Customer Reviews

MCSE Microsoft TCP/IP on Windows NT 4.0 Study Guide (Exam 70-59)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

This book is an example of why you don't want a lot of different authors on a book. Practically every chapter started off reminding you that an IP address is a 32 bit number, divided into 4 octets. Yes, we remember that from the last 6 chapters, thanks.

Some of the figure references are wrong and, as others have pointed out, text often refers to figures several pages away.

That said, there is some value in their explanations and I thought the CD was useful due to the variety of sample exams. Don't expect to just read this book and pass, though...you'll need at least one more book or reference to fill the gaps.

Don't buy this book. I have never read a book with more errors. These errors make it impossible to understand the requirements and pass the exam. I had to buy another book because I didn't think this book is reliable. Save your money.

It's hard to believe that a publisher could sell books that are so full of mistakes. I have had problems with this book, their NT workstation 4 guide, their Test Yourself Practice Exams and their MCSE Personal Training Center. I wish I had read the reviews for these materials before I wasted my money on them. I ended up needing to buy other books so I felt comfortable passing the exams. I haven't failed any yet, but I wasted a lot of time proof-reading their material and having to reference other guides for clarity. As an aside, the best luck I've had so far has been with guides published by IDG Books, specifically those written by Alan Carter.

Don't buy this book! It is full of errors, some of which matter little to the overall content, but some matter a lot! There is no excuse for any errors in a book where technical accuracy should be the first priority.

Answers to questions in the practice exams are not always correct. The section on subnetting sacrifices mathematical accuracy at the cost of trying to make it easy to understand. There are many errors in the text as well. As a study guide, I found this book entirely unreliable.

The included CD-ROM does nothing to redeem this publication. The same errors are present in the electronic version as in the paper copy. The interactive study guide is brimming with HTML programming errors.

I wasted my money on this book, please don't waste yours. There are other publishers out there such as Sybex, O'Reilly, and Microsoft Press who are much more diligent about proofreading for accuracy, buy one of their study guides.

If you are very careful, you can glean value from this book. If you are not a pedant like myself, it will probably cause you to fail your exam. Example referring to the difficult area of registry entries (p198): "DatabaseCleanupInterval Specifies the interval in minutes for the time to remove expired client records from the database Default = 864000 (24 hours)". This figure is the number of 1/10s of a second in a 24-hour period. I still do not know what units are required by NT for this figure.

Also, the number of authors make this book a laughing-stock. Example: Table 7.1 is identical to Table 8.1. Was the author of chapter 8 unaware of the contents of chapter 7? Sadly, I think the answer is yes.

I generally don't like "MCSE QuickPass Cheat Books." They're not the best way to learn a product. However, I bought this book because I needed a brush-up review on how MS does TCP/IP for the exam. I was thoroughly disappointed. The book does not go into enough detail for the beginner, and the text contained several points that were just wrong. To pass the exam, I'd recommend a classic TCP/IP book (such as the W. Richard Stevens set) coupled with MS's whitepapers on DHCP, WINS and other MS-specific stuff. In short, save your money...this guide is a real dog.

I have been studying towards my MCSE, TCP/IP is to be my 4th exam ... Sheesh, what can I say - I've passed 70-058,068,073 using Sybex and New Riders guides but I wish I'd read these comments before buying Syngress/Osborne TCP/IP. This book is completely pathetic; it is hard to read: "We know how important accuracy is in any certification study materials" on the Syngress web page and not laugh .. Not only is the book full of errors, the "Book Update and Fixes" offered by Syngress don't even cover all of them. This is the sort of book where small errors or typos make things quite confusing. I feel that Syngress & Osborne have really let their readers down on this publication.

It is nice to see people happy with their work (Brian Frederick), but I am definitely not buying Syngress/Osborne again!

Yes I do agree there are a number of inaccurancies, but they are not incorrect information in the instruction, instead they are misakes that a good proofread would have found. They do mislabel a few items and the review questions are just umm screwed up, but for someone who isn't ready to use the Exam Cram Books, this is a good book to build on. If you are looking to build a good foundation this is a good book to use. It has some good examples and covers a number of important items. James

This book uses an easy to understand, step-by-step approach to explaining subnets and subnet masks. If you cannot get a grasp of the subject from other books, you would do yourself a favor by reading Chapters 3 and 4 in this edition. The rest of the book is also layed out very well. The subjects are not shoved down your throat like most other books do (esp. MS Press TCP/IP). Although there are not great test prep questions in this book, if you supplement with a test prep book(Readiness Review for TCP/IP) you will do fine on the test.

If you do not understand TCP/IP after reading this book, please stay away from any LAN/WAN. You ain't gonna' get it!

If you already know enough to take the exam and merely want an expensive refresher, then this might be the book for you. If, however, you are intending to actually learn from this book, forget it. Find another.

The information is sketchy and disorganized. The sections are repeatedly interrupted with "alerts" that break the continuity of the information.

Answers to the unrealistic self-tests are frequently incorrect. Grammar mistakes abound. The two-minute drills are verbatim from the chapter instead summarizing the text in fresh words. There are no memory tips or learning tricks.