Wi-Fi Hotspots: Setting Up Public Wireless Internet Access

Author: Eric Geier
Pages: 264
Publisher: Cisco Press
ISBN: 1587052660

Chapter 2: The Business Side of Hosting a Hotspot, is available for download here.

Introduction

These days, if you find yourself at the airport, in a hotel or coffee shop, you’re bound to see someone using a notebook, smartphone or PDA connected to the Internet. This is due to the increasing proliferation of wireless hotspots, both free and commercial. Read on to discover how this book tackles the topic.

About the author

Eric Geier, a Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA), is a computing and wireless networking author and consultant

Inside the book

After a brief fundamental overview of how Wi-Fi works, what hotspots are and how to find them, the author goes on to discuss the business side of hosting a hotspot. This chapter will be useful for all that are not sure wether this is a good option for them.

When it comes to actually setting up a hotspot you are presented with four solutions, each with its good and bad sides:

• Simple free access hotspot
• Advanced free access hotspot using ZoneCD
• Join Boingo’s hotspot network to provide paid access
• Free or paid access and private network using a hotspot gateway.

Geier takes you virtually step-by-step through all the solutions so don’t worry about not being able to follow the material.

Once your hotspot is alive and ready to serve, you need to get the word out, think about security, tackle common problems, etc. Although much more could be said about wireless security, what you get here is a good introduction to the topic. If you really want to work with wireless software and hardware you’ll get some in-depth material elsewhere, delivering such information is outside the scope of this book.

The book closes with an informative appendix that covers wireless signals and interferences.

The enclosed CD contains ZoneCD and NetStumbler, two tools that you’ll certainly need.

Final thoughts

You’ll certainly enjoy the clear writing style which delivers only relevant information. There’s a ton of screenshots, figures and product recommmendations that make it easy to get your project started.

Based on the contents and the amount of technical information I think this book is a good fit for new users that are interested in deploying a hotspot. It will certainly guide them in the right direction.