Customer Reviews

The McSa Training Kit: Managing a Microsoft Windows 2000 Network Environment ( Exam 70-218 ) (Pro-Certification)

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My friend, who is an computer instructor at a local school, recommended that I get this book, Trancender, and the Sybex MCSE Virtual Lab. The combo worked, as I was able to pass the exam pretty easily. This book was my guide, and the Transcender questions showed what I needed to study, with the Sybex Virtual Lab was sweet because it simulated a network so I could do my lab exercises on it. The Trancenders were the most expensive part, so you might want to skip them if you're trying to do it super-cheap. Read the book. Learn group policies. Practice hands on (on the Sybex simulator). Review with Transcender as needed. Worked for me.

I finished up my MCSA cert a few weeks ago. I only used this book to study for the 218 exam. Microsoft has made some changes to there publishing of exam study guides. I think they are trying to compete with the Exam Cram and other study guide books. Previous MCSE study guides didn't give you any insight into the actual exams. This book does. Since it is coming from the people who write the exam it makes for a great study guide. Some of the sample questions in the book were actually on the exam. Kind of pricey, but if you get the cert it's worth it. Good luck.

You would think that a Microsoft Press certification book would be useful in exam preparation. Again, it seems that this book is rushed. In addition to this book being based on old objectives--there are numberous objectives that do not appear to be covered--the book also seems thrown together. It lacks any organization, and is written more like a White Paper...boring!!!!

I think you will be very surprised after reading this book, and then sitting for the exam. Do yourself a favor, and wait for the other books to come out.

Microsoft announced the newest certification track, the MSCA, for those wanting to become more administration than hardware certified. One of the core exams is the 70-218 exam and this requires serious study and practice time before taking the exam. Microsoft Press has taken the lead in producing training material for the exam.

The 850 plus page training guide gives you over 40 hands on exercises to work and learn from. Starting off the book is networking with Windows 2000, from the install to managing both the client and server to storage and setting up permissions and rights with sharing of resources included.

Over 25 percent of the book and exercises are devoted to managing active directory. I have spent several days working with this section am I am gaining a much better understanding but I need more time before I have concepts down.

There are labs for policies, TCP/IP setup and administration with DHCP, DNS and WINS. Coverage of IIS, remote access and disaster recovery is also included. I have been working with this for over three weeks and I am slowly moving from one section to another.

I like the fact that while there is a time for each section you can work or rework the sections at your own pace. Also included is a 120 day evaluation copy of the 2000 Advanced server. Overall from what I have seen so far this book should be quite useful to pass the exam in either the self study or classroom.

I just completed my MCSA track today. I just too this 70-218 test and used this Ms press book along with practice questions. This book does explain the information you need to know to pass this test, but keep in mind that regardless of the guide you use, Microsoft reserves the right to make its tests vague and ambiguous making it seem as if the information is nowhere in the book. This book along with a practice test from Testking.com helped a lot.

For people who are new to network administration, this is a good book. I recommended it to several of my customers who have unexperienced administrators, this book gave them a good overview of essential topics. The knowledge is not too deep so that it would scare them, and just deep enough to be of use.

As I use this book to prepare for 70-218 exam, I found it has a few mistakes. So I searched the Microsoft web site and found the following:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q318907

MCSA/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit: Managing a Microsoft Windows 2000 Network Environment Exam 70-218 Comments and Corrections (Q318907)

This article contains comments, corrections, and information about known errors relating to the Microsoft Press book MCSA/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit: Managing a Microsoft Windows 2000 Network Environment Exam 70-218, ISBN 0-7356-1581-0.

This book provides a good overview of a lot of different material, but covers nothing in-depth. If you are going for your MCSA certification, and you don't have a lot of experiance, I would recommend that you study this manuel first, then study for and take 70-210 and 70-215, followed by 70-218. You will have a better concept of the technology on the 70-210 and 70-215 exams after reading this book.

If you have already passed the 70-210 and 70-215 exams, you should ace 70-218 without any additional study material. If you haven't taken these exams, this study manuel alone will not get you through 70-218.

My final words of wisdom -- if you have a fair amount of Windows 2000 experiance, skip this book altogether and take the test!

This book does not read well. It is very hard to get through, dry and poorly written. If you have read some of the core 4 MCSE books out there, there is nothing new to learn. The book does go into great detail on active directory but skims over most network topics.

Try Sybex and compare. Needs alot of work to come up to standard.