Review of Windows Xp Unwired: A Guide for Home, Office, and the Road

Submitted by Patrick on Sun, 10/29/2006 - 8:51pm.

Reviewed By: Patrick Grote
Date: February 9, 2004
Section: Book Reviews
Publisher: O'Reilly Books
Authors: Wei Meng Lee
Pages: 267
Retail Price: $24.95
Dot Journal Buy It Now Price: $17.47

Thinking about taking the jump into wireless networking? The first question is, "What's taken you so long?"

Wireless networking is growing in popularity not only for low cost, but the ease of use. No longer do you have to run cables between rooms or worry about how to configure your machines. It's pretty much plug and play. Or is it?

O'Reilly presents a wireless book that looks into adding the feature to your Windows XP computer. The author, Wei Meng Lee, does a masterful job of bringing you into the world of wireless gently, while ensuring you understand that basics of what it is you're doing. Many times a technical book glosses over the basics or waters it down to the point where it's bland. The author doesn't do that in this case.

The book begins by examining the advantages of moving to wireless. Beyond the obvious flexibility in networking, you gain an appreciation for the power of wireless networking. Others have described wireless networking as ubiquitous, but it's more ethereal. Once you have joined the wireless party your network connectivity can come from anywhere in the world.

After discussing the reasons to go wireless, the definitions start. By explaining the differences in the wireless methods, the author does a very good job. 802.11b, a, and g, infrared, Bluetooth, CDMA2000 and GPRS are all defined and explained so that the reader can understand appreciate them.

The meat of the book discusses actually adding wireless to your Windows XP machine. This is done in a balanced method where each protocol, service and driver is explained in terms you can understand. Rather than focusing on one vendor over another, the book looks at a range of vendors, which makes it even more valuable as a resource.

Had the book stopped here it would have been a success, but it ventures further. The author then discusses and explains the networking utilities of Windows XP and how they relate to wireless. These include VPN and firewalls, but more importantly remote desktop.

As a service of Windows XP, the remote desktop doesn't receive much attention from the technical population. That's too bad as remote desktop is a fantastic utility that can be used by people to remotely control other machines on a network.

If you're looking for a book that will help you understand wireless networking on Windows XP, this is it. After reading this book and putting your knowledge into action, you'll end up with a working, secure, functional wireless network.