Customer Reviews

MCSE/MCSA Training Guide (70-216): Windows 2000 Network Infrastructure (2nd Edition)

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

 

 

This book is not a bad book. It covers the topics from the Table of Contents quite well. Unfortunately, it does not cover ALL of the exam topics. Newriders is my publisher of choice for MCSE 2000. This book is the weakest link in the series so far (6 down, 1 to go, passed each exam on first attempt) To be fair to the publisher, this is probably the toughest exam of the series. Quite the skull scratcher.

My feelings about the prep books on the market for this exam leave me a bit torn. Seems reasonable that the toughest exam would cause a writer to generate a weak book, then again, wouldn't you expect the publisher to put their absolute strongest writing up against the toughest MCSE exam? I used 2 other books to prep for this exam, Exam Cram for 216, and belive it or not, Exam Cram for TCP/IP, since both the Newriders 216 book and the Exam Cram 216 book refer you to other works when it comes to covering subnetting. I guess they felt that previous books covered that material so well, that to try again would offend the gods.

My point is this: this is a tough exam, and all of the prep companies have sold us short. This is the thinnest book in each publisher's series. You might need more that one vendor's prep book for this test. Using 2 other books got me through it first time. My coworker needed 2 tries to pass. Best of luck to you. Hope this helps you in your efforts.

After going over this book and CD many times I took the 216 test. Was surprised by just how much information this book is lacking for the test. At least a quarter of my test was composed of DHCP Relay questions, so brush yourself up on it a lot since the book has nothing on the subject. Good testing otherwise!

The author keeps your attention, and he has a sense of humor. Both of these are difficult to find in a technical book.

I am very impressed with the number of hands-on exercises in the book. This allowed my to not only read about the topics, but also put them into practice. You MUST set up a small (two or three computers) home network and use this book. If you complete and understand the labs, I do not fathom how you could fail the exam.

New Riders belong to my top 5 MCSE book authors, but I am a little disappointed about this one.

There are several errors in the book, and some wrong cross referrals. Which means they say to look in a particulair chapter to find specific information, and after re-reading the chapter several times you cannot find to what the referred.

Furthermore I think they don't go deep enough on some subjects. There could be more challenging Step-by-steps then provided in the book, like more step-by-steps for problems you may encounter real-world.

So why is New Riders still in my Top 5?
A very positive thing about New Riders books is that they are easy to read, and make difficult and technical problems more consumable for the less experienced users. Especially users whose native language isn't English (like me :-D).

User who still think they need some extra information on this particulair exam, I would recommend Windows 2000 Network Infrastructure Administration: Study Guide with ISBN 0782129498.
70-216 is one of, if not the most, tough exam in the MCSE track, so I think you'll need it.

Some of these books are so bad, Im surprised the boat on the cover hasn't tipped over yet! However, this book is very well written and doesnt try to fill extra pages with junk!

This book is great for actually stepping through installing and configuring the infrastructure. All chapters have sections that have screen shots and how to instructions. However, if you are trying to pass the 70-217 you need more than step by step how to instructions. You need answers to why something works, and this book does not provide those answers.

The book is fairly detailed but there are a couple of mistakes. The ExamGear software that comes with it has numerous errors. New Riders has nothing (as of yet) on their web site to correct these errors. The book is laid out good (follows the MS exam prep guide), and the exercises were somewhat helpful. You really need to dig into the product to pass the test for this. I setup and used extensively; NAT, ICS, WINS, DHCP, VPN, DNS, and AD. This book will help you understand these areas but it's up to you use the product and to understand it.