Rating: 
Summary: A solid foundation
Review: I have to thank Alan Carter for writing a great book that gave me a solid foundation for Win2K and allowed me to pass 4 cour exams. Before turning to this book, I have tried New Riders guide for 70-215 (Server) test, and it definitely was not enough to pass that test. It seems that all 4 cour exams overlap greatly, so if you are trying to pass Server without knowing anything about Active Directory or basic TCP/IP concepts, might as well forget it. "Windows 2000 is Windows 2000"--states Alan Carter, and that's how he is able to prepare you for 4 core tests with just this one item. Don't get me wrong, you will need a dedicated effort to study and practice the material, but by the time you are done, you will have a solid framework that you can hang all your future Win2K knowledge on.
Rating:
Summary: alan carter is the best
Review: I have yet to come across a book for windows 2000, that explains the subject in detail. This book by carter is outstanding. I had already read his Mcse study guide for NT 4.0 and when i was planning to study for 2000, i could not think of a better author than Alan Carter. This book is a must read. Thanks to you carter, i am enjoying the Win2000.
Rating: 
Summary: Too many words!
Review: I liked this book for the 210 & 216 but it was severely lacking in the 216 & 217 tests. You will not pass unless you have a TON of experience. Its a good book to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Not 4 birds. Get different books for 216 & 217. I was NOT impressed with the CD rom either. Its asked hard questions NOT coverd by the material.
Rating:
Summary: Good book for 210 & 215
Review: I liked this book for the 210 & 216 but it was severely lacking in the 216 & 217 tests. You will not pass unless you have a TON of experience. Its a good book to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Not 4 birds. Get different books for 216 & 217. I was NOT impressed with the CD rom either. Its asked hard questions NOT coverd by the material.
Rating: 
Summary: Barely worth buying
Review: I started reading this book with high hopes that it would be similar to his NT 4 book, but I was quickly disappointed. Once I started reading it, I thought that the material being covered was extremely basic. I had to skip the first 500 pages because of the poorly covered material. This book would be fine for the person who does not have any prior knowledge of Windows 2000 at all. I finished the book in less than a weekend because of the constant repetition. This book is a bust and not worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: Get this book
Review: I used this author's NT 4 book for my NT 4 MCSE exams. I was never disappointed in the results. This book promises to deliver the same high quality tools for passing the Windows 2000 core exams. This book wasn't available when I took 70-210. However, I used it for 70-215. I passed the first time. Carter's book covers information inadequately covered, or poorly explained, in the Microsoft materials. Although the exercises and the review questions are excellent preparation tools, you should still use a good third party practice test to augment the book.
Rating:
Summary: Too many words!
Review: I WANTED to like this book. I love the idea of covering all four exams in one study guide (even if, as others have said, it's only enough to get you through two of them). I also love the idea of learning Windows 2000 Networking As a Whole, as opposed to studying for four individual tests. After all, to learn Pro, you must know some things about Server, but to learn Server, you must know some things about Pro, and so on.But a quarter of the way into it I realized it wasn't working that great. With only a feeble explanation of zones, the author begins talking about how to implement and configure them. That's where I started to get lost. How can I configure a zone when I'm still unclear as to what one is, exactly, and why I would need it? Onward. I carefully read an entire page of dense text (time elapsed = 2 minutes), only to realize that he had just told me that sometimes W2K doesn't have the proper drivers for PCMCIA card services and you must contact the manufaturer (time elapsed to read this sentence = 3 seconds). And the exercises are similar in wordiness. For example, the explanation of how to install DNS would start like this: "Click on the Start Menu. Go to Control Panel. Click on Add/Remove Programs. Click on Add/Remove Windows Components. Move index finger of right hand over left mouse button. Apply pressure, forcing left mouse button down....etc." In other words, loooooong repetitive explanations for the simplest of tasks, but then insufficient explanation of theory and vital concepts. I'm really starting to like the idea of those visual guides (Read Less, Learn More). Glance at one picture and know instantly what they are talking about, where it is located, and how to do it.
Rating:
Summary: The Keystone to your Success (ACCELERATED)
Review: In my humble opinion there is no one book that will get you past the 70-240 test. It takes a combination of books and theory, hands on with the operating system, and self test. There has to be a starting point and this is it, believe me. There is enough material in this book (if you have a good understanding of NT4 and had TCP/IP and IIS4 as an elective for MCSE NT4) to pass the accelerated test. If you don't have experience with DNS and DHCP then consider Syngress' book for test 70-216. There's my 2 cents. Good luck and please learn the material (not the just the test)
Rating:
Summary: The Keystone to your Success (ACCELERATED)
Review: In my humble opinion there is no one book that will get you past the 70-240 test. It takes a combination of books and theory, hands on with the operating system, and self test. There has to be a starting point and this is it, believe me. There is enough material in this book (if you have a good understanding of NT4 and had TCP/IP and IIS4 as an elective for MCSE NT4) to pass the accelerated test. If you don't have experience with DNS and DHCP then consider Syngress' book for test 70-216. There's my 2 cents. Good luck and please learn the material (not the just the test)
Rating: 
Summary: Clear, logical, and complete treatment of Server/Pro
Review: My full-time job for the past 3 years as a Microsoft Certified Trainer has been to prepare high school and college students to pass the Windows NT 4 (and now Windows 2000) MCP exams. I evaluated a dozen books before settling on Alan Carter's "NT4 MCSE Core Study System" to supplement the Microsoft Official Curriculum. My 80% student first-time passage rate on certification exams is now in serious jeopardy with the coming of the much more difficult MCSE 2000 exam track. I have read through Carter's "Windows 2000 MCSE Study System", as well as the Sybex and Microsoft Official Curriculum courses covering the four 2000 Core exams. I am once again impressed at how clearly, logically, and completely Carter has treated the materials needed for the first two exams, W2K Pro and W2K Server MCP. These two exams assume that you have a broad understanding of 2000, including materials that you would expect to find only on the Network Infrastructure and Directory Services exams. If you carefully read through Carter's book , work through the dozens of step-by-step and lab exercises, skim the book a second time, and use Transcender exams for practice, you should have no trouble passing the Server and Pro exams with high scores AND have a solid foundation on which to complete your Network Infrastructure and Directory Services core exams. As the best written "single" volume book on the market, Carter's 2000 book deserves 5 (or even 6) stars. However, for what it purported does, prepare you for all four 2000 core exams, it rates 4 stars because it does not sufficiently cover the materials for the Networking Infrastructure and Directory Services core exams. As always, Transcender exams will boost your score a 100+ points, but you would be well served to supplement Carter (and Transcender) with the two books from Sybex's MCSE Study Guide series that cover these exams. Also remember to bring an exorcist to the two Networking Infrastructure exams (Administering--core and Design--elective), because as one reviewer has remarked on a major certification website, they are "evil, evil, evil". Bob Nordling MCSE, MCP+I, MCT, CTT, A+, Network+, i-Net+ and a worshipper at the altar of Cisco, i.e. a CCIE wannabe
|
