Mac OS X Unwired: A Guide for Home, Office, and the Road

• Using wireless at home, in the office, or on the road
• Connecting to wireless hotspots
• Wireless Security

Chapter by chapter; Chapter one is basic terminology and an overview. Chapter two covers Wi-Fi hardware. It does have a nifty fix for the Wi-Fi problems on the 15" TiBook. Chapter three covers base stations and antenas. Chapter four is a very brief look at Wi-Fi access from external sources, like Starbucks. The fifth, and last chapter on Wi-Fi, covers the basic protocol layer tools like SSH.

Chapter six covers Bluetooth, it's a good introduction but it's a little screenshot heavy. Chapter seven is on cell-phone connectivity, which is pretty cool new material. If you are serious about that you should get this book. Chapter eight is on rendevous and it's a nice, but short, introduction.

If you are just getting into Wi-Fi on Macintosh you should probably take a look at this book.


Not good enough   April 19, 2004
 11 out of 15 found this review helpful

My purpose in buying and reading this book was to troubleshoot a Mac wireless problem: a Mac desktop G4 on a multiplatform home network (Mac, W2K, Red Hat Linux 9.0) that does not retain either the SSID or the WEP key in its wireless settings and therefore has to be reconfigured nearly every time it is booted. I am a network administrator by trade and support all three operating systems at work, but the Macs are work are on a wired network. No help there...and no help from this book, either. The book devotes all of three pages to non-Apple access points (mine is a Netgear ProSafe a/b/g firewall/switch/router on a 1.5 Mbps DSL connection) and offers no troubleshooting assistance for Macs trying to connect to such a device. In fact, the book is almost devoid of troubleshooting assistance. All does not always go well with wireless connectivity, even with Macs, and these authors seem unable or unwilling to admit that and deal with it. For an O'Reilly book, this one is a disappointment. It's not good enough if anything goes wrong.

A few months later: another problem with another Mac on the same protected wireless network. This time a brand-new PowerBook's built-in Airport Extreme could not connect to the router--couldn't even see it. This book was the first resource I turned to for troubleshooting, and again it was useless. One sentence in a newsgroup discussion provided the very simple answer, and both Macs are fine now.


Perfect for understanding Mac OS X and wireless tech   March 25, 2004
 11 out of 11 found this review helpful

If only this book had been available when I started delving in wireless networking! While my network is simple - and getting the AirPort network up and running for my Macs was a breeze - it does involve a DSL modem, a switch, an AirPort base station acting as a bridge to a wired Ethernet network, and several computers, including PCs. I remember spending a fair amount of time when first setting it up to get everything working correctly, especially the link between the wired and wireless network. Negrino and Smith walk the reader through all the steps required to set up and configure an 802.11 network, and cover the sticky issues concerning IP addresses, DHCP addressing and many other acronyms that novice users may be unfamiliar with.

One of the strengths of this book is the authors' tone of voice. Negrino and Smith assume that the reader does not know a lot about the many protocols and acronyms used, and they explain these elements in a cool and patient manner. There is no talking down to the reader, nor is there any obfuscation. The explanations are clear and simple, and readers will be able to set up a wireless network - no matter how complex - with ease.

But the book goes beyond mere WiFi networking, with a thorough presentation of Bluetooth, cellular connectivity, Rendezvous and more. No matter which wireless technologies you want to use with Mac OS X, this book explains them in simple, non-geeky language.

As more people - even home users - have multiple computers, connecting them is the best way to leverage all their functions. Wireless networking is, as the authors say, "simple the most cost-effective and least obtrusive way to connect all of your computers." If you've been tempted by wireless networking, and have been hesitant, thinking that it's complex and complicated, invest in this book - it's the perfect toolkit for setting up all kinds of wireless networking with Mac OS X.