September 2003
Intermediate to advanced
304 pages
8h 39m
English
Content preview from Wireless Hacks
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Find All Available Wireless Networks
Locate all wireless networks in range without installing any additional software.
So, you’ve got a laptop. You’ve got a wireless card. The card might even be built into your laptop. You know there are wireless networks in your area. How do you find them? You might even have an external antenna connected to your wireless card, hoping to establish a longer distance connection. How do you find that network a half-mile away?
If you are connected to a wireless network already, you could download a tool like NetStumbler [Hack #21], but this requires a network connection and you don’t have one yet.
All of the major operating systems have integrated software that allows you to discover wireless networks and obtain some status information about the currently connected network.
Windows XP
If a wireless access point is in range of your wireless card, Windows XP by default will attempt to automatically connect to the access point. It will inform you using a pop up above the task bar, which says, “One or more wireless connections are available.”
Clicking on the network icon opens a window titled “Wireless Network Connection,” as shown in Figure 3-1.
Figure 3-1. Available networks under Windows XP.
This window lists any wireless networks that are in range of your wireless card. In this example, there are three within range. The window also shows you that the selected ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.Amir M.
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.