Customer Reviews

Windows NT 4.0 MCSE Study Guide

5 star:		(114)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Yes it may be old. Yes, the exams may have changed. One thing hasn't changed, however, and that is the way that NT 4.0 works. This book provides step by step instructions about how to do anything that you want to in Windows NT 4.0. When I bought this book 2 years ago and used it to pass all three NT exams with very high scores in the space of about a month, I was impressed. Now that I still use it to look up some tiny, trivial process that I never perform, I'm still impressed. The only valid criticism that I have ever seen of this book is it's unwieldy size, but fortunately (if you're using it as a reference) a copy the book comes on the CD that is included. I see some people criticizing this book for "lack of depth" and failure to prepare you for "real world administration". To those people I have only one thing to say: "Get a grip!". This book is not meant to be an exhaustive resource about the nebulous inner workings of the NT operating system. It is meant to help you study and pass the exams, which it does with flying colors.

I recent purchased this book in order to prepare for the Windows NT 4.0 MCSE Core exams. I considered many other potential study guides. It took about 3 days to make up my mind. Boy, am I glad I purchased this one. If Amazon.com offered more stars, this book would rate them!

I read the book in about ten days. I took time out to start the labs, or I would have finished it in first week! The book is very well written, and reads easily. The lab exercises are well presented and offer a great opportunity to apply what you learned in the text.

Mr. Carter's presentation of the information as an all-inclusive manual rather than three separate texts reduces the redundancy found in most of the other guides I have reviewed. The lack of redundancy makes re-reading this book easy. This is important for the person studying for the MCSE exams. I would highly recommend this book, and Carter's soon to be publised Windows 2000 MCSE Study Guide for anyone intersted in learning more about the Windows opperating systems!

Keep up the GREAT work, Alan!

Alan Carter's book is a great learning tool and value. It really makes sense to put the three core NT 4.0 topics in a single book for an efficient and economical learning experience. I originally bought the book just to learn Workstation, but after passing the exam I realized that I had read 80% of the book and that the rest of the chapters would not take that long to learn. This book covers 98% of what you need to know to pass the three tests. I passed the three tests with high scores in just a few months and I had very little experience to start out. The topics are covered in a very thorough manner yet not too technical to scare a beginner. The book does not have all the practice tests that people want these days, but the Exam Cram series will do such and are excellent compliments to this book. You really do not need any more. In my experience Workstation and Server were covered 100% in Alan's book. Enterprise was not quite 100%, but Exam Cram covered anyhting else I came across on the test (a question on pulse was on the test). The sections on trusts, domains, global groups, and local groups were very understandable and are a very important part of the enterprise exam. The Key Point Summary at the end of each chapter is an excellent test review item, and the Instant Assesment will let you know if you know the material as well as you need to for the exam. What this book lacks as far as a practice exam it more than makes up for with the excellent and numerous Hands-on Lab Excercises. They may look long, but they really teach you hands on experience. It is important to have a practice lab with at least two computers on a network and with one having NT4.0 Workstation installed and the other having NT4.0 Server installed to make the most of this book or any study system if you really want to learn NT4.0 . You can obtain evaluation versions of these NOS from Microsoft for very little money, and you can get a second computer used for a couple hundred bucks. The progression of topics in this book makes perfect sense unlike some other books that tend to jump around and make assumptions of what you know. I may sell or give away most of my other computer books but not Alan's !

I have just completed walking 2 students through the MCSE and MCP+I programs through the use of this book by Alan Carter. I had previously went through the program using several other resources. This book is a must-have for anyone wishing to pass the MCSE core exams. It covers everything you will see on the test along with practical labs and how-to lessons on the things you WILL see in the real world. This book is worth every penny!

Although this book has impressive weight and size I think your better off with another book, this one spends way too much time on how to do something and leaves out the why. I recommend a book from SYBEX over this one. I did find very few errors and for the most part informative, but spent time turning pages to get to the MEAT, could have been half the size and still have the info in it.

I gave this book five stars. Why? Because I am not allowed to give it six. This must have been a labor of love for the author. I used it as my main reference together with a LAN at home to pass all three core exams the first time. Both adaptive and conventional. The author is a great communicator. The material is written clearly, well organized and extremely accurate. Any discrepancies I found between this book and others, were always resolved in favor of this one. All subjects presented were complete, well focused and went beyond just test preparation. The author lays the technical foundation to use for the rest of one's IT life. The chapter on Network Monitor, for example, is outstanding. It pushes the envelope. One word of advice, read the entire book before attempting any of the three core exams. Yep! the whole 1376 pages of it. I found test questions were crossing into all NT subjects.

This book is one of the best book on the market today. All of the chapters are well organized and easy to follow. Exercises in the back of the book are very informative and are worth doing. I just took Workstation and Server exams and passed both of them with good numbers. I used this book with "MSCE in a nutshell" for review before the exam and topped them with "Transcenders". Believe me this is a winning combination to pass the MCSE. Gotta go, this months goal is Enterprise and Networking Essentials. Good Luck.

I found this book to be quite good for studying for Workstation and Enterprise and personally believed it really blew the doors off for Server. I felt all topics showcased on the test were thouroughly covered in the book, and found the practice labs to be quite good and involving, especially compared to what I have seen other books pass as "labs". The book also will continue to serve you after the test, and I find this to be a wonderful trait in a certification book.

A+,N+,MCP

This book is just fantastic (although quite heavy!) After heaving it with me on the bus to work every day for two weeks I took the Workstation exam and passed with 941/1000!!! The structure and methodology is spot on, and Alan Carter does a good job of bringing in real life examples.

The labs are a good way of practising with NT on your machine and the Quick Reference guide at the back which maps the book's chapters to the exam's main topics is a great way to revise key points.

I've been using NT Workstation for about 3 months now, but it really was the two weeks of hard work with this book that drove everything home.

If you're serious about passing the exam and proving to the world that you're good enough to be an MCP then you should definitely read this book!

I'm reviewing this from the point of view of a non-MSCE person who needed a good, comphrensive desk reference for doing computer support and troubleshooting on our NT network and workstations in our medical editing/transcription facility. Given its expense I read over the reviews of this book before purchasing it (those who actually used it rather than just thumbing through it!) and decided on the strength of the large number of thumbs ups from people internationally, many starting from the basics, to give it a try. I figured if it is that accessible for aspiring IT professionals, it would work for a non-computer person who has to get going on the basics quickly and "hurry up and learn." I will stress again that I am *not* going for my MSCE, but needed a good desk reference to work on our network, and also to understand concepts in order to work more effectively with our network admin people and understand server concepts. I was gratified to find it comprehensive without being dull, and it was actually pretty clearly written! I would say to those in my position (non-MSCE types) that it helps to be good at research and fact finding as this book is pretty big and packed with print. It also helps to already have some familiarity with Windows 95/NT before using this, but you don't need much. There is enough white space in the text arrangement that you won't go cross-eyed trying to read it, and the text being broken down into blocks makes it easy to scan several pages quickly and locate information. Concepts are arranged in an easy to follow, stepwise format, as well, and the index is average. I rank it 4 stars simply because I cannot at all judge its utility for taking the MSCE exams. I have read and utilized this book simply as a source of information in on-the-job situations.