1.1 Hacks 1-12

1.1 Hacks #1-12

The mad rush to bring wireless products to market has left a slew of similar sounding yet often completely incompatible acronyms in its wake. 802.11b is the sequel to 802.11a, right? (Wrong.) If I just buy Wi-Fi, then everything will work together, right? (Unfortunately, no.) What is the difference between 802.11 a/b/g, 802.16, and 802.1x? How about GSM, GPRS, GMRS, and GPS? Where does Bluetooth fit into the picture?

Before we can jump into the more advanced hackery that is possible with wireless communications, it is important to understand what we have to work with. Remember that no technology is inherently "better" than any other; which one you should use depends on what you want to accomplish and the resources you have to work with. The goal of this chapter is to familiarize you with many of the popular wireless technologies available today, and to give you an idea of their relative strengths and weaknesses.