Customer Reviews

Mastering NetWare 6

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

 

 

Gaskin really knows NetWare, and he really knows how to write.
His prose is clear, precise, and full of wit.

Even better, this book is worth every penny--other publishers
might have padded this out to 1200 or even 1500 pages by
inflating the typeface and sticking in lots of extra padding
material (lists of RFCs, lots of other irrelevant stuff). SYBEX
had the good sense to keep it at "only" 800+ pages.

The fonts are small enough that you can get figures and text all
on two facing pages so you don't have to keep flipping back and
forth just to get one concept down.

The glossary is the best and most complete I've ever seen,
giving detailed and complete definitions instead of the quick
one or two-liners that most authors settle for.

The "In a Hurry" sections are awesome--Gaskin puts in just the
essential steps to get NetWare features going, so if you don't
have time to read through all the details, theory, and other
stuff in the text you can get something workin, NOW, and then
read up on it later.

Overall, an incredibly good book.

... Bought this book and started reading. WOW!!!. Had the OS installed, configured, setup and ready to put on line in 7 hours. Remember, this was done with only the book as a guide. Started on page one and went through the initial partitioning, install, setup and then took the time to figure out the migration routines for pulling the NT system info to the new Novell system. All with the aid of this book. One problem I encountered was the assumption that the author makes that if your installing Novell, you already know the basics and the mundane details are not needed...WRONG!!!. I don't hold this against the author as he is absolutely correct in not wasting time on the basics, however, for me it was a nightmare when I got to the iMANAGER part of the licensing and configurations. DUH!!! on my part but I could not figure out how to launch iMANAGER on the workstation with CLIENT installed. Novells website had errors on iMANAGER as well as the book had NO information on how to find or launch the iMANAGER. A lot of talk about how wonderful it was but unfortunately, I have never seen the screen with the iPRINT etc listed on the left side of the window. Hummm!!! Novell apologized for the confusion and walked me through the problem and the book took over from there.

Would I recommend this book? Absolutely...No book can be perfect and especially when someone with absolutely NO experience in an operating system such as Novell is attempting to setup a server. Thanks for the effort in creating this book and I will be reading it from cover to cover. PS...it comes with a 90 day eval of Netware 6. Will put it on a test system at the office and play with it for a while. Especially when Microsoft gets done with their new licensing program in July. All my computers will be running Unix, Linux, or Novell with publishing from Star Office. Good luck all. If you are already familiar with Novell, than this book is a great source of information on updates and changes from Novell 5 to present. If you are new? Then this book will definetly get you up and going with a little support and imagination.

I have the netware 5.1 book by Gaskin. That book was excellent which is why I bought this one, but this one [isn't].

The text is too small (about font size 10)so unless you are 20 something, you will find reading very tiring. The screen shots are nearly illegible because they are so tiny.

This book is too difficult to read for the beginning user and lacks the depth and detail needed by the advanced reader for use as a reference book. The examples on ConsoleOne and NWAdmin don't tell you where to find them or how to set them up or how to add snap-ins. It seems to be unncessarily detailed in some areas and missing vital information in other areas. It is definitely not the book for someone studying for the CNE 6 exam.

In short, I regret buying the book.

this is a very good guide - but it must be firmly stated, that it is mainly useful for intermediate users. There is no background to Netware, to aid the beginner, and no advanced tips, to help the expert.

I began this book as a Netware newbie. The writing style is clear and often light-hearted. There's much more than the online documentation. However it all goes by pretty quickly unless you have had experience with Netware.

Here's an example. The book is halfway through before getting into the nitty-gritty of server console commands. The author is following Novell's proscription to favour browser-based management, but I also believe that the author assumes his readers were into Netware networking around about the time they were going to Van Halen concerts.

The sections on eDirectory and printing are very good, but more real life examples would have been better. Minasi's "Windows 2000 Server" has 300 more pages, and much of this is real life examples, which befit a "Mastering" book. Slightly in Gaskin's defence however, it should be stated that Netware is more stable than Windows Server, and there isn't as much troubleshooting to go over.

Speaking of Windows, the potshots about Microsoft are annoying. Anyone bothering to read a book on Netware won't need convincing as to the weaknesses of Microsoft. The strengths of Netware should shine through, without an overt panegyric to Netware's superiority.

However, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Bonuses include a 5 user c.d. of Netware, and Gaskin's email - he answers questions.

So if you've had some Netware experience, get this book. As a newbie, I had to get Linberg's succinct "Netware Basics" book to catch up.

This is the worst book i have ever read. The title seems attractive "Mastering Netware 6", but please don't expect you can master Netware 6 after reading this whole book. What you will learn here is just the basic skills in using Netware 6. There is again and again explanations of how to configure NDS settings such as set restrictions. Just a few easy steps but the steps are listed and explained again and again in different chapters. There is only one reason to buy this book....for the 90 days evaluation Netware 6 CD.

...

It has precious little or ,in some cases, no information on the new NetWare 6 features. Every time I have referred to it, the information I need just isn't there.

If you are looking for information on NetWare 6 clustering then look elsewhere. There's just a short review of Cluster Services for NetWare 5.1, which is about as much use as a chocolate teapot. This is inexcusable, considering that clustering is an integral part of NetWare 6.

You're far better off looking at Novell's on line documentation (and that's not saying much!)