Customer Reviews

MCSE Training Kit, Microsoft Windows 2000 Network Infrastructure Administration (It-Training Kit)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I was looking forward to this book, because I knew there was a lot of new and complicated material on the 70-216 exam. First, I couldn't believe how few pages were in the book. Second, there are no questions or practices that key into the Microsoft exam. The book is so hard to read, I actually had to go to the Help file to figure out what they were trying to say! I passed the exam, but not becuase of this book. This book would fail you, for sure. I read Thomas Lee's TCP/IP and the Syngress TCP/IP troubleshooting book, and those put me over the top.

This book is really sad. I hope they recall it and write a good one soon.

The MS Press series of self-paced kits have been the standard for learning about Microsoft Operating Systems. This was certainly the case with the Windows NT 4.0 series of MS Press Self-paced study kits.

However, that has changed quite a bit with Windows 2000. The MS Press books are no longer a copy of the Microsoft Official Curriculum, and are put together by a different team of writers. And it shows!

This book purports to prepare you for the 70-216 exam, which is the Implementing and Administering a Windows 2000 Network Infrastructure. To put it plain and simple: It doesn't.

It copies directly from the Help Files and Resource Kits. If anything is unclear in those source documents, it is even more unclear here, since they copy the information without context.

And there are far too many errors in the book In the first chapter on DNS, the exericse states that Win2k Professional is installed on 386 486 and Pentium computers! In another place the write about IIS 4.0, when its clear they were referring to IIS 5.0. And they fail to mention that ISAKMP/Oakley is now called IKE!

The book is a little over 500 pages, but many of the pages are wasted with "In this lesson you will learn" and at the end of the lessons "In this lesson you learned". The book assumes you are moron, and then makes sure you stay that way by not presenting the material in an understanding fashion.

Bottom Line: This is one of the worst books MS Press has published, matched only by their IIS 4.0 Self-paced kit. If you want to learn the material and pass the exam, steer clear of this loser.

I used the Microsoft Press books to study for my Window NT exams. While those books fell short of being exciting, they did contain just about all the information you needed to pass the exams, as long as you get through the very bad writing. But this book takes the cake!

I memorized this book from cover to cover. I made audio tapes of the chapters and listened to them for several hours a day while I was driving on my job. When I took the test, I was floored! This book is totally worthless if you plan to study for the Microsoft Exam 70-216. I failed the test because this book didn't contain even a fraction of the information I needed to pass. And there are so many mistakes in it, you have to spend half your time wondering if its accurate.

I read their Server and Professional books, and although they aren't too great to read, it looks like they at least have some useful information in them. I hope the next edition of this book tries to cover something from the exam. Right now, I'm keeping this book until Winter, and then I'll use it for kindling.

This is far the worst book, i've read to achieve the MCSE Certification at all. The Information herein is not 10% of what is asked in the Test. If you prepare only with this book, you will fail (guaranteed).

This selfpaced training is one of the worst Microsoft has produced so far. The only one that i can think of that is worse is the selfpaced training kit for IEAK 4. If you have bought it and are preparing for the MCP test. I advice you to read the chapters in the Windows 2000 Srv RK on the subjects for the test. Also be sure to download some whitepapers from Microsoft. The book alone just don't prepare you good enough for the test.

This book and the exam don't match up at all. Though this book is written in a fairly superficial way the test itself asked very obtuse questions. As such the test taker is left in a gap as to how to gain the knowledge to demonstrate mastery on the exam. I still don't know one achieves this goal??? and this is coming from someone who has an mcse + I, CCNP, and CCDP and has worked extensivly in the website deployments with w2k for about a year. So congratulations if you have passed the exam, and if you haven't I would wait till the texts and exams meet up sometime in the next couple months!!

This book is mostly consisted from the MS Help and can't be used as a guide study. Don't wast time and money on it.

The Professional, Server, and Active Directory books from Microsoft Press were good, but this one is worthless. It covers IPSec in detail, but skims over DNS and WINS. RRAS is not covered in nearly enough depth to be of any use on the exam.

My advice is to read the Professional, Server, and Active Directory books from MS Press, but definately get the Networking Infrastructure book from another source. This one is nowhere near sufficient to pass the exam.

By the way, I am a MCT.

I like this book because it helped alot in working with Windows 200. Not only getting you ready for the MCSE portion of the test. I recommend it to those who are getting ready to take the MCSE exams.

This book leaves you so thoroughly unprepared for the exam, I wonder if the editors (or the people who wrote the glowing review above) actually know what a network is. Don't waste your money.