Chapter 1. Wireless Lab Setup

Note

"If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening my axe."

Abraham Lincoln, 16th US President

Behind every successful execution is hours or days of preparation, and Wireless Penetration testing is no exception. In this chapter, we will create a wireless lab that we will use for our experiments in this book. Consider this lab as your preparation arena before you dive into the real-world penetration testing!

Wireless Penetration testing is a practical subject and it is important to first setup a lab where we can try out all the different experiments in this book in a safe and controlled environment. It is important that you set up this lab first before proceeding ahead in this book.

In this chapter, we shall look at the following:

• Hardware and software requirements

• BackTrack 5 installation

• Setting up an access point and configuring it

• Installing the wireless card

• Testing connectivity between the laptop and the access point

So let the games begin!