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About the Book
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Table of Contents
Book Summary
About the Author
In the News
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New social and personal dynamics are being created every day because of wireless. This book
attempts to examine the practical exploitation of wireless networking. The projects here will
help you get an understanding of the driving force behind the revolution...
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Book Summary
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Preface
Wireless networking is permeating every facet of our modern society. Kids are using
wireless cell phones and text messaging to keep in touch in ways never imagined a
few years ago. Adults are using wireless networking to work from home, or away
on vacation. Wireless Web and data works from the very depths of a Disneyland ride to cruise
ship excursions and cross-country airline flights. Enthusiasts like yourself are breaking beyond
packaged products to enter new realms of connectivity and mobility.
This book is a testament to the hobbyists, hackers, tweakers, and rule-benders who are constantly
pushing the envelope of accepted use of technology.Wireless is especially ripe for
experimentation by you rule-benders.
New social and personal dynamics are being created every day because of wireless. This book
attempts to examine the practical exploitation of wireless networking. The projects here will
help you get an understanding of the driving force behind the revolution.With the background
and step-by-step nature of project creation, you will be able to move beyond the scope of this
book and develop your own creations, to your own ends.
Wi-Fi Toys is an introduction to breaking down the boundaries set by manufacturers and product
vendors. Seize your moment and create something astounding.
Introduction
Internet without wires. Think about that for a minute. All of the entertainment, utility, and
performance of the Internet yours, without being tied to a desk. Without even being tied to
the home or office. Internet without wires...anywhere! Wireless is a growing revolution
changing the way people communicate and share ideas. From cell phones to PDAs to mobile
computers, wireless access puts you instantly in touch with millions of other people around
the planet.Wi-Fi, in particular, is changing how people access the Internet from laptops and
PDAs. It’s emerging as an alternative for cellular service, and it may even replace regular
telephone lines as voice conversations begin to be re-routed over Wi-Fi networks in larger
numbers.
Wi-Fi is that subset of wireless communications designed for high-speed Internet access. Sometimes
simply referred to as “wireless,” or known by its many-lettered specification IEEE 802.11b, a, g, and
so on, Wi-Fi allows compatible devices to connect without cables or physical connections.
With speeds far in excess of most cable modem, DSL, and even T1 service,Wi-Fi is rapidly
becoming the standard for Internet access. The store shelves are flooded with Wi-Fi access
points, clients, music players, network hubs, and printers, and myriad other consumer devices
sport Wi-Fi access.Take the Xbox, Playstation 2, and TiVo—these all have Wi-Fi ability now.
Remember when people were saying how everything in the house will eventually be wired?
How anything from a toaster or refrigerator to a stereo system or television would have
Internet access? Well, it’s been some time coming, but with wireless in the home, these are now
possibilities. Refrigerators are being sold with Wi-Fi connections, and several products will
now connect your digital media from your computer to your television over Wi-Fi. I wonder
when my toaster will send me a wireless e-mail when the toast pops?
Wireless is awesome, but it is also somewhat limited. The hardware you can buy in the store is
mass-marketed and mass-produced. So it doesn’t have that extra edge that power users are
looking for. Extra edges like longer range, sharing with friends, saying no to power lines, and
finding every access point on your street can be yours with the projects in this book.
Wi-Fi Toys was written to help you take wireless to the next level. Go beyond the user manual
and build your own projects using this book as your guide. Few things are more liberating than a Wi-Fi connection.
Who This Book Is For
This book is for you if you are interested in spending a little extra time with your Wi-Fi access
points and computer. The primary focus is the technical enthusiasts with a few extra hours on
the weekend. A small degree of technical know-how is helpful in understanding the concepts
and putting together some of the more involved projects. The hardest physical skill you will
encounter is drilling and soldering.
Many of the projects in this book can be accomplished with an assembly of off-the-shelf, easily
purchased products, so hobbyists of all skill levels will find something in this book.
As this book is broken down into four main parts, you may wish to jump straight to the section
that interests you. For example, in Part II, Chapter 5 introduces you to the art of war driving to
find wireless networks in your neighborhood. In Part I, Chapter 4 shows you how to add an
antenna to a wireless access point to increase usable range. And in Part IV, you can learn what
it takes to get your TiVo onto your Wi-Fi network at home.
The book tries to introduce new concepts early in the book and build on them later as the book
progresses. If you jump around and miss something, just go back and read the concept.
What This Book Covers
The projects in this book are based on the Wi-Fi, IEEE 802.11b standard. This standard is commonly
understood to support a theoretical transfer rate of 11 megabits per second (Mbps). In
practice it can be as “low” as 3 Mbps. But that’s still way faster than most Internet connections.
Wi-Fi 802.11b was chosen because of the extremely widespread adoption of the technology. It
is the de facto standard throughout the world. Almost every product that supports another
wireless standard also supports 802.11b. For example, wireless cards can come in tri-mode flavors
which support 802.11b/a/g on the same card. Also, 802.11b is the cheapest of the three
popular standards. If it’s good enough for 20,000 public hotspots, it’s good enough for us!
Several new and promising wireless technologies are being developed and tested all the time.
These emerging wireless technologies may vary greatly in cost, speed, and function. The projects in
this book are meant to be adopted to new technologies as they become popular in the marketplace.
How This Book Is Structured
This book was designed for the novice wireless user.We expect you to know what a wireless
access point is and how to plug it into your network at home.Where wireless gets really interesting
is when you start to go beyond the plug-and-play nature of Wi-Fi-enabled devices.
This book is divided into four parts. Each part separates a general concept and builds upon that
concept. You can jump around to the different projects in each part. But it should be noted that
earlier parts introduce earlier concepts.
Part I: Building Antennas
This section of the book introduces you to the concept of an antenna as a transmission line. All
wireless signals travel into and out of a network through the antenna. By understanding what
the antenna does, you can take a wireless radio signal and cow it to your will by choosing the
right antenna. You will be shown how to make and find cables, build antennas, and finally add
one to your wireless access point.
Part II: War Driving—Wireless Network Discovery and
Visualization
Some of you will jump straight to this section and that’s fine.War driving is one of the coolest
things about Wi-Fi. In fact, it’s one of the reasons I co-founded SOCALWUG. It can be
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argued that war driving has increased the popularity of wireless. It certainly got Wi-Fi its day
in the news more than once. Hardly a week goes by without some newspaper somewhere mentioning
war driving. This section shows you how to war drive and how to use the most popular
program, NetStumbler. It also introduces many techniques for mapping your results.
Part III: Playing with Access Points
This section can be very interesting.Wireless access points are the gateway between the wired
and unwired world. By exploiting this ability to create connections between the physical and
ethereal world of wireless, access points become a tool for your Wi-Fi endeavors. In this section,
you will see how to build a weatherproof access point and create a free hotspot to share
your wired connection with neighbors. Also, you will build a solar-powered repeater, connecting
users to the Internet with no wires at all! And finally, we coined the term “AP games” to
help describe the growing trend of using wireless access points for sport.
Part IV: Just for Fun
Well, perhaps not all fun and games, this section presents some very cool projects as well as one
or two that you may not be able to live without. Learn how to add Wi-Fi to your TiVo and
create a wireless digital picture frame. Add Wi-Fi to a roadtrip and perform car-to-car videoconferencing.
And ultimately, bring a computer more than 20 miles away onto your local wireless
network by creating a long-distance Wi-Fi link.
What You Need to Use This Book
Some of the projects in this book can be performed using stand-alone wireless networks, especially
if you are experimenting or just “playing around.” At a minimum, you should have a computer
with wireless capability. Ideally, this computer is a laptop. Laptops with 300 MHz
processors can now be found used for just a few hundred dollars on eBay.
If you will be sharing Internet access or setting up an in-home network, a high-speed connection
is practically a must. On the other hand, if you just want to build an in-home network, all
you need is two computers.
About the only strong requirement for this book is the desire to obtain wireless equipment.
Each chapter will describe which components you will be working with.
You will also need tools.Tools are mentioned at the beginning of each chapter.You can expect to use
common tools such as screwdrivers, wire cutters and strippers, crimping tools, and soldering irons.
Wi-Fi security is an ever-present concern. As you will see in Chapter 5, “Gearing Up for War
Driving,” finding a wireless network is not difficult. If you do not secure your network, anyone
within range can eavesdrop on your network and possibly gain access to your files. It’s like letting
them in the front door. Basic steps to secure your network are to enable the built-in
encryption capabilities of your wireless devices, using WEP. If you plan to share your connection
with others, make sure you install a personal firewall on your computer.
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