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Rating: 
Summary: Overall good study guide
Review: I bought this book a couple of months ago and until recently the book was dust collector on my bookshelf. My decision to buy this book was based on relative good reviews that the book received compared to other study guides for exam 70-240. Now, I'm glad that I picked up this particular study guide. What I needed before I was ready for this book was some kind of overview of all the goodies in Windows 2000, because most of my job related experience was so far limited to W2K member servers in NT 4 domain - no Active Directory, GPO... I recently took five days course, "1560 Updating Support skills from MS Windows NT 4.0 to MS Windows 2000" which helped me to accelerate the whole process of preparation for this exam. Now I can more easily follow the topics in this study guide from Syngress. It covers exam objectives pretty well, I found the writing style somehow 'technical dry' but otherwise clear with no filler paragraphs. Some topics are covered too light however (GPO for example), so you'll probably need some additional source of information (I'm using Books online from Resource Kit, Windows 2000 Active directory from O'Reilly and Inside Windows 2000 Server from New Riders). CD-ROM is surprisingly useful, the only thing I don't like are those barely readable CertCam videos and bonus printable questions with answers immediately following the questions - it would be much better if answers were on a separate page. The organization of the topics is in my opinion the major shortcoming of the book, for example it would be logical to cover DNS before Active Directory and to better resemble real exam structure of four different sections. It's also a shame that after a year publisher didn't care to prepare errata for this book to correct some errors and to further clarify some statements that contradict on the first glance but are correct with proper interpretation, for example; page 41 : Site link bridges have no link cost, because their link cost is a dynamic cost dependent on the links included in the site link bridge. page 145: Like site links, site link bridges have cost and replication schedule attributes. Overall this is a good study guide for exam 70-240 with emphasis on word "guide" - it's not possible to cover all the details in one "tiny" book. You'll need some additional resources and readings. Good luck!
Rating: 
Summary: Tough topic, tough exam, good book
Review: I just passed the exam using mostly only this book. There is a lot of material in there and so the book is dense. However, taking it step by step, using the quiz on the CD-Rom after each certtrainer chapter, and taking the simulation exam allowed me to get trough the toughest exam of my MCSE certification. I had started studying with the MS Press book and switched to this one for the on-line content.
Only one negative comment : the quizzes are full of errors, but this is not the case for the simulation exam.
Good luck!
Rating:
Summary: Well Well Well !
Review: I scincerly recognize the lot of work writing a book could be even more a IT book and even even more an IT Certification book... This book is ok, well written good printed and so on... but for me the CD was as important as the book... i expected to find a .CHM file that i can use in my research among other things... but the CD IS REALLY POOR ! and this is sad.It would be simpler for you to do a simple google query like " MCSE CHM " and DL all the files you find... do you get me !
Rating:
Summary: Excelent Book
Review: I used it for the exam and it worked for me. The topics are very well explained, and it has all the information and concepts you need as a network planner.
Rating:
Summary: 100% coverage
Review: IF your goal is certification in MCSE W2k, I can recommand you this book. Although it contains some errors, it is one of the best for doing the actual exam. If you want to use this book for on hands experience, I would not buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't count on this book to pass
Review: The book is less than average, if you count on passing with this big volume...you'd rather think 1000 times before doing so. Their is a lot of missing information especially with the infrastructure and active directory stuff...the easy part is NOT missig. Get a set like sybex.
Rating:
Summary: Tough read but good information
Review: The organization of the book is counter-intuitive and fails to present the information in an order that builds on previous chapters, but the information is accurate and broad in coverage.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time or money!
Review: This book is a travesty. The content is compiled from several authors and very poorly edited. Lots of duplication, typos etc. It's not very approachable. 1500 pages and it starts with Active Directory, a section that will bore you out of your mind. AD is not inherently boring but the covearge in this book is. The CD is a defective joke. Shinder knows his stuff and the networking section which he authored is pretty good, but as an editor he's a non starter. The book was obviously rushed to market.
Rating: 
Summary: I nailed the Accelerated test!
Review: Very good book to get you up to speed on the 70-240 exam. The material had the subjects on my exam nailed down. The gazillions of practice questions and movies on the CD helped quite a bit. I spent about a month on this book and looked up stuff I need more information on in TechNet. I already bought the Syngress book for the network design test, and expect to pass that one too!
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