Customer Reviews

MCSE Training Guide (70-215): Installing, Configuring, and Administering Windows 2000 Server

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

 

 

You cannot say much bad things about the book. The book is packed with screenshots of Windows 2000 and I can read the book without turning on the computer at all. Also, the author has shown clearly the steps in performing an action and a screenshot and explanation for each step. The exam questions in the book are quite good and they summarise the important points that you should have learnt in a chapter. I have not taken the real exam yet, so I cannot tell whether the questions are up to par like the real exam.

All in all, I am a happy customer. This time NewRiders has done a good job. Watch out, Sybex.

This book is great if you're new to Windows 2000 and can't sit in front of a Win2k machine to learn. The book is packed with screen shots. I wouldn't reccommend using this book as a primary source of information though. The book is littered with typos, conflicting information and incorrect exam answers. The answer keys usually match up while the description for the correct answer does not.

The book is very superficial. Use this book only if you need to familiarize yourself with Windows 2000. However, absolutely do *NOT* rely solely on this book.

This book needs a new revision. The content and format are OK but I don't think they did a good job of matching up with the exam requirements. This book will not be your only resource if you are to pass this exam the first time. Also remember that the quetions in the bok are not representative of the exam. The probem is that there are not a lot of great resources for this exam but you should consider a different one because this one will leave a lot of unanswered questions.

This book contains a smaller number of errors than New Rider's 70-210 book. Again, I used this book to fill in the Win2k 'blanks', and it did just that for me, thus the '4' stars. However, had I wanted a book to take me from ground zero, this would NOT have covered it...

This book contains fewer typos and outright inaccuracies than does its Win2000 Professional counterpart; however, the accompanying "exam prep" cd contains plenty of each. This book is written for a more novice level than most IT professionals would care to read, while the discrepancies between the book and the cd would certainly frustrate even the most patient novice. I recommend this book to anyone who can get it for free and doesn't mind using the Microsoft TechNet site to look up the answers to the discrepancies which NewRiders thoughtfully includes with no additional charge.

Maione certainly seems to live up to the "CramSession" appelation on the cover. He writes chapters that are focused on key issues. The text is to the point. Concepts are clearly described. And where appropriate, the diagrams of screen captures show what you should be seeing, if you're attempting the tasks.

But to many readers, the more valuable parts may be the exercises at the end of the chapters. Vital in helping you assimilate the chapters. If you concentrate on the exercises, the active steps you have to perform on the computer and the results you see on the screen help drive the understanding in a way that just reading is unlikely to do.

This particular book covers a lot of ground. Backups, file compression, networking and more. The gamut of running an operating system. None of the topics seem to be covered deeply. Hopefully, this is an accurate reflection of the actual exams. It should also be added that there is another very helpful feature. A chapter might contain suggestions as to what the exam is likely to emphasize. No guarantees from the author. But it could still be useful in suggesting what you focus on.

This book series like always has a good hands on feature where you can do exercises and learn the material. However in this book they go a bit too far. They devote step by step exercises during the chapters and at the end of the chapters repeat some of them. A lot of material is irrelevant and they exclude important topics like GPO policies and active directory specifics which are needed for the w2k server environment. The questions and explanations at the end of the chapters are pretty good but the 50 or so questions on the Preplogic demo aren't that good. Overall it will help you pass but i had to do further research on some topics at microsoft.com.

I appreciate the step to step guide for most of the examples. However, it ends up wasting too many pages. The book gives a general discussion on almost all of the topics. There aren't much detailed/technical discussion. I end up heading to Microsoft Technet for more details.

I went to the exam and found out that certain topics are not covered in the book at all like Active directory, OU. I barely passed the exam.