Rating: 
Summary: Got home LAN up in a couple of days
Review: I pretty much knew nothing about NT or setting up a LAN. I was able to hook up my 5 computers with my cable modem in a couple of nights after the kids went to bed. I easily found the information that I was looking for without spending hours reading through chapter after chapter. Now there is no more negotiating when you want to get on the internet.
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Summary: Mark, I love u but
Review: I have been reading all of Mark's work for quite some time now, but I'm a bit disappointed with this one. This book should not have been released as early as it was. There is a LOT of information MISSING about windows 2000 here. At first after reading it, I thought it was great, and that I knew everything that there was about 2000. Then I did more research, and found that there were so many topics not covered its not funny. I think the main problem was that this book was release just as 2000 came out and not everything was known about it at the time. The change between authors was very very evident, and hard to take. During certain chapters I thought I was going to fall asleep because it was so dry which is just not Mark's style. Still with all of this hard citicism I'm giving it did have a lot of great information, and I can't wait for the third edition to come out in March!!!
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Summary: Condescending Sarcasm in this book
Review: A recent letter that I wrote to Mr. Minasi should sum up what I have to say : Dear Mr. Minasi, To quote from your lastest book Mastering Windows 2000 Servers " on page 38 first paragraph. "But regular old users can't do things like resetting passwords and running backups - you need at least some administrative powers to do those things. Recall that we'd like to hire this 'network scut-work' person or persons at a petty low hourly rate, and that's troublesome from a security point of view. If he can leave this job and go off to one with the same pay level but whose main challenge is in remembering to say 'Would you like fries with that, sir?', then it might not be the brightest idea to give him a full administrative control over the network." I did not think that such an attitude was neccessary. If this was written for humors sake let me be the one to tell you that it was far from reaching it's intent. People deserve respect no matter who they are. And with all due respect Mr. Minasi I think you need some lessons on manners. I will be returning your book this afternoon. Nancy Chiu
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Summary: The author's attitude is condescending.
Review: Granted that this is one of the most highly raved Windows 2000 book on the market now I found the authors tone highly offensive. To quote from the book: "But regular old users can't do things like resetting passwords and running backups - you need at least some administrative powers to do those things. Recall that we'd like to hire this 'network scut-work' person or persons at a petty low hourly rate, and that's troublesome from a security point of view. If he can leave this job and go off to one with the same pay level but whose main challenge is in remembering to say 'Would you like fries with that, sir?', then it might not be the brightest idea to give him a full administrative control over the network." It was highly condescending of Mr. Minasi to be stating such remarks. Our entire network support staff is to be praised. Everyone gets respect no matter who you are and if Mr. Minasi doesn't know this let me be one of the few to be returning this book.
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Summary: Great Windows 2000 Server primer !
Review: Mark Minasi's book is a great all-in-one primer for learning Windows 2000. I recently received my MCSE for NT4.0 and wanted to learn Windows 2000 Server. I obtained the evaluation copy of Windows 2000 Advanced Server forn Microsoft to install on my home network. I had no documentation for it and bought a copy of Mastering Windows 2000 Server to get me up to speed. Mark's book got me going in no time flat. Windows 2000 is a WHOLE lot different than NT4.0 in many ways. Chapter 1 goes through what Microsoft was trying to achieve and what is new. Active Directory of course is the biggest change. Mark explains it very well from the point of view of a beginner and a experienced NT4.0 user in chapter 2. Other major changes well explained in the book are plug and play, dynamic dns, distributed file system, disk quotas, remote installation services, cleint side caching, group policy objects, encryped file system, disk mounting, software installation, and Kerberos authentication to name a few! Mark's writing style is very enjoyable - not boring like a lot of technical books. He does not hesitate to be critical of Windows 2000 where it deserves it. He goes into good depth on TCP/IP with two substantial chapters. Windows 2000 counts heavily on dns which is dynamic and integrated with Active Directory. In native mode (all Windows 2000) you do not need wins or netbios! The book does a good job of pointing out what can and can't be done in native versus mixed mode. Organizational units and group policies are well explained which are big part of Active Directory and a very important concept of Windows 2000. Chapter 4 was especially enjoyable as Mark started off asking Where Are They Now! - referring to where the heck did they move the Network Contol Panel, etc. Us NT4.0 users will find that chapter very helpful as it explains how to do routine NT4.0 tasks in Windows 2000 including the new Microsoft Management Console (mmc). Security has been beefed up big time in Windows 2000. In various chapters this is well covered explaining Kerberos, encrypted file system, and group policy security settings. Mark also explains how to use Windows 98/95 and NT4.0 clients in a Windows 2000 Network. Chapter 20 on tuning and monitoring has a great overview of the network browsing system (you know - master browsers and browse lists) that is helpful in determining why network neighborhood acts as it does. Mark also passes along a lot of helpful tips that he has learned in his experience with Windows 2000 that you probably will not find in Microsoft Press books.As much as I like the book it certainly is not and did not intend to be all encompassing of Windows 2000. The Microsoft Server Resource kit is over 7000 pages! However Mark's book is packed with 1500 pages of most useful info and may be all the majority of Windows 2000 Server users ever need. There are a lot of books that focus on individual topics of Windows 2000. For instance the O'reilly book on Active directory is great. You also might want to get a book focusing on Windows 2000 security - there is just so much more than in NT4.0 with Kerberos, EFS, L2TP, IPSEC, registry settings, and packet filtering . However Mark Minasi's Mastering Windows 2000 Server is always the first book I grab and is kept in arms reach.
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Summary: A most valuable resource
Review: This past summer I migrated our NT4.0 Network to Windows2000. That meant bringing online a new file/print server, migratingour existing Exchange server to Windows 2000 (I had migrated it to 5.5earlier that year) and ultimately adding two more servers throughDecember. I had contracted with our network integrator to give me anaction plan on how to do this migration. After spending ... withthem, all I got was a checklist of very general steps toperform. There was absolutely no detail on HOW these steps were to bedone. I had purchased Mark's book and was reading it during this"consulting" period. I can honestly say if it wasn't forMark's book I could never have pulled this deployment off. This bookis pure gold! I got more ideas and help for about ... than I gotspending the school's .... And, by the way, I'm still getting ideasfrom it! END
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Summary: Average
Review: I agree with Saleh: this book tries to be everything to all people. Some parts are good, but some huge mistakes (sysdiff doesn't exist anymore in Windows 2000 !!). I can't believe why so many people rate this book with 5 stars. The book is written by four authors and this shows in writing style (inconsistent) and the level of difficulty. Some chapters are aimed at beginners and some at experts. It's not a bad book, but it's not nearly as good as the NT4 edition by Minasi.
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Summary: Another one for the library!!
Review: Some times I think that Mr. Minasi has written more books then I have read... :) This one is another keeper. It is very well written and has a lot of good useful information in it. I probably have 7 or 8 of Mark's books on my shelf - so I didn't hesitate to purchase this one when it came out. I have owned it for about 5 months now - and have spent a few weeks with a "not really well" working AD and this book. The book is great - that AD domain is working a lot better than it was. I learned a lot about GCS and several other functions of the DC's within an AD from this text. Things that might have taken me a while to learn the hard way. It gets very deep into the workings of 2000. Don't let this scare you if you're not a seasoned pro... The explanations for the how's and why's are great. I evened picked up a few things about some older versions of NT that I missed. I would recommend this to anyone working with Win2K.
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Summary: Another masterpiece by Mark Minasi
Review: If you don't have this book and have questions about how Windows 2000 Server works, I would highly suggest buying it. Again, Mr. Minasi and team have produced a stellar publication in only the way that he knows how. Mark cuts the fluff out and let's you know the nuts and bolts of how things work. This book is a definite must have along with the rest of the books produced by Mark Minasi.
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Summary: The index makes this book!
Review: A true must-have to learn the operating system or as a reference manual. Almost any subject/issue you would like information on is completely indexed and easy to find. The information is complete and easy to scan or read in depth. I've saved a lot of time scratching my head and trying to search for answers because of this book.
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