Chapter 11: Hacking Wireless Networks

This is a topic I'm passionate about and have a vast background and experience with. In 2001, right after 9/11, I became unemployed. I live in a rural community in northern Utah, and we didn't have a high-speed internet service. I saw a need so decided to start up my own ISP service.

I rented space off the city water tower that can be seen for miles. Since there was no affordable high-speed internet, I decided to offer this service. So, I put two T1 lines into my garage and converted my garage from a standard garage to an office in a server room environment. I put an antenna on top of my roof, pointed it towards the water tower, and then put an array of antennas and access points (APs) on top of the water tower.

The company grew quite fast; it was one of the fastest-growing ISP services in the Mountain West area. We grew it to 600 customers; we got so busy that we ended up having to expand our service and we had to find another...