For those who would complain that this book is not truly an MCSE study guide, I would suggest reading the whole title: "MCSE 2000 JumpStart: Computer and Networking Basics". This is not a book for boot camp students or anyone cramming for an exam. This is a book for the novice - mind you, a fast-learning, computer literate novice - who has read the magazine ads that promise riches and glory for certified IT professionals and has decided to go for his or her MCSE. And it may very well be the best book ever written for that purpose.

In her opening words, the author writes that "the first step in Microsoft certification is a good understanding of the prerequisite information. Microsoft... assumes you will acquire this information on your own". By the time you finish this book, you will have gained that understanding. Let's look inside:

Chapters 1-4 discuss computer hardware. They read like notes from a PC repair class, so A+ certified techs should probably skip ahead a bit.

Chapters 5-7 cover client operating systems, with a well-written DOS tutorial and a good overview of the Explorer.exe GUI. This is important stuff, as I've actually met an MCSE who didn't know how to FDISK.

Chapters 8-12 provide a good introduction to networking theory, with a brief summary of the OSI model, information on topologies and protocols, and an evaluation of the leading network operating systems.

Chapters 13-17 justify the "MCSE" on the cover, with basic details on domains, trusts, Active Directory, and resource management on NT and 2000 networks.

The appendices are perhaps the most valuable parts of the book for absolute beginners, with accurate answers to the review questions and comprehensive glossaries of industry terms and acronyms.

The bottom line: those new to the networking field NEED this book. Their instructors might also want to pick up a copy as well, because it contains excellent tables and diagrams and the physical design of the book makes it easy to scan and photocopy (just contact the publisher first). I would also highly recommend any other JumpStart books to beginners (such as ISBN 0782126448, on TCP/IP); Sybex has set a new standard with this series.

Not just for the MCSE; the content is definitely good for other similar Networking Certifications. (It gives a solid grounding for people with next to ZERO knowledge of Computers & Networking but feel an MCSE-or similar-is something they can do.)

If you're not sure enough to make those up-front payments for expensive courses & huge sets of textbooks, make this little book your first stopover to possible (or probable!) success. It's not written in professorial language, and is a good tool to measure your potential. (Or rather, to help you decide whether you like Computers & Networking enough to *want* to have the potential.)

Treat this book as a kind of litmus test.

Here's what worked for me :

1. Study each chapter thoroughly without peeking at the end-of-chapter questions;

2. Do the test at the end of each chapter without looking back into the text. (Be strict about this. Also, it's a very good idea *not* to peek at the questions while (or before) studying the chapter. Reason? You want to get yourself used to being able to handle the uncertainty. When tackling an end of chapter test, magine you're doing an actual exam. Another idea is to do each end of chapter test in an *unfamiliar* environment-to simulate the unfamiliarity of the exam centre where you'd be taking the final (real) exam.

This book is NOT a MCSE study guide. It is an excellent introduction into the principals that will be learned if you decide to pursue education toward an MCSE. A person with virtually no PC experience will appreciate an overall view of PC hardware basics, networking basics, software principals from DOS thru Windows 200 Server. You will also get information about the testing process, and what MCSE's are. Nice Glossary! Limited abbreviation list, though.

If you can FULLY understand everything in this book, and get nearly 100% correct answers in the Review Questions areas in this book, MCSE might be the way to go (You just got your jumpstart). This book is basic, yet written so clearly that if you do not understand EVERYTHING in this book, perhaps A+ or Network+ certifications is the way you should go at this time. Let your computer skills grow in other areas first.

If you are Windows NT 4.0 MCSE, this is not the book to get for Windows 2000 upgrade knowledge.

If you want an overview (Jumpstart) to what MCSEism is all about, this is an excellent book, with a great price!

Currently I hold an MCSE, MCP+I and MCT. I've been in the industry for about 15 years and for the last 2 years have owned my own small consulting firm. I wanted to take the A+ because I never had and thought I should.

This book was great for getting to the point without bogging you down in the tedium. A little simplistic at points, it made sure that you had the basics that you would need to pass the test. I actually bought the Exam Prep/Exam Cram books for this test. I only read about 4 pages of the Exam Prep before I was completely bored.

I passed this test with a 93% and I attribute it mostly to the organization of this book.

I have over 10 years experience as a PC tech, but am not yet certified. I recently purchased A+ cert core exam, and it is clear and concise. The author gets right to the point and covers the information without playing trivia games.

Absolutely the best book out there to ace the A+ exams. I have a collection of six different A+ study guides and I found myself always referring back to the Accelerated A+ study guide for better explanation. After a while this book was all I was reading. Come to find out this book was all I needed to not just pass but ace the A+ certification exam. If you want a book that explains it to you like it is with out putting you to sleep and without skipping over vital info this is the book to get. It starts from the ground up and takes you all the way to the advanced material. Most importantly it does it with out losing you. I felt like an expert after this book. Accelerated A+ Study Guide for both DOS/Windows and Core exam is literally all you need.

Did not find anything new for myself in that book, even though it has a lot of content and most likely will be helpful on 70-059 i find this book a bit boring..

Along with the official Microsoft Press book on TCP/IP, I used this book to study for and pass (855 score!) this very tough exam. This is a very good book that distills exactly what you need to know for the exam. However, I would not use this as your only study/preparation tool. This book does a very good job explaining the differences between WINS and DNS, LMHOSTS and HOST files, NetBIOS names and FQDN's. This stuff you really need to know cold, I mean backwards and forwards. The book's discussion of the tricky subject of subnetting is not adequate. Find another study source to master that subject.

I found this book to be a helpful companion (along with the TCP/IP chapter in "Mastering Windows NT Server" by Mark Minasi) in passing exam 70-059. I have had several years of experience with TCP/IP but this book does a wonderful job of filling in on some topics that you might not do on a day to day basis. This book, coupled with my experience, led me to pass the test on the first try. One quick note though: when you buy study guides, be sure you are getting the newest edition, sometimes shopping gets confusing with so many versions. I will buy from the exam cram series again.

I being a fan of Dummies certifications books, I pick one up for every certification I am going to pursue. I don't just buy the Dummies books though. I buy at least two others. When I see something odd in one I consult the other two, and two out of three wins. The only problem I have with this book is the CD, there are no simulations exam questions on it. Oh, by the way I received a 960 on this test.

I heard about the MCP exams and wanted to do one. I was most familiar with Win 98. The stuff you need to know for the exam is not covered in normal 98 books. I decided to buy this book because of it's positive reviews. I did not know much about networking or the other exam stuff. This book will show you 90% percent of what you need to know. I also used the MS readiness review and the resource kit that comes with the 98 CD. If you do not know much about it start with this one. I passed with a score of 800.

Like many of you I am self taught. I purchased the Microsoft training manuals, test questions as well as many other books. I found the manuals and the Win98 Resourse kit neccessary but also very technical and confusing at times. The dummy book cleared the fog. I found the test questions to be much like the real exam. Beware though, the test has simulations that the Dummies book does not go into in enough detail for the test questions. Also suggest taking Transcenders. With out this book I would not have passed.

Enticed by the low cost and combination of two core exams I picked up 'Teach Yourself NT Server 4 in 14 Days'. After reading it through I realised that the book does NOT cover everything you need to know for the exams; policies for example (heavily emphasied in the server exam) are given less than one page. The fact that the two exams are not separated in the text means that you are not entirely sure what you should be focusing on prior to a specific test. I have since seen this book in an earlier (thicker!) edition without the MCSE branding. Comparing the two, this looks as though it was slightly revamped and rushed to market. It shows... My recommendation would be to spend a little more and buy New Riders.

This is a decent introduction to TCP/IP networking with Microsoft Windows NT 4.0. It covers all the material needed to pass the corresponding MCSE exam.

The quality of the indivual chapter varies greatly, though, which isn't surprising as the book was written by four people.

The information in the book is mostly accurate, and it is clear that the material went through an editing process, but some problems remain. In particular, the use of the "%systemroot%" pointer is clearly wrong, and some of the answers to the exercises in the "Lab" section are inaccurate. Ah--the exercises! This is clearly the weakest part of the book that really needs to be revised. Too bad, especially for an exam preparation book. Language and style is another part that needs improvement.

An excellent reference for TCP/IP is Windows NT TCP/IP Network Administration (C. Hunt; O'Reilly)--not an exam preparation book per se, but it has all the material necessary to pass, and then some. For those of you who actually like reading, the writing style of this book is far superior to the one under review, which makes it a pleasurable experience to read.

MCSE candidates can prepare for two exams in just 14 days. The book is well organized and easy to follow. The information is broken down into sections that are easy to understand for users of any skill level. The review questions at the end of each chapter allow readers to test their knowledge, while the lab exercises help readers gain practical experience. The authors are available by e-mail and answered all my questions in less than one day. This book helped me to pass exam 067 on the first attempt. I highly recommend this book to anyone preparing for MCSE exams, or anyone who would like a better understanding of NT Server 4.0.

As an experienced system administrator (AIX, DG-UX, Linux, HP-UX - HP Certified) I have found this book to be very useful. It is not a beginners how to book, but lists a lot of very useful information for day to day work as well as for exam preparation.

True, the included CD is aimed at Windows PCs, but it's very easy to access the PDF files on a Linux system as well without using the Windows programs.

I would recommend this book to anyone studying for RHCE.

For 2003, the orangeroom.org folks decided to host a Red Hat Linux Certification class, and we had to chose a book as our reference text. After thoroughly researching all of the current and available texts (both off-line and on-line), we came to the decision that this text from Osborne Certification Press was the best available at the time.

Indeed, our decision has paid off well! This text provides excellent and up-to-date information about getting your Red Hat certification. The author provides many helpful tips along the way, but does not waste your time with superfluous info. Each chapter ends with Chapter Summaries and Self-Test sections -- which are great reviews of the material covered. So far, we have all been very pleased with the pacing of the material and the manner in which it is presented. Overall, an excellent book!

There was a CD-ROM included with the book which includes the entire book in Acrobat format and an "Osborne MasterExam" test. The electronic text works great, however, I cannot seem to get the "MasterExam" to install and run on Windows 2000. This would be the only downside to the book, but it is a technical glitch related to the included CD-ROM (and not a reflection of the content covered in the book). Again, I could have a faulty CD-ROM or just not be installing it correctly, but such is life.

I think one could do very well on an RHCE exam using this book as preparation -- even if the MasterExam doesn't work!! For a current look at Red Hat 8.0 and the certification requirements, give this book a try!

I'm using this book to study for the exam since I cannot afford the $2,000 Red Hat courses. I understand that there's lead-time to publishing a book and a preliminary version of Red Hat 8.0 was used during the writing, but I find no errata/updates from the publisher to correct for all the discrepencies in the book vs. the actual 8.0 system.

Here's one example of the book being out of sync with reality: Disk Druid now handles RAID and LVM so there's less need for the command line interface. None of that's in the book since it apparently didn't exist yet.

As an EE I took issue with some of the chapter 2's descriptions of hardware, particularly the emphasis on understanding things that are mostly informational instead of configurable. Most parts I've handled for the past years were PCI so they were truly plug-and-play. I used to handle ISA cards with jumpers and manual configuration files, but that's not covered on the test and most folks never touch that anymore. I'm confused why it took so many pages for a book that's supposed to remain focused on test preparation.

I must admit I had tremendous trepidations about trying netinstalls on my own. The book didn't say how to set up my own netinstall server, or online servers to try that. Web searches found how to set up my own server and try the netinstalls since I am led to believe that may be on the exam. I learned that once the server address is entered, the install continues the same as a CD install. I would have been GREATLY relieved had I known that earlier!

And the CD needs Windows for full functionality!

I did the 70-210 exam in August 2002. This book was written in Novemeber 2000. There lies the problem. This book has 1-2 page review information on each 70-210 objective. Then this is followed by questions, although useful will not really help you in the now pass/fail(no numeric score) 70-210 exam. I saw similar structured questions in the actual exam but that's is where the similarties end. No questions from this book were in my exam.

I have read some good reviews on this book but i don't agree with their short assessments. However it is not completely useless. You can buy it just for a quick review but you are better off getting quick cramsession etc like study guides and questions from the internet.

I am giving this book 3/5 stars because i considered some of the answer explanations useful. I liked the explanation on back up types and when they should be used. As i said before this book is not completely usesless it reinforced my existing knowledge but that's all it did. It is not some "all in one quick guide to passing the 70-210 exam". If i had to prepare for the exam again i would buy a more modern review book and not this one.

This is a great book to assist in your exam preparation. Some of the questions are on the exam but most importantly, the book gets you use to they type of questions that will be on the exam.

A good study guide, this book, and plenty of hands on 2k experience should allow you to pass the exam.

I scored an 820 on the test with only a few nights worth of studying. The sample questions in this book were very close to the actual test. It almost seemed too easy. I would definitely recommend this book and cd-rom to anyone who is looking to take the 70-210 test.

This exam prep is good. I used this book in addition to the MCSE exam cram 70-210 put out by the same publishers and I was able to pass the exam.

Strengths:
It's a good Sorce for RIS, RAS, and computer configuration: desktops, accessibility options, basic share and file security.

Failures:
They could have covered group policies and multilink remote connections better. I was able to get through a couple multi link exams questions because I had written the NT 4.0 exams and remembered some of that information.

This book is good, but I wouldn't use it as my sole resource. If your are brand new to Windows 2000 check around for some supplementatary resources.

Aslam Mohammed A+, Network+, I-net+, CCNA, MCP, CIW-associate

I just passed this exam and I can say that this book gives you enough info to pass. It does put accents differently then the test, and some of the questions were not covered in this book, but overall you should be able to make it.

After reading Thomas Shinder's appalling, mistake ridden exam guide and failing the 70-210 exam I bought this book, read it and passed the exam easily. I found this book easy to read and understand and to be accurate, with the exception of the practice exam at the back of the book, which has some typos. This is definitely worth reading and I would have bought the book from this series for the 70-215 exam if it had been written by the same authors. The chapters covering Netware and Unix, which you need to know about for the exam, were excellent - everything you need to know if you don't have any practical experience in these areas.

This book is an okay supliment to another book, but alone I wouldn't expect to pass the test with it. It would be an alright book for the novice, or to just brush up on your knowledge. It does not conatin enough information on TSQL statements. Everything they go over is geared towards using Enterprise Manager. Also, it doesn't go into enough depth on many critical topics. I haven't taken the test yet, I'm getting another book. I can tell from previous MS SQL exams that this book alone will not prepare me for exam 70-028.

This is a good book to prepare for 028 exam. It helps great and saves time for a successful test. I gave 5 stars not only because it helped to pass the exam, but because it helped my job as well. The questions in the end of each chapter helps to understand tricky points in SQL 7 (helpful for even non test-takers). Most answers have good explainations (some are not detailed enough). Use this book together with OL book. Also play with the product itself A LOT, A LOT, A LOT. Anyway, this book does let me feel SQL 7 less overwhelming.

The book is not for SQL 7 beginers. In addition, as an SQL 7 DBA, I would say this book is definately not a main tool to train a DBA, although it helps to pass the exam.

This book was a great study aid while preparing for the 70-028 test. Does it give you the answers for the test, no. Does it review key subject area necessary for passing the test, yes. Too many paper MCSEs (or wannabes) expect to get the answers to the test before taking the test. The purpose of these exams is to test your knowledge of the product and not how well you memorized the questions from practice exams. Using a book like this, BOL, and the product, you should be able to pass the exam. And for you people who expect to get the answers to the test before you take the test, there are at least two questions that I saw from this book on the test.

Just as the title says, "MCSE Readiness Review", this book delivers what it offers: An excellent test readiness and review assessment.

The questions are tough and plenty and the explanations are clear and concise, straight to the point. You will find a wealth of scenario and exhibit-type of questions, bringing the real test feeling to the review.

I didn't find any surprise question on my real test. This book covered all the bases.

Complement this book with a study guide or cram book (I used Sybex's Study Guide ISBN 0782122213 and Exam Notes ISBN 0782122922) and you will pass this test without difficulty.

The NT Server in the Enterprise test is one of the hardest and this book was a big help. It contains a CD that is really the heart of the book. It was surprisingly effective to have the book to explain the answers while using the program from the CD to actually answer the questions. However, you may still want to get a practice test such as Transcender. This book does not expose you to Computer Adaptive Testing and the you might want more practice questions in any case. I did pass the test and this book was a help. I think the answer to question 6.3.2 is wrong but I haven't got much sympathy for my position.

Given the horror stories I'd heard about the SITE exam, I bought a lot of books to study for it.

The book is packed with difficult questions; many are variants on one another, with several words in a question changing to see if you'll get caught sleeping.

I got a 742 on the adaptive version of the test, and this book was part of that success.

-- Steve Kleine, Midnight Computers, Inc.