Wardriving: Drive, Detect, Defend: A Guide to Wireless Security

by Chris Hurley

The practice of WarDriving is a unique combination of hobby, sociological research, and security assessment. The act of driving or walking through urban areas with a wireless-equipped laptop to map... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1931836035
• ISBN13: 9781931836036
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Syngress Publishing
• Length: 524 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

The Guide that I needed

I purchased this book based on the recommendation from a friend in my DC Group. This book was exactly what I was looking for. I have been trying to find a book that had enough technical information that I wasn't bored, but that presented it in an easy to read, step by step manner. WarDriving delivered. The book begins by giving a pretty cool history of WarDriving and then moves into two chapters on NetStumbler. I skipped these since I knew how to use NetStumbler and won't comment on them. The next two chapters were a goldmine. Particularly Chapter 5. These two chapters walk you through setup of Kismet on Slackware and Fedora Linux. I don't use Slackware, so I skimmed this chapter, but the Fedora chapter was exactly what I needed. The instructions for installing Kismet on Fedora were worth the purchase price all by itself. The next chapter details how to actually configure and use Kismet. This chapter was perfect. In less than an hour I was running Kismet and detecting access points all over my neighborhood. Chapter 7 was about mapping. I don't have a GPS yet so I skipped most of this one too. Chapter 8 was a really interesting history of organized WarDriving. I had never even heard of a Worldwide WarDrive, but I am definitely going to do it next time. It sounds awesome. Chapter 9 was about attacking networks. I had no idea it was so easy to do. This really scared me, but Chapter 10 told me how to configure my home wireless network to protect against a lot of these attacks. I skimmed chapter 11 since it was more geared toward businesses so I will not comment on it either. This book delivered for me, and I would recommend it to anyone that wants to eather learn to WarDrive or secure their home network.

Outstanding Reference for the True Wardriver

If you are looking for something to help you break into other peoples wireless networks, look somewhere else. This is the first book I have read about wireless security that doesn't fall into the trap of trying to scare people. Instead, the authors methodically show you how to secure your wireless network. The authors also present a wealth of information on the tools used by the true Wardriver. If you are not a linux guru but want to use Kismet, this book is for you. If you want to learn to use the latest version of Netstumbler, it's in there. Plus, the history of organized Wardriving chapter is one of the coolest I have ever read. If these things are important to you, buy this book. It's great.

I was blown away

I can't stress how great this book is! I am not a Linux guru but had heard that Kismet would help me find more access points. I bought this book when I saw that it covered installation and configuration of Kismet. I was really happy with the way that the authors walked me through the installation and configuration of Kismet. I had read some online walkthroughs, but had been unable to successfully get my wireless card into monitor mode. This book showed me exactly what I was doing wrong.I am now wardriving with Kismet and looking forward to the Worldwide Wardrive in June!Thanks for a great book.

Five Stars from someone who really wanted to hate this book

Ok, I will admit it...I am a "button down" kind of guy. I manage my company's wireless network and I have one in my house as well. I have never gone WarDriving and I probably never will. I have read articles about it in newspapers, magazines, etc. and formed an opinion that these people were all voyeurs at best and criminals at worst. When I saw this book, I thought it was important to read it to find out where my wireless network might be vulnerable. Before reading it, I was pre-disposed to then post a review affirming my initial opinion that anyone wardriving is up to no good. Ok, I will admit this as well....I WAS WRONG. The authors provide incredibly detailed information on how to wardrive, but more importantly go to great thanks to explain how to do it legally. They explain what is right and what is wrong. And, for the most part I agree with their explanations. According to their bios, several of the authors have military and/or law efnorcement backgrounds and one of them was in the NSA,so I'm guessing they know what their talking about when it comes to the legal issues involved. There are also chatpers at the end that provide great information on how so secure your wireless network to make sure that no one with good or bad intentions can access it at all. All in all, this book provides a very thorough treatment to the technical, legal, and honestly ethical issues surrounding Wardriving and wireless security. Well Done!

Using Linksys? But this book and change your settings!

Probably 9 out of 10 of us with home-based wireless networks are using Linksys. And probably the 9 are all using the default settings. The chapter on wireless network security here shows how to change the out of the box settings and also walks you through filtering with MAC. The really interesting chapters are the ones on wardriving and attacking wireless networks. Any questions you might have about antennas, 802.11 cards, WEP, GPSD, Kimset, NetStumbler, scanning/attacking wireless networks, etc. can be answered here--and it's interesting reading.