Rating: 
Summary: Everything you ever wanted to know about Windows 2000 and
Review: One of the negatives of the Microsoft books is that they often don't give a realistic view of Microsoft products. They often present them as they should work rather than as they actually do. In a sense, this book is no different. Despite this, the book is technically solid and contains much information that is not available anywhere else. You'll definitely want to supplement your studying by picking up other non-Microsoft Windows 2000 texts, but if you don't get this one, then you're simply not serious about Windows 2000.This book is ahead of its time. Microsoft has a lot of "late-breaking" information that got included in the Resource Kit. Other authors will likely spend countless hours poring over these books for information to include in their own books. The Resource Kit contains more updated material than any other book to date. While the Resource Kit definitely isn't perfect and probably doesn't need to be 7,200-some pages, it still is worth picking up. When you combine it with Microsoft's rebate offer, it actually becomes a pretty good value too.
Rating:
Summary: If you are an IT pro in a W2K shop, you MUST HAVE this
Review: Print this out and take it to your boss. The IT department has to buy a this expensive set of books if you are running Windows 2000 Server. The on-line help is for users. This is the documentation set for professionals. There are the books MS no longer includes with the software. You also need this as a reference if you expect to get a W2K MCSE or if you make a living consulting to W2K shops. This should be a total no brainer. You might be able to administer one or two low usage servers without these, but if you intend to implement the powerful new features of W2K (that's what you paid all that money to MS for, isn't it?) then you simply can't get by without these. While a good deal of this info can be obtained from TechNet or Knowledgebase, you just can't highlight and dogear those resources for future reference. And even those resources are incomplete compared to this.
I'm giving this 5 stars not because of outstanding performance on the part of Microsoft Press with these editions, but because of the absolute necessity of having them.
Rating:
Summary: If you are an IT pro in a W2K shop, you MUST HAVE this
Review: Print this out and take it to your boss. The IT department has to buy a this expensive set of books if you are running Windows 2000 Server. The on-line help is for users. This is the documentation set for professionals. There are the books MS no longer includes with the software. You also need this as a reference if you expect to get a W2K MCSE or if you make a living consulting to W2K shops. This should be a total no brainer. You might be able to administer one or two low usage servers without these, but if you intend to implement the powerful new features of W2K (that's what you paid all that money to MS for, isn't it?) then you simply can't get by without these. While a good deal of this info can be obtained from TechNet or Knowledgebase, you just can't highlight and dogear those resources for future reference. And even those resources are incomplete compared to this.
I'm giving this 5 stars not because of outstanding performance on the part of Microsoft Press with these editions, but because of the absolute necessity of having them.
Rating: 
Summary: Anything this large should be banned
Review: The Resource Kit is loaded with information. However, the info is spread out all over the place. Any product that requires over 7000 pages to describe should have never been released. The books are all helpful, but you can never read this and understand it in a timely fashion. It is only good for reference. The NT4 reskit was at least readable. This is ridiculous. Windows 2000 is awful.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent resource that picks up where the MOC ends
Review: This is a must for any serious designer of a Windows 2000 network. An excellent addition to the official Microsoft curriculum taught in training centres. For example...Currently there is very little information on IIS 5.0 availible. The resource guide for IIS 5 in this package is excellent covering many aspects including the new 'digest authentication'. AD designers looking at changing their AD schema should access this resource before embarking upon making changes... Excellent sections on Kerberos authentication. Which is new to many NT administrators moving to Windows 2000. There are many potential pitfalls when upgrading a network to Windows 2000. This resource kit is an excellent way of minimising that risk. Very readable and a must for all serious Windows 2000 engineers....
Rating: 
Summary: Not Very Practical
Review: This set of books contains everything one needs to know as a system administrator working in a Windows 2000 Domain. I've needed to refer to each book SEVERAL times to take care of one problem or another. My only complaint, now, is that it is outdated by design (in other words, it is printed). The withholding of a star may be a statement about Microsoft and their tendency to release buggy software, but as service pack after service pack has been released, I find myself trusting this information less and less. I always read from the reference books and then double check online to make sure it hasn't changed, as that has happened on occassion. If you are getting these books, I would advise you to do the same. Microsoft's support page should be bookmarked in your browser.
Rating: 
Summary: A mountain of knowledge
Review: This set of books contains everything one needs to know as a system administrator working in a Windows 2000 Domain. I've needed to refer to each book SEVERAL times to take care of one problem or another. My only complaint, now, is that it is outdated by design (in other words, it is printed). The withholding of a star may be a statement about Microsoft and their tendency to release buggy software, but as service pack after service pack has been released, I find myself trusting this information less and less. I always read from the reference books and then double check online to make sure it hasn't changed, as that has happened on occassion. If you are getting these books, I would advise you to do the same. Microsoft's support page should be bookmarked in your browser.
Rating:
Summary: Long and complicated
Review: This set of books goes into DEEP detail on how the OS works. Reading it reminds me of reading a Cisco operating manual. So many terms, and the fact that everything is done differently in W2K make this a very hard book to read. I'm the Sys admin for my company, I've been using this set more as a reference instead of reading the whole thing. It's a very difficult set to read, deffinatly not for a begginer
Rating:
Summary: Scale model of Microsoft market share.
Review: This set of books is enormous. The sheer quantity of information that Microsoft has made available through this kit is almost overwhelming. If there is anything that you want to know about Windows 2000 server (regular, advanced and datacenter) you WILL find it here. An outstanding reference for system administrators and would be MCSA/MCSEs, this kit gives you incredible detail about the key features of Active Directory, Windows 2000 DNS, and migration planning. The only major draw back to the kit is its haphazard cross-referencing between the books within the set. Expect to do a lot of book switching and index checking. Some of the books also expect that you have read the Windows Help file on your server. This set has made a giant leap in readability. The clean layout and clear writing style keeps you attentive without loading "fluff" into its explanations.
Rating:
Summary: Scale model of Microsoft market share.
Review: This set of books is enormous. The sheer quantity of information that Microsoft has made available through this kit is almost overwhelming. If there is anything that you want to know about Windows 2000 server (regular, advanced and datacenter) you WILL find it here. An outstanding reference for system administrators and would be MCSA/MCSEs, this kit gives you incredible detail about the key features of Active Directory, Windows 2000 DNS, and migration planning. The only major draw back to the kit is its haphazard cross-referencing between the books within the set. Expect to do a lot of book switching and index checking. Some of the books also expect that you have read the Windows Help file on your server. This set has made a giant leap in readability. The clean layout and clear writing style keeps you attentive without loading "fluff" into its explanations.
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