the expansion of the 3G network (and no doubt many other things) makes...Read more

Published on February 26, 2011 by novatodave

A great starting place

This is a good book to start from when considering building a wireless community or WISP. Though a bit dated, all the concepts explored are still valid (802.Read more

Published on May 4, 2009 by Jim Steinbacher

Lots of good info, but somewhat dated.

Just finished reading 'Wireless Community Networks'. It's a worthwhile read and I took a lot of good info from it. Would have liked to have more info about 802.16.Read more

Published on September 16, 2007 by C. Tector

This is one of the most practical technical books I read. It covers all aspects that should be considered for wireless community networks, not only in regards to wireless (like db...Read more

Published on October 10, 2005 by L. dos SANTOS

A 3rd edition would be handy

This field of wireless networking is burgeoning. The uptake has continued unabated since Flickenger published this book almost two years ago.Read more

Published on March 7, 2005 by W Boudville

Not Intended for Practical Implementation

I have a T1 line to my home in the country and wanted to provide my neighbors within a mile or so with a share of my bandwidth.Read more

Published on January 23, 2005 by Steve Amerige

Good Intro to Wireless

This is a very good book for people getting an intro into wireless. As a provider of networking equipment, more and more of my customers are requesting wireless equipment.Read more

Published on August 27, 2002 by Sven A. Rasmussen

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