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E**N
Four Stars
Good overview
X**N
A very readable introduction to wireles networks, not a book on administration
After dealing with standards in Part I, the author discusses hardware devices in a wireless network in Part II.Part III presents wireless networks structures and types. The author devotes one chapter to introduce Bluetooth, ZigBee, WiMAX and cellular networks. However the rest of the book is centered on 802.11 networks.The material is very readable: no mathematical formulas and no telecommunications theory but also no description of complex network organizations.Part IV devotes considerable space to review TCP/IP protocols and most importantly introduces security and authentication aspects and algorithms in wireless networks. Again no technical details, no protocol packets, no algorithms.Part V is actually the only hands-on part of the book and takes care of configuration of wireless devices. A very generic and hardware independent configuration procedure is provided for wireless access points and controllers but that can only apply to home or small office networks.More specific details are provided for configuring Windows, Mac and Linux clients.Along the way the book suggests what alternatives are available to a network administrator when building a wireless network but fails to address problems that may arise once the network is up and running: aspects like traffic monitoring, shaping, accounting (it very briefly introduces RADIUS).I see this book as a pretty good and readable introduction to wireless networks but not really geared toward network administration.I'm giving this book 4 stars because the subtitle says "A Beginner's Guide".What I really mean is that this is a good starting point for a wireless network administrator wannabe but definitely not enough to become one.