Customer Reviews

Novell's CNEŽ Study Guide for Core Technologies

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It's too bad that Mr. Clarke feels the need to share his thoughts on Zen, include useless quizzes totally unrelated to NetWare or networking, and offer crossword and wordsearch puzzles instead of useful, real-life quizzes and tests. This book was quite complete as of it's publication date, but it is a little out-of-date now. Mr. Clarke also confuses readers with inconsistent terminology at times, once referring to a server as a dedicated 'workstation' rather than a dedicated computer, and a continuing reference to a 'central print queue' rather than just 'print queue.' His constant medical analogies and references are mundane and worthless. The book is written to about an eighth grade level, not an eighth grade reading level, but an eighth grade intelligence level. It's like reading a child's book of NetWare. The book does appear to be organized well and the necessary information is contained in the book. It's just unfortunate that it is buried between and beneath endless pages of medical school wannabe diatribes, 'Zen' garbage, and off-topic quizzes as filler. The book is nearly 1,000 pages, but if the useless garbage were removed, it would be more like 600-700 pages. It's truly too bad because Mr. James does appear to know NetWare very well. I teach computer courses for a business college that uses this book as a text. It is extremely difficult to teach from this book because of the filler and the lack of useful quizzes and tests in the book. The Clarke Tests on the CD are good, but are filled with stupid sound clips from movies and TV that are of varying volume, some quiet and some quite loud. They are very unprofessionally recorded and very annoying during testing. The tests on the CD included with the New Riders MCSE books are far superior to the Clarke tests, however. The saddest reality is that this is apparently the best book available other than Novell's own training books which are much more expensive and are apparently only available through authorized training centers (with training courses).

I like the way Clarke organized the relevant topics in passing the CNE exam---adding Humor to a boring concept. This book also contains stuff that would help you even for MCSE. It is really a good source of knowledge for both CNE, CNAs etc. wannabees.

As an MCSE who has been teaching Networking Essentials to systems engineering students I figured that I would breeze through the Novell Networking Technologies course. Whoa! The Novell course goes into substantially more detail than the Microsoft course. I found Clarke's book to be an excellent guide through the maze of material that Novell requires familiarity with. And it was a pleasure to notice that this book seems to be the foundation of many other guides and lectures that I have been exposed to both in Novell and Microsoft curriculums. The author does go overboard on Zen commercials, puzzles, brain teasers, and the like but it is easy to skip over these parts when you have time only to study material you will need for an exam (or in my case, for my next lecture).

Clarke has an easy way of presenting what is otherwise complicated technical concepts. The book is organized well for the reader to take breaks in the middle of topics.

It does not matter if you are studying for your CNE or CCIE, this book covers the basics of the OSI model and it will get you passing your CNE exams and get your on your way to the more superior Cisco certifications easily.

I got my CNE with this book and I did not use any others. It was not boring like other books I glanced at. This book not only helped me with my CNE and is helping me with my Cisco certifications, but it also helped me review for my A+ certification.

Absolutely wonderful book, great to use for MCSEs wanting to catch up to the knowledge level of a CNE too.

The Novell course has been updated and this book no longer contains adequate information. While it may be possible to pass the updated test using this material it is unlikely.

I was amazed at the readability of this book, not like a textbook at all, but still very informative. With very few exceptions, the book covered in sufficient detail everything I encountered on the tests. I would warn readers that they might encounter some questions dealing with Client32 that were not addressed in Clarke's text. The only real complaint I should mention is an obvious lack of editing, which seems to get worse in the latter half of the book. But overall, I am very impressed...the author has an incredible gift for breaking down complex material into a very simple, flowing text.

Look forward to meeting Mr. Clarke. This book has to be the basis for the Student Textbooks that students receive when they go through Courses 200 and 801. As such, this book can substitue for both Student Textbooks.

I have read the entire book twice since I bought this book ! Amazingly I still think it's the best written technical book - not dull and not too playful; everything is just nice. Most important, I am able to use this book to consolidate all the networking technologies I learn in university into practice. No books does that like this one does. Great Book !! Not only CNE, everyone who is serious about computer networking should have a copy. YES ! get it and don't wait