How to Cheat at Managing Windows Small Business Server 2003

Rating:
Summary: Well written, gets to point quick
Review: Excellent book, good examples, good step-by-step instructions. Covers remote access, adding users, computers, etc.m messaging, outlook web access. I can;t tell you how many times I've leafed through it in the last few days to find a piece of info. Good info on troubleshooting, errors, all the stupid stuff I do when I'm rushing.

Rating:
Summary: Clear, concise must-have guide to Small Business Server 2003
Review: From the author:

Many small companies do not have a dedicated IT department. In fact, it's often the person that shows a modicum of computer savvy that ends up at the "IT person" for the company. You're tasked with doing your regular job AND managing your company's network.

Microsoft's Windows Small Business Server 2003 is targeted at the millions of small businesses that don't have a dedicated IT staff to manage the company's network. The product goes a long way in making the complex Windows Server 2003 operating system more user-friendly, but it's always nice to have a clear, concise how-to book on hand to help answer questions, to show you step-by-step how a process will work and to provide easy-to-understand explanations for technical terminology.

Enter How to Cheat at Managing Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003.

We created a clear, concise, easy-to-understand (and use) guide to managing SBS 2003. We made the book understandable to both seasoned and less experienced net admins. If you're seasoned, you'll appreciate the no-nonsense approach to topics. If you're less experienced, you'll appreciate the concise technical explanations that help you learn as you go. We focused on providing step-by-step instructions with plenty of screen shots and explanations so that just about anyone with a solid computer experience could manage an SBS-based network.

If you were starting to wonder how you could manage your company's network AND do your real job, this book is for you. You can read it from cover to cover or you can read chapters as you need them. Either way, you'll find clear, concise, focused information you can use immediately. Now get going, you've got a network to manage.


Rating:
Summary: Very useful book!
Review: I recently installed Windows Small Business Server 2003 and used this book as my guide. The book's clear, direct approach to each of the planning and installation tasks helped me get through the installation without a hitch. Although I'm familiar with many aspects of the Windows Server environment (I had been running Windows 2000 Server before), the SBS software contains features new to me. Snedaker's concise treatment of the new features and how to best work with them saved me time and effort. Although the book doesn't contain every single detail related to SBS 2003, it contains enough of what you really need to know and helps point you in the right direction if you run into problems. The straightforward language of the book is definitely refreshing, and the approach is excellent. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone installing or maintaining a Windows Small Business Server 2003 system. Excellent from cover to cover.

Rating:
Summary: A front end to the official documentation
Review: Snedaker takes a pragmatic approach to the sysadmin tasks described in her book. She does not attempt to give a comprehensive discussion of all that is in Small Business Server 2003. For that, you can turn to Microsoft's official documentation. But a problem with the latter is that it is voluminous. Snedaker aims this book at someone who may not have the time or inclination to go through the latter.

So she describes what to her are the key issues you are likely to face. For these, she speaks as plainly as possible about how to solve them. You get enough information to (hopefully) perform your tasks. There is no elegant description of the structure of SBS. But do you really care?

The book can function as a good front end to the Microsoft documentation. You can try using it first. Then, for more detail, refer to those.