Customer Reviews

Exchange Server 5.5 Secrets®

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

The following text comes from an e-mail to IDG books, publisher of "Exchange Server 5.5 Secrets"--

*To Whom it May Concern:

I feel it imperative to inform you that "Exchange Server 5.5 Secrets" is, far and away, the worst technology book I have EVER wasted money on. Not only do I feel cheated of my hard-earned money, I feel cheated of my time. I spent several hours trying to decipher procedural and installation instructions from obscure fact after history lesson after sidebar after obscure fact after... (well, you get the point)-- hours that I will never be able to get back for myself. I gained nothing tangible from your mighty tome of utter ambiguity and total confusion, for all my index referencing and double-checking and "if...then" pondering. There is absolutely no coherence in any of what is written. It seems as if the authors got together and just kind of threw whatever thoughts they had on the table, left it in a heap and handed it over to the copyists and printers. On a brighter note, at least there weren't very many typos...

One of the things I kept trying to figure out was, "Who is this book written for?" Case in point: In Chapter 20: Internet Mail Service, there's an explanation of SMTP and TCP/IP's roles in internet mail and Exchange specifically. It shows a sample conversation between two hosts. THEN, after going over the command lines, the text goes on to say: "Each computer or host connected to the internet must have a unique 4-bit address. Because remembering xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx would be cumbersome, computers also have special names called domain names..."

Really? You don't say. "Domain names?" If I didn't know what a domain name or a 4-bit addressing scheme was, how on earth would I have been able to understand the command line session that preceded your explanation? You guys should've researched your target a little better. This book is the reason why environmentalists are so up-in-arms at the thought of more wasteful forest cutting.

Rest assured, ladies and gents, your "secrets" are safe with "Exchange Server 5.5..."

-This e-mail will be forwarded on to the readers reviews of amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and any other bookseller that carries your over-priced doorstop.

Assistant Manager, Information Systems Academy of Television Arts & Sciences

This is not an Exchange 5.5 manual. Most of the book is written for v. 4.0 and 5.0 of Exchange. The authors merely added a few paragraphs about what has been added for version 5.5 but offer no information that any administrator could find useful. Passing this book off as a 5.5 manual is an insult. Save your money.

Where do I even begin? First off, there was no flow to this book. Sometimes when a book has multiple authors the chapters don't fit together perfectly; in this book the paragraphs seemed slammed together in a random fashion. Secondly, they bounce between high-level overviews and details with nothing in between. Uggh, plus many technical inaccuracies -- very, very disappointing.

I was a contributor to the book. I think it's sad that anonymous authors from Seattle are embarrassed about being a part of a project when it was fully within their power to create something they wouldn't be embarrassed about. It's sad when someone partakes of a project, then feels the need to dissociate with it after it is done--and in an anonymous fashion.

That being said, I've given this book to a few friends, including the company that I work for now. No one I know that has actually read the book has come away with the feeling that they have just completely wasted their time and money.

The book is not perfect. It's hard to figure out where the text is going at times. But the information is invaluable and I haven't seen another book that covers all the informational topics that this one does.

You also have to remember that Exchange Server went through 2 major versions in an extremely short period of time. That shows in this book and probably accounts for the patchy feeling you get while reading it.

This was not a 5.5 book at all. It's more like a 5.0 book with upcoming features in 5.5. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY.

This book is the 5.0 book with several after thought paragraphs mentioning 5.5. Not even a mention of ESEUTIL, aahh! They should have thought about writing a book on 5.5 if they wanted to put a 5.5 cover on it.

I am very disturbed and burned out! This book has no kind of secret what so ever. Save your money and use for something else. It's not worth the price!!! Please don't get ripped off by the tittle.

This book was of no use to me and really says the same thing that every book on Exchange does. It never touched on the Outlook web access other than half a page and nothing was relevent. Save yor money

I work with MS Exchange since the beta2 version and it will be hard for me to say " I am an expert" I have read a lot of books about Exchange but this one is my favourite! It has so many TIPS & TRICKS & SECRETS which no other book will give you. I don't think that even the Exchange developers realise how many tricks you can do with the existing code. Very easy to read (at least for me) Very easy to understand the internal processes of the engine which 500 people wrote for 7 year, from the Independed author !!! CONGRATULATIONS IDG

I took a look at this book. It has nothing to offer at all. It's poorly structured, barely covers version 5.5 and reveals no secrets!