Customer Reviews

MCSE Designing Security for Windows 2000 Network Study Guide (Exam 70-220) (Book/CD-ROM package)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Was somewhat disappointed by this book. Expected much more from Syngress. Looks like author was in a great hurry trying to present at least _something_ to cover the exam objectives, piece from here, piece from here, no clear presentation of the information, no vision how the things fit together, etc. The typical note from the author when the things are not clear - "that's enough to pass the exam". About 1/3 of the 700-page book are screendumps - kind of "what you'll see if you'll try to do that", 100-page Glossary - not so much remaining for the real information. However I have to admit that all certification objectives are covered more or less. If you are not new to the thechnology - you can browse this book to become familiar with the objectives and what knowledge from wich areas Microsoft expects from you. Definitely will not recommend this title to anyone who new to security area - the one can get complete mess in his/her head after reading of this title. Looks like that for preparation to the 70-220 exam this title is not the best choice, especially taking into account that this is case-study based exam. Just to add more pepper - the quality of videoclips on CD is not so good. Not sure that anyone checked them at all.

This book and mostly all of the Osborne series contains a lot of text whith no meaning at all. If you have a good understanding of the four core modules (especially the 3rd core), the added value of this book is almost nothing at all. Secondly the layout of the book makes this book very hard to read, although it's English... Compared to the four core books of Microsoft Press self, no other rating than one star is well deserved.

I was really disappointed in this book. It was long winded and off topic.. Its seems like a different person wrote each chapter, too much overlap. In the first three chapters the author(s) state that you can not export 128 bit encryption three times. I have read many of the Syngress books and have been very happy with them, I will be reading the Sybex instead. I am angry that I wasted time on this book.

I agree with other reviewers who said that this book has too much irrelevant information, which ultimately overshadows the core material that you will need to know to pass the test. The practice tests in the book are good but, of course, they test on material presented in the book. What good does it do to do well on the practice tests when you are testing on material that is not relevant to the exam? When I tried practice tests that were not in the book, I found that there were huge gaps in terms of the information that I would likely need to know to pass the test. Don't waste your time.

I'm in ageement with one of the reviews below- this book is full of important and useful information. I do think it could have been organized a little differently- I won't say the organization is bad, but *I* would have preferred it a little differently. That's the only really small negative for me-

Positives- A Ton of information is carried within the text, most of which you *need* to know to pass this exam. The CD (like all of the MCSE 2000 books in the Syngress/Osborne series) is extremely useful- one of the best CDs I've seen in a long time. Don't decide to not check it out- you'll be missing out on valuable info.

My advice- don't pass this one up. I've used all of the Syngress/Osborne books so far to study for my exams (4 Core and two Design out of the way), and they have not failed me. This one didn't either.

Since this whole concept is new to MCSE's of the past, I can see how some would find this book useless. I thought it coverered all the material well and was a good prep for the exam.

Got the book because there wasn't much available for the Design Security test. The book is good, but I wonder how they decided to organize the the stuff the way they did. The book was well written and I learn a lot that I didn't know before, but I think they could have made it easier. Its almost as bad as Microsoft Press book! The CD was great and the videos help a lot at bringing the big picture together. This book helped me pass the test, but I had to read some stuff from TechNet too.

I hate the format of this book. It's layout and the way that the book is organized totally detracts from it's content. And it's content is fairly week as well. It's basically just a bunch of questions that has in depth answers. I can't imagine that this book would actually help someone pass the 70-220 exam.

I've been working with Windows 2000 since before it was release; administrating AD, migrating domains, and testing security aspects of it. I am very familiar with subject of the book and it is just poorly presented and explained.

I gave it 2 stars because some people may actually make use of it, but only combined with other books. Get something from the the Exam Cram or Exam Prep series, or from New Riders.