Rating: 
Summary: A Lot of Clicking for Newbies
Review: I purchased this book as soon as it became available from amazon.com. There were several reasons for my purchase: 1. To use this book to prepare for the certification examination for Win2k Server and 2. To use as a reference for the technical writing projects that I am involved in at present.After reading through the entire book at least once, and some sections several times, I can say this is a really great book for the newbie or low level network technician that needs to know which dialog box to access and what buttons to click to accomplish a particular task. For such an audience, the books does an excellent job at providing a fair number of exercises to point them in the right direction. However, if you are looking for more details on how the Win2k Server Operating System works, and to reach the level of understanding required of a Win2k Network Engineer, you will be sorely disappointed. I have two major "beefs" with the material as presented in this book: 1. There is some important conceptual material contained in the book, however it is so poorly written that I challenge anyone with an IQ of 130 or less to understand it (It was probably written by someone with a 150 IQ). The value added from these books should come from their ability to shed light on complex subjects, rather than obscure them more than they are obscured in the Resource Kit. 2. There is WAY TOO MUCH material on unattended installations (~150 pages). There is a lot of detail on the installation methods available in Win2k, but not enough material were you would actually be able to implement such solutions on an enterprise network. If you expect to pass the Win2k Server examination with this as your only study guide, its time to wake up from that dream. I think this book is an excellent overall addition to my library and I'll shoot anyone that tries to steal it from me :-) However, given the level of difficulty and complexity of the Win2k Server exam, you should read several other books in addition to this in order to be thoroughly prepared.
Rating: 
Summary: Microsoft Tries Again...
Review: I've worked with many certification products, some good, some horrible. Microsoft certification materials have always been in the middle of the pack. Even within the same book this hold true, some chapters have very clear defined objectives, while others are disorganized messes. Microsoft Press seems to be conflicted on their MCSE titles. They don't know if they want to help you become certified or if they're tomes for reference. I always find some gems of knowledge in their MCSE titles but the cost of finding them in my opinion can be too high. If you've found that Microsoft Press MCSE prep materials have worked for you in the past, great, get this book. If your not an MS Press fan, wait for some of the later test prep books. A test prep book is only as good as the knowledge in the book to pass the exam.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Combination of Test Prep and Reference
Review: If you are well-experienced with personal computers and have at least a reasonable networking experience (know the difference between RJ-11 and RJ-45, the difference between Ethernet and Token Ring, know how to install and configure a generic NIC, etc.), you can probably handle the material presented here. This book is aimed at the person who is working on Microsoft certification. As such it does the best job of any self-study tools currently available in preparing you for the 70-215 (Server) test. To take full advantage of the material and exercises, you will need two computers capable of running Win2k advanced server. They will need to be connected by hub or switch. You will also need at least an evaluation copy of the software. Don't attempt to use a beta or release candidate version, as you will find the variations confusing. Don't be fooled by the title. Even if you are not interested in certification, this is still a good book of the network administrator. Topics that I felt were well covered are user profiles, unatteded installations, and group policies. Topics that could have used more treatment included shared/NTFS permissions and remote administration. Perhaps these topics are covered more in other books in the series. As do other books in the series, this one has the official outline of the tested material and maps it to where in the book the material can be found. These books are much like the Microsoft Official Curriculum with the addition of an index. This index was nice to have, but a little lean, I felt. The book in general was quite clean and almost error-free; including the hands-on exercises which were very helpful. This alone would make the book outstanding in view of the bulk of the books in this genre being full of errors. If you go through the entire book, do all of the exercises, and study the review questions you will probably have enough preparation to take the test. I don't recall seeing anything on the test that was not in the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Piece of Crap
Review: If you want to pass the 70-215 exam bypass this waste of money. Read the book failed the exam.
Rating:
Summary: Long but efective.
Review: Like always Microsoft Press' books are long, that's nothing new. They do cover a lot of material that is not the test, and they do forget some points. Anyway, the book was not bad, it got me to pass the test. I do agree with other readers that you do need the evaluation copy of the Windows 2000 server in order to follow up with the exercises, but you can do what I did. I went with my book to one of the local Microsoft offices and explained my case, and they kindly gave me an evaluation copy. I do recommend PRACTICE, you do need the experience to pass the test. There is no way that you can do it exclusively by studying one book. Microsoft has made the tests really hard, so you do have to study and practice in order to pass. GOOD LUCK!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Try again, Microsoft... you're slipping...
Review: Microsoft's TK's are beginning to read more like Technical Reference books, and less like training guides. While the content of this "guide" is relatively thorough, the authors seem to have forgotten whom their audience is, and that the purpose of this text is for "training" (or, at least that's what the description and title say). Regurgitating technical information is no great feat -- making the concepts clear and readable so that proverbial light goes on over your readers' head is an art -- one lost on this text. In addition, the book is frought with syntactical errors, grammatical faux pas' and outright inconsistencies. I believe this is more the fault of sloppy proof-reading, than the authors', however, it still proves to be distracting, when you spend time reproducing examples and simulations with syntax errors. Not at all impressed.
Rating:
Summary: Helpful, but shouldn't be your only source ---
Review: Microsoft's Win2K Professional TK was simple to understand, follow, relatively error free, and had a flow... however, it didn't present hardly enough to cover what was on the exam -- This one, MS's Win2k Server TK, was thorough, however, it seems to have been written as a reference text, as opposed to an easy to understand and follow, training guide. It presented major concepts in obtuse terms, flooding you with technical overhead, that had to be referenced in other texts, in order to follow the guide, at times. I was sorely disappointed in the fact that the authors completely missed the idea of whom the audience was (this isn't supposed to be a technical reference manual, rather a Training Kit... at least that's what it says on the cover). In addition, I was disappointed in the lack of proof-reading, and editing. While the Professional TK seemed almost error free, I've found numerous errors in the Server TK, in both the text, and syntax of some of the CD-ROM based exercises (ie. Chap. 5, Ex1 -- you copy to the Dfs replica NOT the non-replica, in your batch file! -- that one had me searching for *my* mistake in constructing the Dfs for an hour). You also create small, but nonetheless fatal, syntactical mistakes in the text -- nothing a bit of proof-reading wouldn't have cured up front, but have cost me so much time in trying to trouble-shoot what I thought were *my* errors in reproducing your examples. C'mon guys... at over $50 a pop for these guides, I'd expect something a bit more focused and error free.
Rating:
Summary: Don't buy for the test
Review: Okay book for beginners - no value for the test. Read the NT Server resouce guide for the answers to all the questions not covered in this book. Don't take the test after just reading this book.
Rating:
Summary: Not worth the effort
Review: This book claims to be a test preparation book, but it doesn't help you much in that direction. It goes through all exam objectives in a methodical manner (which is the only reason I've given it 2 and not 1 star), but doesn't do a very good job of explaining things. A lot of concepts are very sloppily explained and left me with the feeling that the author(s) maybe didn't understand the topic completely. Although I would style myself a Windows NT 4 veteran, Windows 2000 has a lot of new features that I needed explained, but this book left me more confused than before I began reading. The hands-on exercises in the book requires you to have two spare computers with network adapters, modems and lots of other hardware to complete - maybe less is not practical for Windows 2000 Server exercises, but I for one couldn't just find two spare computers for the task, so I had to drop all the exercises... Apart from being a confusing read, this book is both long (700+ pages) and boring. After reading the book I decided I was nowhere near ready for the test, so I started out with Transcender, used that for a couple of weeks and passed the test in one try. No thanks to the book, though.
Rating:
Summary: Useless
Review: This book has multiple mistakes. At the beginning of the book is a web address where the book says you can download an evaluation copy of windows 2000 server. The address is wrong. When you do find the address they meant to print, the download isn't there. After contacting Microsoft, the answer I got was "We don't do that anymore." I thought I could buy this book and learn how to use windows 2000 server. Half the book is filled with exercises using windows 2000 server. Unless you're willing to spend a bunch of money to buy a copy of the software, the book is useless. It's enough to make me want to learn linux instead.
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