802.11 Security

Author: Bruce Potter and Bob Fleck

Reviewed by: Leo Lapworth

802.11 Security is a good over view of wireless security, the issues you may have and how to set up your network.

The book starts of with a general overview of 802.11 and it's history as well as listing some of it's weaknesses. I like the books brief but clear reviews of the different types of attack, which your network could face.

The short introduction on SSL and SSH are required for the complete beginner, but thankfully don.t take up much focus once introduced.

The core parts of the book are the chapters on setting up computers accessing wireless networks, and setting a computer up as a wireless Access Point; for each of the following OS's; FreeBSD, Linux, OpenBSD, MAC OS X and Windows.

The chapters on setting up a wireless client cover (where relevant) Kernel Configuration, OS Protection, Firewalls and Auditing. Those chapters about Access Point configuration discuss the Gateway / Network Architecture, Firewall configuration, MAC Address Filtering and a few other useful sections.

Overall I really like the book, it's well written, very straightforward and would be useful if I'm setting up something more than a basic wireless network for the first time - however it doesn't quite fit! Most people are not going to have to configure 3 or 4 different OS's, and if you are then there may well be more general books about networking security which would cover the same information and you could then look up the configurations online.

It's a nice enough book to have, but not one I would put on my 'required' list.