This was my last exam to take for my MCSE and I just passed it today with an 882 and I could not have done it without this book! If you are like me coming from a hardware background only and then to be exposed to terms like, Sockets, Packet filters, protocal port numbers, Cache & Domain filters etc., can be a mind numbing experience. I found the book to be helpful in introducing these new terms to me and how they interact with what the Proxy Server offers. I highly recommend this book for those who know nothing about Proxy Server and what it does. Also, for those of you who know little about IIS or Exchange, you will find the sections dealing with the Proxy Server configurations hard to grasp. But I think the authors broke it down in lamens terms as best they could. I would recommend, as a supplement to this book, the Transcender test questions on Proxy Server.

A week ago today (Monday) I bought a copy of "Implementing and Supporting Microsoft Proxy Server 2.0."

On Friday I took the exam.

I passed it big time! I nailed that sucker into the ground! Best score I've ever gotten on a Microsoft exam. Passing that test qualified me for both my MCSE and my MCT.

AND

I enjoyed reading the book. It had a nice friendly feel to it. I looked forward to studying it. I actually feel like I understand Proxy Server.

Aparently Microsoft thinks I do too.

Bottom line: I bought the book to pass the exam and I passed the exam. Good job!

This book covers everything you ever need to know to run Proxy in any environment. I recently became responsible for our Proxy server, which prompted me to read up on the subject. Now, I can fully manage it, I understand our implementation of it, and I feel confident I could deploy it in most any environment. This book serves as a great reference and it covered the exam material very well. This was the only book I used for the exam - I didn't even bother with a practice test and I passed with flying colors!

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to pass exam 70-088.

Samuel Rey MCSE, MCP + Internet, CCNA

I just passed the Network + exam with a 94% using the Sybex Network + Study Guide, this book, and the NetG Networking Essentials course (I also work in the I.T. industry). The test was very straightforward - not a lot of extraneous information to wade through in the questions (unlike the questions in this book, which are more verbose). Practial experience is definitely an asset for this exam, especially in the troubleshooting and TCP/IP sections.

This book shouldn't be used as a primary study source - its basically a no-frills review tool. Use it with other, more fleshed out materials, or as a last review before the exam. There is a lot of repetition in the answer explanations - you will see the same information repeated over and over again, sometimes with more detail, sometimes less. While the explanations are basically good, the constant repetition ultimately makes the book appear to contain more hard information than it really does.

If you already have the Network+ Exam Cram book, your money would probably be better spent on another study aid, if only for a different viewpoint on the subject. Good luck!

Erik

I used this book to prepare for the Network+ exam. It was a good practice before I took the exam. However, you should not use that as an study guide or take the test even if you can answer most of the questions on the book. The scenario questions on this book is similar to the ones on the test, however, some of the questions on the book tend to be so easy that you can answer them with common sense because the wrong answers are so obvious that you would know the right one. One of the drawback of the book is that there are so many repeated questions among those chapters. This book is helpful but I believe you only have to get an used instead of a brand new one.

It is a good practice test book. I just get pass with this book and Exam Prep. I find the question is similar to, even same as the live exam. It is broad enough to cover the materials in the exam syllabus.

I would recommend 1)If you have get pass with other Cert. eg. MCSE, CNE etc., you can just need this book to pass the exam.

2)Otherwise, you may need this book and one preparation guide (Exam Prep - highly recommend) to help you to pass the exam.

I used this book and Mike Meyer's A+ Certification Exam Guide to study for the exam. This book has excellent questions and has complete answers to each question asked. Some of the questions in the book are even in the A+ test. Unlike the tests that come with A+ study guides, which are specific to that book you are reading and are not accurate to what the test questions will be. It is fair to say that if you can pass the tests in this book, you'll have a MUCH stronger chance of passing the A+ exam.

I used this book along with the A+ Certification Exam Cram book. They were a good combination. I passed my Core and Dos/Windows tests on the first try. There were a few instances with this book that I thought it was incorrect, but I was unable to prove so. Inspite of that, this is a good book. It is definitely money well spent.

We used this book as part of my a+ class. I am new to the field and was able to pass the exams on the first try with a 94 on core adn a 91 on the Dos exam. This book made me feel ready to take the exams and I passed them on the firts try, thanks.

I read this book prior to taking my MCP test for proxy. Although the book did cover many bases, the book was very disjointed and in my opinion unreadable in many sections. Repetition is rampid within it's pages. I passed the exam, but I used multiple resources before I took the test. I would highly recommend consulting other resources in addition to this one.

Unfortunately, Proxy Server has very little documentation from Microsoft. The docs consist only of online documentation in the form of web pages. These docs are both not organized in a way conducive to learning, nor portable, unless you are willing to print out the hundreds of pages.

Sybex solves these problems with the Exam Notes. This book organizes everything you need to study for the exam. I wouldn't recommend using just this one book to study, but instead to use it as a roadmap while working with the product to gain overall experience.

I also passed my test using this book. This book is very well written and right to the point. I recommend this book for passing the Proxy 2 exam.

Like other reviewers had said, this book is an extremely easy read. I finished this book in about 10 days. However, I also just passed the Network+ certification exam and found out COMPTIA does test you on VLAN, Wireless LAN, & DSL. This Meyers' book did not cover these materials well or at all.
Overall, this book is not as good as his other book on A+.

Michael Meyers rules! He is hands down the best at explaining anything that I have encountered in a long time. I purchased his A+ book after having failed the Windows segment and then subsequently passed it. After having passed Microsoft's 2000 70-210 Exam, I wasn't going to make the same mistake with the Net+ that I did with the A+. I ordered this from Amazon[.com] along with Microsoft's Nework+ Readiness Review, read almost everyday for 3 weeks and boom - aced the test, baby! If I can, you can. The only glaring omission that I needed to research further was a more complete list of ports - a must know for the exam.

Over the past 13 years there are a few names that have become standouts in the certification arena, Mike Meyers is one of those people, first in A+ and now with the second edition of the Network+ certification. Updating and already highly useful book, Meyers has once again covered each exam objective completely and once again he has gone far beyond the exam to give the reader more than enough information.

This 700 plus page manual, broken down into three parts begins with part 1 covering networking fundamentals, client/server concepts, resource sharing and the always difficult OSI Model. Meyers' expertise has never been more apparent than it is throughout this first section.

In part 2 the Basic LAN section, you'll handle topics like hardware, topologies, Ethernet and 802 standards, 5-4-3 rule, token ring, FDDI, ATM, cabling. Protocols like NETBeui, NetBios, IPX, SPX, TCP/IP and AppleTalk are the next areas that have been given coverage.

The section winds up with TCP/IP utilities like DHCP, DNS, WINS, YCP and UDP. From there you move onto NOSes like NT, Novell, UNIX, Linux and the MAC. Then you go to part 3 which is the beyond the LAN section, most of this section goes beyond the exam objectives but as you have come to expect from Meyers, this is information that will carry beyond the test right into the job.

In part 3 permissions, rights, resource sharing, web concept of HTTP, FTP and HTTPS, remote connectivity like SLIP, PPP, PPTP, VPNs and authentication and encryption. Finally Raid, backup solutions and troubleshooting round out what is already a masterful layout of technical expertise.

Each chapter has practice questions, there is a cd with hundreds of questions and you can go directly to Total Seminars to get even more practice questions. Overall is you are looking to make short work of the Network+ exam start here for the best chance possible.

I enjoyed the book, very thorough review coverage. I disagree with the unfavorable review, I read the book with the labs and passed the exam without any difficulty. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was the test engine, it wasn't as good as some of the commercial prep exams, but, the book itself was great it my opinion.

I bought the Exam Cram and this book. I thought this book was more thorough and covered more of the detail. The book was good, I recommend the Transcender instead of the Beach Front Quizzer thats included with this book, it needs some work. Overall, the book is good.

I took the IE4 exam before using the sybex book. I saw this book for IE5 and thought I would try it for the new test. I really liked the book, the author speaks to the subject well, good, thorough information. As a trainer, I read a lot of material, this is one of the best I have read yet. The beachfront quizzer needs a lot of help, but, the book is well worth the money I think, Thanks !

I started with this book to get an understanding in the way the subject matter would be organized. As with all the other dummies books, the information is presented in a down-to-earth and sometimes comical manner. However, this book should not be the only book you buy to study for the test. Some of the questions in its practice exams are not in the book, so it is sometimes hard to understand the answer. I would recommend this book to anyone taking the test and this was the first test I took. Oh, by the way, I did pass. Good Luck.

I just got back from passing my Windows NT Workstation 4.0 exam. Unlike other books that just kill you in boredom, I found this "Dummies" book to be concise and very easy reading. I really like the practice tests on the CD. With a certification under my belt, I can ask for a raise!

Used with past Transcender questions, it's a bomber. Excellent revision tool. Not entirely error free but a very useful tool in preparing for my exams which I passed with flying grades! Easy reading though I was confused in a couple of places. Note that NT hardware (hard drive) requirements will vary from 110MB - 120MB depending on installation mode. Pick an answer within that range. I particularly found the Exam Prep tips very useful. For example the book helps you to identify wrong answers heads on, and advises not to get bogged down with scenario questions and leave them for last. Elementary you say, but it's often difficult to remember that in testing situations. I definitely will use other MCSE Dummy books in addition to others in completing my exams.

I found this book to be a good reference for the basics of the CCIE Lab. It provided a good foundation, however, it fell short of being a good preparation tool for the actual Lab. The book does not address the new 1-day format of the Lab Exam very well, and I felt that the book did not cover the internetworking technologies to the difficulty levels of the actual Lab exam.

I would recommend this book as a beginning to serious Lab Exam preparation, but you will soon find that you need to progress beyond the scope of this book.

I still recommed this book for anyone trying for the CCIE Lab, however be warned that there are alot of mistakes in the configuation examples, and there is nothing about them on the errata site. If you are preparing for the CCIE Lab you should be able to recognize the errors without too much effort and on the good side it helps you with your trouble shooting skills. This book has helped me tremendously in preparing for the lab.

For those who found the authors' first book (CCIE Lab Study Guide) to be lacking, this book is a must. Rather than labs oriented to a single protocol, this book offers six scenarios that more closely approximate the two-day lab. Great book, well worth the money.

I pased the exam on the first try.

If you are a developer with limited business or design experience this book is a good resource for exposing you to the concepts of business requirements analysis, database design, and logical vs physical design. If you are an experienced systems designer, much of the material is a good review, and the case studies used are very helpful in preparing for the exam.

After taking the Transcender practice exams (highly recommended) I realized I needed more depth with the Microsoft-specific technologies (COM, ADO, etc). The references in this book were good, though I found myself wondering why a book this size couldn't have included the key information from the references instead of making you search them out. I found that the Sybex book for this exam covers the technologies pretty well, and also has some very good practice cases. I would recommend the Sybex book as a companion study tool for this exam.

On the down side, there are numerous editing mistakes in the book, especially discrepancies between the case studies and the "correct" answers to the review questions in some chapters. It looks like the authors of the questions weren't always working from the final manuscript. For example, in one question the answer is explained with "Since XYZ company has selected Oracle..." and the case study for XYZ never says a word about Oracle. Hopefully New Riders will correct this in later printings.

Several reviewers have commented on the practice exam software included. I also had difficulty installing the practice exam software under Windows 2000. New Riders support said it was not tested to run under Win2K and offered me a full refund. I found a Win98 machine and was able to run the practice exams without difficulty. They are ok for the multiple choice part of the exam, but you will need to be very confident with the "build a tree", database modeling, and flow diagramming covered in the case studies to pass the exam.

This book will help you prepare for the MCSD exam. Unlike all the other exams I took for my MCSD though, this book alone is not enough to pass the exam.

As usual New Rider has excellent exam questions at the end of each chapter. The problem is the format of the exam itself, it is much easier if you are an experienced software developer. In my opinion this book can help you on this exam as much as any book, it's just that this exam is very thorough.

To pass the exam, you probably want to read at least two other books. -->Software Project Survival Guide, Steve McConnell -->Any database design book

I saw some complaints about the practice exam, but I had no complaints. (a word of caution, the Microsoft Press study guide for this exam is HORRIBLE, it has almost no relevance to the exam)

Passed the exam on the first try! Microsoft states that the 70-100 exam is for experienced developers. Cramming for this exam is mostly ineffective. However, of all the books, this one came closest to addressing the topics actually covered on the Microsoft exam.

Less experienced architects should spend more time following the suggested web links and Suggested Reading.

I found most of the chapters helpful and ALL of the case studies to be similar in style to those found on the exam.

There are two additional parts of the book that were most helpful - Appendix E (How to Interpret Case Studies) and the exams on the enclosed CD.

This book is useful for the WinArch II exam, but is inconsistent and in places misleading. The best chapters, in my opinion, are the ones on the Internet (especially ASP, one of the most important topics) and the Registry. (I learned quite a few new things about the Registry!) Other parts of the book are barely adequate for the exam, which is somewhat harder than WinArch I. The chapter on Logo Compliance confuses recommendations with requirements. The chapter on User Interface is weak and insufficient - the author wastes a lot of space on his own ideas, which have nothing to do with the exam. The same could be said of some of the material on database design and network installations. One example -- the author has a highly idiosyncratic definition of First Normal Form. Every book I've ever seen (including Microsoft material) defines 1NF to mean you can't have repeating fields. Try to get that out of this book! On the other hand, some database issues (such as decision-support vs. OLTP) are handled very well. The WOSA chapter is OK (barely), the Internationalization chapter is fairly good, the stuff on BackOffice is boring as all get out. A few subjects that Microsoft places a certain emphasis on (such as accessibility) are glossed over. I wish I had prepared more on these, and especially on user interface issues. Still, with this and the other Sybex book, the Transcender tests, and MSDN, I was able to pass with 849. This book does contain a lot of helpful information - just don't rely on it exclusively. The sample questions are very weak, more so than the other Sybex book, and not at all representative of the exam. But hey, at least the answers aren't wrong!

With this book, measureUp exams and MSDN just took me one weeks to prepare WOSA II and I passed with more than 800. I used the same formula for WOSA I and I also passed whit 811. It's true that the book have some errors, but those help me to test my achievemets while i Was studying.

Haven't finished reading the book, but it's got two things going for it that the other architecture study guide don't:

1> Contains most or all the information needed to pass the exam (unlike the MSPress book) 2> Focuses on the exam subjects and doesn't go off on non-exam subjects.

So, this is definately the best WinArch study guide I've seen yet. The review question are actually pretty good too.

While Microsoft is incredibly foolish for changing the MCSD program, why wait? It's good for another 2 years and by that time everything will have changed again. Besides, these tests cover things you should know REGARDLESS of the exams.

I say get this book and go for it!