Having learned most of what I know about Netware 4.11 from Clarke's books, I took a leap and bought both the admin and CNE books that he authored for Netware 5.1. I was disappointed. The books lack the anecdotes that break up the monotonous material, and it's evident that Clarke wasn't enthused with writing this book.

Much of the material isn't fully explained. For instance, in the Advanced Administration section, Clarke mentions subordinate reference partitions, but doesn't go on to explain what a subordinate reference is. His explanation of b-trees for NSS volumes is likewise lacking. It could be summed up as a replacement for FAT that allows the volume to mount faster, but instead he concentrates on explaining it's heirarchical properties, losing the reader in the process. A full 100 pages of information new to Netware 5.1 was lost upon me for this very reason.

But in the absense of other study materials for Netware 5.1, you probably don't have much choice but to buy this book if your aim is to obtain a CNE via self-study. If you can get your hands on the Exam Cram books, I highly recommend them as a supplement (good luck getting the exam cram for Advanced Admin, which is out of print). If you use Transcender exams in conjuntion with these books and set up a netware 5.1 server to practice with, you should have absolutely no problem passing the tests. But don't depend on this book alone, because it probably won't suffice.

I started seriosly my study with this book.The good one is, the style he (the author)talk to us in the book, I really like it!
But some thinks are logical and I understand easierly, but some others really difficult. And if your head is burning, and still you don't understand the meaning, your are demotivated. A little bit later, you find out that not you are mistaken,there are explanations in the book, the can 't be true! That are not translation-mistakes, like from english to german. I compared it with an original english book. And? The it 's the same! How can a Leaf-Object recieve "C" as an Object-Right. Check it under the capital:Netware-Security. Where you can make your own test! The other mistakes are softer, but enough to make you confus.
I wouldn`'t explain everything here, if I could find out who is responsible, to give a chance to modify the book.

After passing NetWare Administration 5.1 using the companion CNA 5.1 book as my primary study resource, I was hoping for a similar experience with this book. I am finding that while the CNE 5.1 book does cover much of the material for the remainder of the CNE examinations, it is a bit light in some critical areas. I have expanded my studies with another CNE series from Novell Press, a set of third party CBT's, and even broke down and took the official Advanced Administration 5.1 course. I'm not at all certain that I would have passed Advanced Admin or NDS Design if I had trusted just this book to get me prepared.

My other frustration is that for a new book, it does not attempt to cover the latest version of the NDS Design and Implementation test or the Service and Support exam. Why not? The latest tests have been out there for a while. Like the CNA book, I get the feeling that this book is a slight re-write of the previous 5.0 version and was rushed to publication without attempting to cover everything in the most current versions of these exams.

While I still find this book valuable for CNE test preparation, I do not feel comfortable using it as the main resource for my studies. It certainly is a good secondary resource.

All I have left for my CNE certification is Service and Support and an elective. I will definitely keep using this book to help prepare for S&S, but I am already lining up other resources to fill in the anticipated gaps.

I hope when this book gets updated for Netware 6, the publisher will allow the author to take the time to provide a comprehensive text for those of us who prefer the relaxed pace and flexibility of self study over the shotgun (boom, here it is, we're done) authorized courses - and make certain that all of the objectives from the most recent courses and exams at that time are covered in depth. Perhaps it is time to break this book up into more than one volume to allow room for the needed detail.

BTW, lose the crossword puzzles and the word searches at the end of the chapters. They are next to worthless in helping to make the information stick and pretty much a waste of time. How about putting that effort into a set of sample test questions on one of the companion CD's?

Again, all in all, this is a good book, but for me, it just isn't enough to make me feel totally prepared for the tests.

I have bought almost all of the SNMP/RMON books and they are really nothing more than the RFC's a bit better formated and indexed. I had great hopes for this book, because Perkins "Understanding SNMP Mibs" was excellent. However, this book is no different from the dozen others that I have read. If you want a nice reference book and already have an understanding of RMON this book is nice. If your looking for insight or more explanation than the RFC's you will not find it here.

Software Development With Modula-2 (International Computer Science Serie