Jeff Duntemanns Drive-By Wi-Fi Guide

Chapter List

Chapter 6: Access Points and Gateways

Chapter 7: Client Adapters

Chapter 8: Antennas, Cables, and Connectors

Chapter 9: Putting It Together and Testing It Out

Chapter 10: Wi-Fi Warriors on the Road

Part Overview

Enough theory. It's time to meet the gadgets themselves, roll up your sleeves, and start making networks. In Chapters 6 and 7, I'll first take a close look at access points and client adapters, the two completely necessary elements of a Wi-Fi network. You can just hang a computer catalog on the wall and throw darts to choose your wireless hardware, but the more you understand about what happens inside the box, the more intelligent your decisions will be, and the less trouble you'll have when you put it all together.

For the simplest networks, you don't need to know a great deal about antennas. All client adapters and access points come with their own antennas, and 80% of the time, those antennas that come in the box will do just fine. To cover the remaining 20%, I've got a separate chapter on antennas, cables, and connectors. Sometimes the stock antennas just don't quite reach, and in all structures there are these twilight zones of non-coverage called dead spots where nothing gets through. I've had this problem in my own house, which is not a mansion by any means-and if you have coverage problems in your home or office, knowing something about antennas may be the difference between connecting at the minimum data rate and connecting at the top rate, or perhaps not connecting at all.

In Chapter 9 we'll finally get down and put the network together. You can do it the 'Christmas morning' way-tear open the boxes and plug wires into holes until something works-but there's definitely a method to minimize the madness, which I'll explain in detail.

Wi-Fi at your home or office isn't the whole story, of course. A lot of what's driving the growth of the Wi-Fi industry is business travel, and in Chapter 10 I'll explain how to use Wi-Fi technology to stay connected on the road.