Microsoft IIS 6 Delta Guide (Internet Information Server)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, to the point guide for understanding IIS 6.0
Review: If you want to learn IIS 6.0 architect and how it differ from IIS 5.0 in detail than this is the book for you. It's very concise (but does not miss any details), and to-the-point presented in very interesting manner that you may want to read it full in one sitting and amazingly you can. Positives are:
Cheap, light, handy, almost 350 pages, presented very clearly and concisely. Covers all or more then all details about IIS 6.0 that any windows 2003 administrator would need to know.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but no homerun
Review: The intention of the Delta Guide series is to present a concise skill upgrade guide for experience systems administrators and architects without burdening them with information that they already know from experience and past reading.

This installment in the series is a decent and concise guide to IIS 6.0. It shines when going over the security differences between IIS 6.0 and 5.0/4.0 and when explaining the new processing model used in IIS 6.0.

My major complaint is that the book breaks its own rules. Too often the author provides information on technical aspects of IIS that existed in older versions of the product that an IIS admin will likely know. He could have used this space to elaborate on products changes instead of skimping on the details and using space constraints as the excuse.

Most of the information presented in this book is widely available on the Internet, but this book serves as a handy guide to IIS 6.0. Upon reading it and applying your existing experience you should be conversant in the new technologies and benefits of this exciting change in Microsoft's approach to web servers. But be aware that the book's necessary lack of depth will eventually lead you to seek out more comprehensive works.