Building Wireless Community Networks, 2E
Rob Flickenger
Paperback, 2nd edition, Published June 2003, 168 pages
O'Reilly Publishing Company ISBN 0596005024 (amazon.com, search)
With it's second edition, Rob Flickinger's cookbook for community wireless internet access comes of age.
A savvy Linux user with some networking experience can, with this book in hand, quickly set up a usable wireless bridge and share a DSL connection with his neighbors.
The book explains, in sufficient detail and thoroughness, how to decide what hardware is required to do the job, how to hook up the hardware, and how to configure the network to be both usable and secure. The discussion of encryption and tunnelling will be immediately useful to any user of wireless networks. The section on antenna construction and application is excellent, and again, it is useful even for a home wireless network administrator to know how to increase signal quality with the right kind of antenna.
The discussion of access points is exceedingly interesting. Flickinger explains the basic function of an access point, and then extends the discussion to the use of access points to create bridges that can be used for long-distance wireless communication.
The discussion of routing and firewalls is sufficient to get the home admin thinking about security, and sufficient to clue the experienced admin to the particular security concerns that arise when the network is as open as a wireless network is always going to be.
Overall this is an excellent little book that will be found useful to anyone with a wireless network, and invaluable to anyone aspiring to expanding a wireless network beyond the confines of a single home or office environment. Wireless networking presents terrific opportunities for making more efficient use of network services and bandwidth, and this book is a highly accessible introduction to the mechanics of the wireless network.
![[Home]](/jpeg/slugwiki.jpg)