Overview
In Building Wireless Community Networks, author and O'Reilly network administrator Rob Flickenger offers a compelling case for building wireless networks on a local level: They are inexpensive, and they can be implemented and managed by the community using them, whether it's a school, a neighborhood, or a small business. This nuts-and-bolts guide provides all the necessary information for planning a network, getting the necessary components, and understanding protocols that you need to design and implement your network. The wireless Internet infrastructure, also known as Wi-Fi, is based on the 802.11b standard.
The book covers Rob's experience with the Sebastopol Community Network (NoCAT), a multi-tiered network that provides wireless access for O'Reilly employees and free Web browsing to anyone in the area who has a Wi-Fi card in his or her computer. He describes his experience in using 802.11b, selecting the appropriate equipment, finding antenna sites, and coping with the general problems of outdoor networking.
Building Wireless Community Networks starts off with basic wireless concepts and essential network services, while later chapters focus on specific aspects of building your own wireless networks. The final chapter is a detailed journal of Rob's experiences in building his first community network. He begins with his first attempts at using a wireless card at a conference, covers the real-life experience of trying something new, and ends with notes from the Portland Summit, a national gathering of wireless aficionados.
If you want to join the grassroots effort to build freely available wireless Internet infrastructures in your community, this book is invaluable.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewWhat if you could build a network that gives high-speed wireless web connections to everyone in your building, your school, your small business, your neighborhood? With Wi-Fi 802.11b technology, you can. This stuff's so powerful, so cool, so surprisingly cheap, you wonder if its inventors realized what they were doing.
Rob Flickenger sure does. In his spare time, he built the Sebastopol Community Network (NoCAT), which provides wireless access for the publishing folks at O'Reilly -- and free web browsing to anyone with a Wi-Fi card who wanders by. Drawing on that experience, he's written the first complete guide to using 802.11b technology to build free public (or, for that matter, private) networks. Flickenger covers it all: planning, network layouts, component purchasing, interoperability, deploying Internet protocols, setting up peer-to-peer networks with Linux-based gateways, applications, security, and power restrictions (don't run afoul of the law).
Since the technology's still new, early adopters like Flickinger sometimes have to cobble together their own solutions (e.g., for authentication) or discover the performance realities through trial and error (you'll learn why the roof isn't always the best place for your antennae and why the best season to install your network is springtime). But make no mistake: unless the "powers that be" and their lawyers find a way to stop it, this is going to be huge. Reading Flickenger's chapter of case studies from around the U.S., you can just taste the coming revolution. (Bill Camarda)
Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer with nearly 20 years' experience in helping technology companies deploy and market advanced software, computing, and networking products and services. He served for nearly ten years as vice president of a New Jerseybased marketing company, where he supervised a wide range of graphics and web design projects. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks For Dummies®, Second Edition.