San Francisco-- New Book Shows How To Control Your Cable Modem - In
the beginning there was dial-up, and it was slow; then came broadband
in the form of cable, which redefined how we access the internet,
share information, and communicate with each other online. "Hacking
the Cable Modem" (No Starch Press, September 2006,
http://www.nostarch.com/cablemodem.htm) goes inside the device that
makes Internet via cable possible and, along the way, reveals secrets
of many popular cable modems, including products from Motorola, RCA,
WebSTAR, D-Link, and more. The book's author, DerEngel, is regarded
in hacker circles as the foremost expert on cable modems.
Once described in the media as "a dangerously unemployed U.S. coder,"
the author now runs his own embedded development assembly business
that seeks to improve hardware by modifying and experimenting with
it. Sometimes dismissed as a thief or belittled as no better than a
virus writer, DerEngel's activities have drawn attention from the
Slashdot crowd, have been profiled by the SecurityFocus website, and
have incited passionate debate in many an online forum.
Written for people at all skill levels, Hacking the Cable Modem
features step-by-step tutorials with easy to follow diagrams, source
code examples, hardware schematics, and previously unreleased cable
modem hacks.
Readers of "Hacking The Cable Modem" will learn:
-the history of cable modem hacking
-how a cable modem and DOCSIS work
-the importance of firmware (including ways to install new firmware)
-how to unblock network ports and unlock hidden features
-how to hack and modify a cable modem
-what uncapping is and how it makes cable modems upload and download faster
"I don't like black boxes; I like to know how things work. The goal
of this book and my point in publishing it is to show the many cable
modem users how that black box works, how to understand it, and how
to control it," said Bill Pollock, founder of No Starch Press.
"DerEngel demystifies cable modems for the legions of geeks who
wonder just how the heck the thing works."
For the idle tinkerer or active modder, "Hacking The Cable Modem" is
sure to shed new light on cable Internet.
Additional Resources:
Table of contents: http://www.nostarch.com/cablemodem_toc.htm
Sample chapter: http://www.nostarch.com/download/cablemodem_ch17.pdf
About the Author: Profiled by Security Focus, TechTV, and the
Register, and the subject of multiple Slashdottings, DerEngel has
been hailed as "the underground Prometheus of super-broadband." He
has written several programs to simplify and streamline cable-modem
hacking since he started doing it himself in 2000. He currently heads
TCNiSO, a group of hackers that has revolutionized reverse
engineering techniques and produces free hackware.
Hacking the Cable Modem
by DerEngel
September 2006, 312 pp., $29.95 US
ISBN 1-59327-101-8
http://www.nostarch.com/cablemodem.htm
Available at fine bookstores everywhere, from
www.oreilly.com/nostarch, or directly from No Starch Press
(www.nostarch.com, orders@nostarch.com, 800.420.7240).
About No Starch Press: Founded in 1994, No Starch Press is one of the
few remaining independent computer book publishers. We publish the
finest in geek entertainment-unique books on technology, with a focus
on Open Source, security, hacking, programming, and alternative
operating systems. Our titles have personality, our authors are
passionate, and our books tackle topics that people care about. See
www.nostarch.com for more information and our complete online
catalog. (And most No Starch Press books use RepKover, a lay-flat
binding that won't snap shut.)
