Wireless Hacks

Book description

It's an increasingly wired world, but many people are finding that the best way to get connected is to do away with wires entirely. From cable replacement to universal Internet connectivity, wireless technology is changing the way we connect to our machines and to each other. As with any new technology, buying your gear is only the first step. Understanding how to make the best use of it is another story. Wireless Hacks offers 100 industrial-strength tips about wireless networking, contributed by experts who apply what they know in the real world every day. Each Hack can be read in just a few minutes, but can save you hours of research. Inside, you will find a wealth of useful techniques for making the most out of wireless technology, including:

  • Making sense of the alphabet soup of the 802.11 standards, and understanding which technology makes sense for your solving particular problem

  • Using Bluetooth, mobile radios, mobile data networks, and other exotic methods to keep you connected, no matter where you are

  • Practical methods for detecting, analyzing, and monitoring wireless networks

  • Extending the range of your network, and making the best possible use of the available radio spectrum

  • Designing and building your own antennas

  • Engineering long distance network links that span several miles

  • Understanding the security issues of wireless networking, and protecting yourself and your users from unauthorized access and eavesdropping

Written for the intermediate to advanced wireless user, Wireless Hacks is full of direct, practical, ingenious solutions to real-world networking problems. Whether your wireless network needs to extend to the edge of your office or to the other end of town, this collection of non-obvious, "from the field" techniques will show you how to get the job done.

Table of contents

  1. Wireless Hacks
    1. Credits
      1. About the Author
      2. Contributors
      3. Acknowledgments
    2. Foreword
    3. Preface
      1. Why Wireless Hacks?
      2. How to Use This Book
      3. How This Book Is Organized
      4. Conventions Used in This Book
      5. How to Contact Us
    4. 1. The Standards
      1. Hacks #1-12
      2. 802.11: The Mother of All IEEE Wireless Ethernet
        1. Pros
        2. Cons
        3. Recommendation
      3. 802.11a: The Betamax of the 802.11 Family
        1. Pros
        2. Cons
        3. Recommendation
      4. 802.11b: The De Facto Standard
        1. Pros
        2. Cons
        3. Recommendation
      5. 802.11g: Like 802.11b, only Faster
        1. Pros
        2. Cons
        3. Recommendation
      6. 802.16: Long Distance Wireless Infrastructure
        1. Pros
        2. Cons
        3. Recommendation
      7. Bluetooth: Cable Replacement for Devices
        1. Pros
        2. Cons
        3. Recommendation
      8. 900 MHz: Low Speed, Better Coverage
        1. Pros
        2. Cons
        3. Recommendation
      9. CDPD, 1xRTT, and GPRS: Cellular Data Networks
        1. CDPD on TDMA
        2. 1xRTT on CDMA
        3. GPRS on GSM
      10. FRS and GMRS: Super Walkie-Talkies
        1. FRS
        2. GMRS
        3. Extending Range
      11. 802.1x: Port Security for Network Communications
      12. HPNA and Powerline Ethernet
        1. HPNA
        2. Pros
        3. Cons
        4. Recommendation
        5. Powerline Ethernet
        6. Pros
        7. Cons
        8. Recommendation
      13. BSS Versus IBSS
    5. 2. Bluetooth and Mobile Data
      1. Hacks #13-19
      2. Remote Control OS X with a Sony Ericsson Phone
      3. SMS with a Real Keyboard
      4. Photo Blog Automatically with the Nokia 3650
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
        3. See Also
      5. Using Bluetooth with Linux
      6. Bluetooth to GPRS in Linux
      7. Bluetooth File Transfers in Linux
      8. Controlling XMMS with Bluetooth
    6. 3. Network Monitoring
      1. Hacks #20-42
      2. Find All Available Wireless Networks
        1. Windows XP
        2. Mac OS X
        3. Linux
      3. Network Discovery Using NetStumbler
      4. Network Detection on Mac OS X
        1. MacStumbler
        2. iStumbler
      5. Detecting Networks Using Handheld PCs
      6. Passive Scanning with KisMAC
      7. Establishing Connectivity
        1. Using traceroute
      8. Quickly Poll Wireless Clients with ping
      9. Finding Radio Manufacturers by MAC Address
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      10. Rendezvous Service Advertisements in Linux
      11. Advertising Arbitrary Rendezvous Services in OS X
      12. “Brought to you by” Rendezvous Ad Redirector
      13. Detecting Networks with Kismet
        1. Installation
        2. Running Kismet
        3. Cleaning Up
        4. See Also
      14. Running Kismet on Mac OS X
      15. Link Monitoring in Linux with Wavemon
      16. Historical Link State Monitoring
      17. EtherPEG and DriftNet
        1. EtherPEG
        2. DriftNet
      18. Estimating Network Performance
      19. Watching Traffic with tcpdump
      20. Visual Traffic Analysis with Ethereal
      21. Tracking 802.11 Frames in Ethereal
      22. Interrogating the Network with nmap
      23. Network Monitoring with ngrep
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      24. Running ntop for Real-Time Network Stats
    7. 4. Hardware Hacks
      1. Hacks #43-69
      2. Add-on Laptop Antennas
      3. Increasing the Range of a Titanium PowerBook
      4. WET11 Upgrades
        1. Add an Antenna
        2. Upgrade the Radio
        3. Use a Battery Pack
      5. AirPort Linux
        1. Installation
        2. Flashing the AirPort
        3. Putting It Back
      6. Java Configurator for AirPort APs
        1. Local LAN Access
        2. Configuring Dialup
        3. NAT and DHCP
        4. Bridging
        5. WEP, MAC Filtering, and Closed Networks
        6. Roaming
        7. Save Your Changes
      7. Apple Software Base Station
      8. Adding an Antenna to the AirPort
      9. The NoCat Night Light
      10. Do-It-Yourself Access Point Hardware
      11. Compact Flash Hard Drive
      12. Pebble
      13. Tunneling: IPIP Encapsulation
        1. See Also
      14. Tunneling: GRE Encapsulation
        1. See Also
      15. Running Your Own Top-Level Domain
      16. Getting Started with Host AP
        1. PCMCIA
        2. PCI
      17. Make Host AP a Layer 2 Bridge
        1. Caveats
        2. See Also
      18. Bridging with a Firewall
        1. Patching the Linux 2.4 Kernel
        2. Setting Up a Firewall
      19. MAC Filtering with Host AP
      20. Hermes AP
      21. Microwave Cabling Guide
      22. Microwave Connector Reference
      23. Antenna Guide
        1. Omni
        2. Sector (or Sectoral)
        3. Yagi
        4. Waveguides and “Cantennas”
        5. Parabolic Dish
        6. Putting It All Together
      24. Client Capability Reference Chart
      25. Pigtails
      26. 802.11 Hardware Suppliers
      27. Home-Brew Power over Ethernet
        1. Step by Step
      28. Cheap but Effective Roof Mounts
    8. 5. Do-It-Yourself Antennas
      1. Hacks #70-79
      2. Deep Dish Cylindrical Parabolic Reflector
      3. “Spider” Omni
      4. Pringles Can Waveguide
        1. Front Collector Construction
        2. Preparing the Can
        3. Element Construction
      5. Pirouette Can Waveguide
        1. See Also
      6. Primestar Dish with Waveguide Feed
        1. Other Considerations
        2. IEEE 802.11a
      7. BiQuad Feed for Primestar Dish
        1. Construction of the Biquad
        2. BiQuad Antenna for PCS Cellular Radio
      8. Cut Cable Omni Antenna
        1. Cutting the Pieces
        2. Build a Jig
        3. Disclaimer
      9. Slotted Waveguides
        1. How a Waveguide Antenna Works
        2. Unidirectional Waveguide Antennas
        3. Omnidirectional Slotted Waveguide Antennas
        4. Highly Directional Slotted Waveguide Antennas
        5. Construction Details for the 8-Slot Unidirectional Antenna
        6. Coupling the Signal into the Waveguide
        7. 8+8 Slot Omnidirectional Antenna
        8. 8-Slot Unidirectional Antenna
        9. Constructional Details for 16- and 16+16-Slot Design
      10. The Passive Repeater
      11. Determining Antenna Gain
    9. 6. Long Distance Links
      1. Hacks #80-85
      2. Establishing Line of Sight
        1. Using a GPS to Log Prospective LAT/LONG/ALT
        2. Plotting the Points on a 3D Map
      3. Calculating the Link Budget
      4. Aligning Antennas at Long Distances
      5. Slow Down to Speed Up
      6. Taking Advantage of Antenna Polarization
      7. Map the Wireless Landscape with NoCat Maps
    10. 7. Wireless Security
      1. Hacks #86-100
      2. Making the Best of WEP
        1. See Also
      3. Dispel the Myth of Wireless Security
        1. The Test Environment
        2. Step 1. Detect the Network
        3. Step 2. Find a Valid MAC Address
        4. Step 3. Crack the WEP Key
        5. Step 4. Logging In
        6. Post Mortem
      4. Cracking WEP with AirSnort: The Easy Way
      5. NoCatAuth Captive Portal
      6. NoCatSplash and Cheshire
      7. Squid Proxy over SSH
      8. SSH SOCKS 4 Proxy
        1. About DNS
      9. Forwarding Ports over SSH
        1. See Also
      10. Quick Logins with SSH Client Keys
        1. Security Concerns
      11. “Turbo-Mode” SSH Logins
      12. OpenSSH on Windows Using Cygwin
        1. Installation
        2. OpenSSH Configuration
      13. Location Support for Tunnels in OS X
      14. Using vtun over SSH
        1. Tips and Tricks
      15. Automatic vtund.conf Generator
        1. The Code
      16. Tracking Wireless Users with arpwatch
    11. A. Deep Dish Parabolic Reflector Template
    12. Index
    13. Colophon

Product information

  • Title: Wireless Hacks
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: September 2003
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9780596005597