Customer Reviews

Microsoft Windows 2000 Core Requirements, Exam 70-215: Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I purchased this book as soon as it became available from amazon.com. There were several reasons for my purchase: 1. To use this book to prepare for the certification examination for Win2k Server and 2. To use as a reference for the technical writing projects that I am involved in at present.

After reading through the entire book at least once, and some sections several times, I can say this is a really great book for the newbie or low level network technician that needs to know which dialog box to access and what buttons to click to accomplish a particular task.

For such an audience, the books does an excellent job at providing a fair number of exercises to point them in the right direction. However, if you are looking for more details on how the Win2k Server Operating System works, and to reach the level of understanding required of a Win2k Network Engineer, you will be sorely disappointed.

I have two major "beefs" with the material as presented in this book:

1. There is some important conceptual material contained in the book, however it is so poorly written that I challenge anyone with an IQ of 130 or less to understand it (It was probably written by someone with a 150 IQ). The value added from these books should come from their ability to shed light on complex subjects, rather than obscure them more than they are obscured in the Resource Kit.

2. There is WAY TOO MUCH material on unattended installations (~150 pages). There is a lot of detail on the installation methods available in Win2k, but not enough material were you would actually be able to implement such solutions on an enterprise network.

If you expect to pass the Win2k Server examination with this as your only study guide, its time to wake up from that dream. I think this book is an excellent overall addition to my library and I'll shoot anyone that tries to steal it from me :-) However, given the level of difficulty and complexity of the Win2k Server exam, you should read several other books in addition to this in order to be thoroughly prepared.

Hello Fellow Travellers! I have been using Win2k Pro/Server from beta to final release. I went through the classes for win2k based on beta3. I purchased all the pro/server/ad MCSE training kits. I wanted to get clarification and separation from the win2k classes via the MCSE books. I work with Win2k Pro everyday. I also purchased the Win2k Pro/Server Resource Kits for further clarification. I have a mix and native mode LAN with about 8 computers at home.

The MCSE Win2k Server book is a good overview from the classes. They are presenting ALOT I mean ALOT of info and skillsets MS deemed necessary to pass the 70-215 Exam. I always kept a stance that these MCSE Kits are not a MANUAL how to pass the tests, but rather an OVERVIEW of what is important to master. This is what the book actually is, AN OVERVIEW. Is it enough to pass the exam? Yes, with a modern LAN and extensive hands-on and additional sources of info. Why? MS Press with MS has been turning away from Consummer based training to the Enterprise-Level training i.e. training Corporate Level IT people. You can read MS Press new Mission Statement and I believe that this reflects in the new MCSE books/kits. Are these books appropriate for the newbies/people trying to start out? Imho, NO. I believe that these books are geared for people who in the industry or have taken previous MCP courses/tests. Ok, the book is a good overview. But, I am still confused about MS Press move not to give Eval software. They suggest that you download it. DOH. I have the software, but for others..ugh. Perhaps, they think IT people will have Technet copies or real copies from work. Or, they didn't have time to put it in with the book. I agree more with the former.

Ok, what do you mean by additional resources? I think reading any white papers, articles, known issues, KB articles, and using the resource kits. My understanding how the new exams are going to be based on are possible real-experience based scenarios. I know that this is what MS claimed earlier with the NT4.0. But, I think it will be different this time.If the new exams are going to be more experience based AND with elements like 70-100 architecture exam, oh boy...

I would like to address a popular topic that is somewhat out of the scope of this book, but still related. It is about the 70-240 Exam, the core combo exam for win2k. Take it and you don't need to take the 4 core exams. I think that this is misleading and grossly simplified. I believe that this is an opportunity for people who are FULLY PREPARED for the 4 core exams and are able to take one exam. Let me repeat: FULLY PREPARED. That means, you have the ability to sit and take all 4 exams if you need to. I don't think it is going to be read one book and pass the exam. MS is not messing around with this. They are offering it to people who have core NT 4.0 exams. Then, you have an OPPORTUNITY to take 70-240. Remember, this is ONE TIME DEAL. You can take it only ONCE. If not, you must take all 4 core exams. I believe that MS is raising the bar for MCSE and such. MS is betting alot on Win2K to be the next enterprise/internet level OS to compete with other OSs. I believe that this is going to force 90% of the current MCSE/MCPs to redo all their certs. The other 10% just did it quicker. Does this mean NT 4.0 will be obsolete? No. NT 4.0 will be around for a while, although it will be retired in a couple years. People will still use it and support will be needed. However, MS is basically telling people, this is how MS is moving towards to. Adapt or perish. I will most likely won't pass the 70-240 and have to take at least 5 exams to get re-certified. I have passed 12 exams w/o failing (SQL 70-29 was a close call :)) I accept it and move on.

Conclusion: (Finally :P) Good Overview of the skillsets needed but need modern LAN, extensive hands-on, and additional resources to pass exam. Bad: no eval software. Not for newbies. Buy it and make sure you get some copies of the win2k pro/server.

My 2 Cents,

Seattle Dude MCSE+i MCDBA MCT CCNA CCDA (soon to be MCSD)

I've worked with many certification products, some good, some horrible. Microsoft certification materials have always been in the middle of the pack. Even within the same book this hold true, some chapters have very clear defined objectives, while others are disorganized messes. Microsoft Press seems to be conflicted on their MCSE titles. They don't know if they want to help you become certified or if they're tomes for reference. I always find some gems of knowledge in their MCSE titles but the cost of finding them in my opinion can be too high. If you've found that Microsoft Press MCSE prep materials have worked for you in the past, great, get this book. If your not an MS Press fan, wait for some of the later test prep books. A test prep book is only as good as the knowledge in the book to pass the exam.

If you are well-experienced with personal computers and have at least a reasonable networking experience (know the difference between RJ-11 and RJ-45, the difference between Ethernet and Token Ring, know how to install and configure a generic NIC, etc.), you can probably handle the material presented here. This book is aimed at the person who is working on Microsoft certification. As such it does the best job of any self-study tools currently available in preparing you for the 70-215 (Server) test.

To take full advantage of the material and exercises, you will need two computers capable of running Win2k advanced server. They will need to be connected by hub or switch. You will also need at least an evaluation copy of the software. Don't attempt to use a beta or release candidate version, as you will find the variations confusing.

Don't be fooled by the title. Even if you are not interested in certification, this is still a good book of the network administrator. Topics that I felt were well covered are user profiles, unatteded installations, and group policies. Topics that could have used more treatment included shared/NTFS permissions and remote administration. Perhaps these topics are covered more in other books in the series.

As do other books in the series, this one has the official outline of the tested material and maps it to where in the book the material can be found. These books are much like the Microsoft Official Curriculum with the addition of an index. This index was nice to have, but a little lean, I felt.

The book in general was quite clean and almost error-free; including the hands-on exercises which were very helpful. This alone would make the book outstanding in view of the bulk of the books in this genre being full of errors.

If you go through the entire book, do all of the exercises, and study the review questions you will probably have enough preparation to take the test. I don't recall seeing anything on the test that was not in the book.

This is not an appropriate book for those just starting into networking without some basic knowledge to fall back upon. The book is clear about that position though as it states right in the beginning that it is for "IT Professionals working with 2000 Server or who plan to take the exam". It also states that it "Assumes a fundamental networking windows interface knowledge and BIOS settings and changing them".

Each chapter is followed by a lab exercise that helps the reader to apply the lessons learned in that chapter. The problem is that in order to install the Windows 2000 Server software and be able to do the lab exercise you need two computers that meet the minimum requirements for Windows 2000 Server. For most people they probable don't have two of them just sitting around.

A lot of people have complained that the book covered a lot of topics that were not on the exam. While this may have been the case, I think that it is a good thing. If you want something to make yourself another Microsoft clone who can pass an exam but not know anything about how to really do anything in the real world then get a book that focuses just on passing the exam and not one that has any additional information.

If all you want to do is pass the exam then look at something else like Transcender that does not require a Windows 2000 Server to learn on. This book is suited to study for the exam, but does have a lot of other additional information that a real administrator (as compared to a Microsoft Certified certificate holder) might need.

On the other hand, much of the information assumes a fairly strong knowledge of many networking topics. Many items are given in a cookbook fashion with a `how to do it' focus and little or no explanation as to why you would do it that way.

For most people this book is firmly in the middle ground; too much additional information for just test preparation, not enough detail for understanding true administration. Too much of one, not enough of the other. If this is where you are at in your knowledge level then it would be a good book. If you can afford only one book then it would be a good book. On the other hand there are better test preparation books and better administration book, but the cost is much higher for two books than one that is somewhere in the middle.

This book claims to be a test preparation book, but it doesn't help you much in that direction. It goes through all exam objectives in a methodical manner (which is the only reason I've given it 2 and not 1 star), but doesn't do a very good job of explaining things.

A lot of concepts are very sloppily explained and left me with the feeling that the author(s) maybe didn't understand the topic completely. Although I would style myself a Windows NT 4 veteran, Windows 2000 has a lot of new features that I needed explained, but this book left me more confused than before I began reading.

The hands-on exercises in the book requires you to have two spare computers with network adapters, modems and lots of other hardware to complete - maybe less is not practical for Windows 2000 Server exercises, but I for one couldn't just find two spare computers for the task, so I had to drop all the exercises...

Apart from being a confusing read, this book is both long (700+ pages) and boring.

After reading the book I decided I was nowhere near ready for the test, so I started out with Transcender, used that for a couple of weeks and passed the test in one try. No thanks to the book, though.

I expected that this guide would be much like the excellent Windows 2000 Professional training kit from Microsoft -- it's not. This book wastes too much time presenting topics in laborious detail that aren't covered on the exam. The actual study text is 904 pages, the appendices and glossary add another 100 pages to this tediously long volume. In addition to this, the book references white papers and RFCs (100s of pages of more impertinent text) off on the companion CD and recommends that a person preparing for the exam read these documents. This is an utter waste of time -- once again, I gained nothing from this experience that helped me with the exam.

Don't get me wrong -- it's not entirely awful. I will probably use this book as a reference guide in the future with my career. It works well as a reference guide, not an exam preparation guide.

I have over a year experience with Windows 2000 Server, so I was able to pass the test (barely) without much additional help from this book (primarily because it's so long that I had to try to selectively choose what may be relevant and what wasn't). I recommend that people without a lot of time to prepare for this test (or on the self-study MCSE super-fast-track) use a more concise and relevant study aide -- don't waste your time with this unless you're looking to know a lot more than you need to pass the test.

The practice exam part of this book shares same questions
as Microsoft Press's "MCSE Microsoft Windows 2000
Server Readiness Review (Exam 70-215)". If you already
have "Readiness Review" and want more practice tests,
this may not be a book for you.

Note: "Readiness Review" has some wrong answers,
which is corrected in this book.

This book is good for reference, but covers too broad
area to concentrate only on 70-215. If you read this book
page by page from page 1 to last just for 70-215, you would
end up spending extremely long time for things that never
come up in the real exam.

Actually, this book has a table that shows which
objectives of the test are covered in which chapters,
so you can skip some chapters not in the table.
If you encoutner some important concept that you are not
so familar with, you can go back and forth in the
book to read the chapter that explains it. This book
surely has such chapter.

This book explains complex concepts, such as Domain
Group, GPO, unattended installation, and VPN, in enough
detail. If you want reference for these things to pass the exam,
this book would be a good choice.

I found this book to be extremely helpful in my 70-215 studies, as the material in the book easily maps to the test objectives. Another good thing about this one (unlike the other book I bought) is that this one has provided me with a good reference for my bookshelf after I passed the test. With it having the lack of any testing simulator, I borrowed a copy of certificationcorner.com's 70-215 Test Pro test engine from my brother-in-law. This was sort of the icing on the cake that got me through in terms of test questions. It also had a couple of simulation questions, which helped somewhat. The biggest problem with this book is that you really need to have two computers networked together via a hub that are running Windows 2000 Server in order to take full advantage of the exercises. Even if you don't have this type of setup, the exercises are worthwhile study aids.

Microsoft's Win2K Professional TK was simple to understand, follow, relatively error free, and had a flow... however, it didn't present hardly enough to cover what was on the exam --

This one, MS's Win2k Server TK, was thorough, however, it seems to have been written as a reference text, as opposed to an easy to understand and follow, training guide. It presented major concepts in obtuse terms, flooding you with technical overhead, that had to be referenced in other texts, in order to follow the guide, at times. I was sorely disappointed in the fact that the authors completely missed the idea of whom the audience was (this isn't supposed to be a technical reference manual, rather a Training Kit... at least that's what it says on the cover).

In addition, I was disappointed in the lack of proof-reading, and editing. While the Professional TK seemed almost error free, I've found numerous errors in the Server TK, in both the text, and syntax of some of the CD-ROM based exercises (ie. Chap. 5, Ex1 -- you copy to the Dfs replica NOT the non-replica, in your batch file! -- that one had me searching for *my* mistake in constructing the Dfs for an hour). You also create small, but nonetheless fatal, syntactical mistakes in the text -- nothing a bit of proof-reading wouldn't have cured up front, but have cost me so much time in trying to trouble-shoot what I thought were *my* errors in reproducing your examples.

C'mon guys... at over $50 a pop for these guides, I'd expect something a bit more focused and error free.