Home Wireless Networking in a Snap (Sams Teach Yourself) (ISBN 0672327023)

Tells You Less (and sometimes more) Than You Need to Know:
I read this book from cover to cover, writing notes on every page, marking off errors, and making personal observations in the margins. Bottom line, I gave it a thorough reading. I approached the book as a rank amateur who knew nothing about wireless and I finished the book as someone who knew a good deal about some areas of wireless but was still in the dark about others. The problem is that the author, who does write clearly, simply forgets to tell you stuff that he takes for granted. For example, the book never defines "WiFi." It neither unzips the contraction (wireless fidelity) nor does it tell you what it means. It doesn't include it in the book's Glossary of Terms, either. Now, you might scoff that "everybody knows what WiFi means" but it should be defined, since it's the subject of the book and I think few people actually know what it really means technically. A similar problem with the book is that it doesn't always define a term the first time it uses that term. For example, the term "pinged" is used on page 271 but not defined until page 273, so you're in suspense for seven paragraphs. Some concepts are not clearly defined, either. For example, the book states that at least one computer must have a wired, rather than wireless, connection to the router, but it doesn't state whether that eliminates the need for a WiFi adapter on that particular computer. Again, if you are a rank amateur you won't know this and this is supposed to be a "Teach Yourself" book. Other sections are simply confusing. The discussion on Port Forwarding versus Port Triggering, for example, seems to suggest that Port Triggering is used for gaming but then discusses games (Age of Empire and Quake) in the section on Port Forwarding. Some of the diagrams are incorrect. Examples include missing pointers on pp. 192, 197 and 204. Things like this, and the surprising number of typos, make you wonder if anyone proofread the book. While it misses some big stuff, it does go into needlessly minute detail as it steps you through the web screens (Netgear screens are used for the examples) to configure your router. The paragraph that states how to get to your router's URL is repeated a zillion times (once for every configuration task explained in the book). And, as I worked through these numerous step-by-step procedures, I couldn't help feeling I could have done them intuitively without reading the book's painstaking "click this, click that" explanations and illustrations, which make up half of the book's bulk. I felt that the book was actually most useful when it discussed subjects that were not directly related to its subject. I thought the sections on using Windows XP to back up and restore data on your system data were particularly helpful and illuminating. Do I regret buying this book? I'm not sure yet. I do know, however, that this book didn't make me feel sufficiently confident to set up my own network with all the security and control features I want. So I've bought another book, Home Networking Simplified, which I haven't started yet. I will review that book when I finish it.