Customer Rating:  
Summary: Quick overview
Comment: Nutshell review - If you are new to the field or perhaps a manager who wants to get a quick, high level overview of the wireless hacking field then this will serve as a starting point. More detailed and extensive books such as Wi-Foo: The Secrets of Wireless Hacking are available for further research.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Writing useless books for dummies
Comment: This is the real specialty the authors of this book have mastered...
I am astonished at how many positive reviews this horrible, stinky title has received ... how many friends do this guys have? In fact this has got to be one of the worst tech book I have ever read, a total waste of money and paper.
My advice is , avoid this book, and any other book form the same authors, like plague! You will learn NOTHING from them.
The authors go on and on babbling about how unsecure wireless networks are, and are nonetheless unable to clearly indicate you any technique to take advantage or to protect form this weakness. All you get (apart from the boring and repetitive author's ruminations) are a few screenshots of NetStumbler (hey man, I can see by myself what it looks like, teach me how to use it instead ..), one screenshot of Kismet running on a linux xterm and a list of some of its command options (come on do you think that a beginner would ever be able to figure out how to use a open source tool like Kismet all by himself?)
Ah we also get a little advertisement for a couple of non-free tools like AiroPeek ... like a beginner should spend money on that? And , wait, there is no tutorial or intro on those tools as well. Just the usual couple of screenshots to make the book look good if you flip through it at the bookstore.
Seriously, I know this is hard to believe, but this pathetic excuse for a book is just a series of boring trivialities
For example ... did you ever think about the fact that installing a non-authorized, non-encrypted access point in your office network might actually be a security risk? I am sure you didn't, but thanks to this beautiful book you know, as the author spends pages and pages rambling and babbling about this absurd topic!
Years ago the "For Dummies" series used to be the right choice if you needed a humorous, tutorial-like but solid intro to a 'foreign' technology, but now the title is not a joke anymore.
"Hacking Wireless Networks for Dummies".. true to its title!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Dummies unite!
Comment: Valuable in my work as a consultant, installing and troubleshooting WiFi networks. The "ethical hacker" is a valuable tool.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive wireless security reference
Comment: I just installed my own home-based-business wireless network in May, and I have found this book to be incredibly useful in setting up security and also figuring out the odd interruptions and accessibility anomolies that tend to happen with wireless. I like to use this book to quickly find information about basically any security-related wireless topic. It is written clearly and explains what the various codes and messages mean. Of course the messages generated through a wireless system will look geek-like. However, the writing in the book is not geek-speek. This would make a good reference book for anyone in any size of organization to have if they use wireless. It is especially great for those with home wireless systems, as well as small- to medium-sized businesses that typically do not have staff solely dedicated for information security. If you rely upon yourself or others who are not technical to secure your wireless network, then you would definitely benefit from this book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: No content, no value and a dull read.
Comment: Hacking Wireless Networks for Dummies is a terrible book. If you are a regular person with social skills you have likely noticed that computer guys do not know how to communicate. They enjoy being geeky and learning all the techno speak of certain topics so they can try and sound smart. This is exactly what this book is 387 pages of. The authors are classic computer geeks who love their nonsense talk.
Nothing is really explained. This is a "Dummies" book. That would suggest to me that the authors are going to drop the geek babble and talk like humans. They do not. Fortunately I have the computer knowledge to follow techno babble. What is unfortunate is these guys are very inaccurate. They babble on (they repeat sections of the book MANY times, cut and paste style) almost as if they just wanted to fill pages. Many of the tools discussed are known not to work. They recommend Linux and Unix tools knowing full well the "Dummie" audience will not be able to use this info.
The entire book is more of a 387 page advertisement for why wireless is insecure (the first chapter is an advertisement). You will not know how to hack anything after reading this book. The 387 pages could have easily been pared to 150. Take out all the repetition and nonsense (they babble on about garbage throughout the book)
I used to like and recommend Dummies books years ago. However I haven't found many in the last few years that really cover a topic well. It seems like they simply want to put the title on the shelves. The content is not a concern. If you are a regular person this book will put you to sleep. If you do manage to get thru it you will learn very little. If you are a computer expert this book contains absolutely nothing that you cannot find in any forum on the net. There is no useful info in this book. Internet forums are free and up to date. A few Google searches would provide more value then this 387 pages of repetitive nonsense.
If you see it in the bargain bin for $1 ... PASS.
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