01_595830_ffirs.qxd 8/26/05 7:49 PM Page i Wireless Network Hacks & Mods FOR DUMmIES ‰ by Danny Briere and Pat Hurley 01_595830_ffirs.qxd 8/26/05 7:49 PM Page iv 01_595830_ffirs.qxd 8/26/05 7:49 PM Page i Wireless Network Hacks & Mods FOR DUMmIES ‰ by Danny Briere and Pat Hurley 01_595830_ffirs.qxd 8/26/05 7:49 PM Page ii Wireless Network Hacks & Mods For Dummies® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2005923793 ISBN-13: 978-0-7645-9583-7 ISBN-10: 0-7645-9583-0 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1B/RV/QZ/QV/IN 01_595830_ffirs.qxd 8/26/05 7:49 PM Page iii About the Authors Danny Brierefounded TeleChoice, Inc., a telecommunications consulting company, in 1985 and now serves as CEO of the company. Widely known throughout the telecommunications and networking industry, Danny has written more than one thousand articles about telecommunications topics and has authored or edited nine books, including Internet Telephony For Dummies, Smart Homes For Dummies, Wireless Home Networking For Dummies,and Home Theater For Dummies. He is frequently quoted by leading publications on telecommunications and technology topics and can often be seen on major TV networks providing analysis on the latest communications news and breakthroughs. Danny lives in Mansfield Center, Connecticut, with his wife and four children. Pat Hurleyis a consultant with TeleChoice, Inc., who specializes in emerging telecommunications technologies, particularly all the latest access and home technologies, including wireless LANs, DSL, cable modems, satellite services, and home-networking services. Pat frequently consults with the leading telecommunications carriers, equipment vendors, consumer goods manufac- turers, and other players in the telecommunications and consumer electron- ics industries. Pat is the coauthor of Internet Telephony For Dummies, Smart Homes For Dummies, Wireless Home Networking For Dummies,and Home Theater For Dummies. He lives in San Diego, California, with his wife, daugh- ter, and two smelly dogs. 01_595830_ffirs.qxd 8/26/05 7:49 PM Page iv 01_595830_ffirs.qxd 8/26/05 7:49 PM Page v Dedication Pat: I would like to dedicate this book to my baby daughter, Annabel, who gives me improbable faith in my own genes. Thanks for making me smile every time you pooter. 01_595830_ffirs.qxd 8/26/05 7:49 PM Page vi 01_595830_ffirs.qxd 8/26/05 7:49 PM Page vii Authors’ Acknowledgments Pat Hurley I want to thank my wife, Christine, for putting up with yet another book, another set of deadlines, and another life disruption. Thanks, Chrissy, for not following through on your threats — I couldn’t do anything at all without your help and support. And I especially want to thank Emily Silady, “AB’s PA,” who has filled this home office worker’s long empty role of “coworker.” Thanks, Emily, for enabling my caffeine addiction, facilitating the pursuit of chicken mole burritos, and just for making the workday a bit more fun every day. Hope you’ll be around ‘til AB is in college. Danny Briere I want to thank my wife, Holly, and all our kids, Nick, Emily, Maddie, and Chris, for their infinite patience with everything that does not work electroni- cally around the house, and particularly Holly for her continued support of my tinkering and testing despite the fact that connectivity to the Internet dis- appears at the worst possible time due to something I unplugged without telling her. Writing books like this takes a lot of time invested in installing and uninstalling just about every conceivable device we can get our hands on, and that usually means that the network is “challenged” about half the time. Now that it has crept into the last bastion of network privacy, the car, Holly is totally without a haven from connectivity problems. I can only say that at least she can now use her iPod on all sorts of devices around the house, and that’s got to be worth something. With any book there are a boatload of people to thank, and some are always missed. Having said that, we simply must single out the following people for their assistance with testing, reviewing, installing and understanding some very cool wireless products: Mehrshad Mansouri and Lisa Hawes from Sterling PR representing NETGEAR, Mike Chen and Melody Chalaban from Belkin, Darek Connole from D-Link, Dana Brzozkiewicz representing ZyXEL, Michale Gulledge from Wireless Extenders, Suzanne Hawley with Digital Antenna, Marcia Simon, who repre- sents Parrot, Inc., Christine Atalla who represents Canary Wireless, Trisha King with SMC Networks, Tommy Fradenburgh from Rockford Corporation, and (last only by random choice) Jeff Paine and Andy Tennille of UTStarcom. Finally, thanks to Ed Ferris, our IT guru (and coauthor on our next wireless book), who provides our sanity checks where and when needed; to Linda Morris, our project editor, who showed nearly infinite patience and a keen eye for our grammatical shortcomings; and to Melody Layne, our Wiley cham- pion and favorite Las Vegas conference lunch date.