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Title: Linksys WRT54G Ultimate Hacking
ISBN: 1597491667
Author:
Paul Asadoorian; Larry Pesce
Publicate Date: 2007-05-15
Publish: 2007-05-15
List Price: $39.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $25.01
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $26.84
Amazon Merchant Price: $26.37
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Great guide
This book is a great guide hacking your WRT54G. It covers a wide variety of topics and gives some good detail into each one without focusing on one topic more than it should.
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2: Great overview of modifying the wrt54g
I enjoyed the book quite a bit and wish it had been released a few months earlier for a project I was working on. I was happy to see clear examples and pictures on building JTAG cables, GPIO points, and other pieces of hardware. These were some things that took me a bit longer to research on my own and what I found required me to make several leaps of faith. The fun part of hacking hardware is that you have something to hold when you are done. The frustrating part is when you make a mistake and have to go buy more parts. (Anyone want a fried WRTSL54GS for cheap?) I appreciated the work Larry and Paul put into making this less of an issue.
I'd love to see information on writing software for these devices in the future. The book is good at showing you how to take what is out there and apply it to what you have. However, I'm starting to dig into developing applications for this platform and piecing things together off of the web can be a bit tedious.
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3: I would have never guessed so much is possible
I think the most important contribution this book will make is to help people understand it is possible to change those innocuous Linksys boxes. After all, they are everywhere. I don't personally plan to try to hardware hack my Linksys router tonight after finishing reading the book, but it is on the list. Heavens knows, I have three or four sitting in the equipment closet from before we upgraded my home office to professional equipment. In the book we learn the parts of a Linksys router; to be truthful, I had never thought about that. There is a discussion about overcloking the router to make the processor run faster. Talk about a blast from the past, brings back the old 8086/8088 days. It was dangerous then and it still is today. There is a discussion about the OpenWrt team, without them, this would never be possible.
It was a real eyeopener to learn how much people have done with the WRT54G, there are a number of choices in firmware, even semi-commercial choices such as Talisman which allows you to establish VPNs, hotspots, mesh and even SIP VoIP. This book in extensively researched, we learn how to set up DHCP, SAMBA even X Windows! There are even several methods for increasing the radio output and or antenna modifications. U.S. readers are cautioned this can get you into trouble, I know I ended up sending my FM pirate radio system to a missionary group in Africa because it was just too tempting and in an urban area the FCC will eventually get you. The biggest surprise for me was the use of a WRT54G ( with an adapter ) as a bluetooth scanner.
My understanding is that the authors are going to offer a class, that sounds like a lot of fun. If you are going to be installing wireless it is a good idea to read this book, a lot of the information applies regardless of what brand of equipment you select. And as for me, I don't think I will ever look at a Linksys router in the same way ever again, from now on I will be wondering just exactly what is going on beneath the hood.
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4: Great book by knowledgable authors but...
This is a great book for anyone interested in knowing all about the WRT54G series routers and how to hack them. The authors Paul and Larry from the popular "PaulDotCom Security Weekly" podcast did a great job explaining the inner workings of the router and also have some great tips on how to hack the firmware and hardware.
I would have given this book a 5 star rating but it unfortunately covers too much info about using the OpenWRT "White Russian" firmware instead of the new NVRAM replacement firmware called OpenWRT "Kamikaze". In their defense though I acknowledge that at the time of print the OpenWRT "Kamikaze" stable version was finally released. But anyone needing to know all about the previous OpenWRT "White Russian" or the other optional firmware upgrades will definitely not be disappointed!
I highly recommend buying this book anyway and also recommend their related website "[...]" for more valuable info about these awesome little routers!
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5: Good information with lots of fun projects
This book is full of fantastic information about modifying the WRT54G. I found it extremely useful and the projects have so far provided me with hours of hacking fun! However, the one beef I have with this book is it's written like Paul and Larry talk. Often times, they would tell you to do something one way, then contradict themselves later on in the chapter or go off on tangents, making the instruction somewhat hard to follow. Still, it's a great book for anyone interested in enhancing the capabilities of the WRT54G!
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