How Wifis and wifi security work?

Question

I see tons of videos dealing with WEP cracking, but actaully none of them teach about how Wifis work. They are just a bunch of commands thrown at the screen. Where can I learn about the inner mechanics of wifis? Can you recommend a website or a book?

Answer 1

• HowStuffWorks: How WiFi Works
• 6 Steps to Secure Your Home Wireless Network
• SANS paper: How Things Work: WLAN Technologies and Security Mechanisms (PDF)
• Nice SecurityFocus article Coffee shop WiFi (2006)
• WarDrive.net
• Getting deep at SANS
• Breaking WEP Encryption
  • WEP Security Called Unreliable, has a paper reference.

And, 10 Tips for Wireless Home Network Security
I skipped the Wikipedia, but you can look it up from these references.

Answer 2

The podcast "Security Now" did a full show about wifi security, you can find the transcript here :

http://www.grc.com/sn/sn-170.htm (in pdf here)

It is very detailed :

Steve: No. No. And there again, AES is a cipher called "Rijndael." TKIP is a protocol. CCMP is the protocol which uses AES. I mean, so my point is...

Answer 3

If you are looking in a personal sense, I think there are some great answers already posted.

If you are looking in a professional sense, I would recommend looking into CWNP site (http://www.cwnp.com/), which provides a vendor neutral 802.11 certification path.