The Wireless Cookbook

Learn How to Make Wireless Work

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and LoRa are technologies that power our world, but building with them isn’t always straightforward. Connections drop, tutorials skip steps, and error messages don’t always help resolve problems.

Through a series of hands-on projects using Raspberry Pi and Linux, you’ll learn how wireless systems work, how to control them, and how to build tools that actually function in the real world. Each recipe is self-contained, reliable, and ready to adapt for your own projects.

Among the book’s many projects, you’ll build:

• A BLE audio receiver for high-quality wireless sound
• A battery-powered LoRa node with miles of range
• A mesh Wi-Fi network that reroutes itself
• A signal strength display with a mini TFT screen
• A wireless intrusion detection system and captive portal

Along the way, you’ll build a solid foundation in Linux networking, gain fluency in wireless protocols like 802.11, BLE, and LoRaWAN, and develop the confidence to design and deploy your own solutions.

Each recipe is built around a wireless challenge you’re likely to encounter and gives you the tools to solve it.

It’s wireless. It’s Linux. And with this book, it finally makes sense.Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction

PART I: THE BIG PICTURE
Chapter 1: Wireless Fundamentals
Chapter 2: Getting Started

PART II: THE RECIPES
Chapter 3: Monitoring Wi-Fi with a Mini TFT Display
Chapter 4: Basic and Advanced Captive Portals
Chapter 5: Bluetooth Audio in Two Ways
Chapter 6: Exploring Long Range with LoRa
Chapter 7: Intrusion Detection with Kismet
Chapter 8: Wireless Air Quality Monitoring
Chapter 9: Pwning Wi-Fi with Pwnagotchi
Chapter 10: Exploring Mesh Networking
Chapter 11: Wireless Displays in Two Ways

Appendix: The Engineer’s Mindset
Index
"Zimmerman offers a useful and engaging guide to exploring wireless systems through direct experimentation. Security professionals looking to deepen their wireless knowledge will find plenty here to explore and apply."
—Help Net SecurityBill Zimmerman is a software engineer, open source contributor, and creator of RaspAP, the popular wireless router for Raspberry Pi. With over 30 years of experience, Zimmerman has taught Linux and wireless networking to learners of all ages across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. When he’s not coding or building open source tools, he’s probably trail running or taking his old Land Rover somewhere off the grid.