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Summary: Two Words - RIGHT ON !!
Review: This is a close to perfect book. I was able to use this book to roll out a 300 seat Windows 2000 client/server environment. I now use it to refine my environment and to conduct regular administration. RIGHT ON !!!
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Summary: The "Ultimate" Windows 2000 Teaching Guide
Review: We have searched for a book that could be used in conjunction with our Windows 2000 fundamentals and advanced administration courses. The Ultimate Windows 2000 System Administrator's Guide more than fills the bill. In addition to being very well organized and readable, the book is equally suited for new and advanced administrators and IT managers. We realize that once our students complete our courses and boot camps, they will need a reference that can reenforce the training and provide other valuable information. That is why we now using this book as the basis for all our Windows 2000 courses.
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Summary: As good as it gets.
Review: Windows 2000 is the latest operating system form Microsoft and the complexity with which it was developed has made the understanding of the application more difficult for administrators. You have planning and migration issues, active directory and directory services issues, new file formats that weren't part of the NT OS. You have distributed file system concepts, public key encryption and security, VPN and IP Security as well as IIS issues. All of this must is similar, yet different that NT and yet you are responsible for making sure the transition is easy and quick. The Ultimate System Administrator's Guide is definite help in this task.The 894-page text is load with figures, table, diagrams, pictures, notes and most importantly step-by-step procedures for the support and administration of Windows 2000. The author break down the subject matter into sections with detailed descriptions of what you need to do and then allows you to try it with the hands-on exercises. I was most impressed by the amount of information presented, I was a little taken back by the somewhat complex technical explanations in certain areas. Overall the author did an impressive job making sure that the information was for the most part easy to understand. I liked the fact the book starts with an overview of 2000 administration and the 2000 architecture, this way you have some idea of the way the operating interacts with your computers. Then there is an excellent section on the planning and migration from NT to 2000. The author makes every effort to give you the most up to data and accurate information so that transition is as smooth as possible. Then after all this you begin to discuss the Active Directory and Directory services which is over 100 pages of information. Chapters 7,8 & 9 are the user administration chapters dealing with accounts, groups, policies, permissions, and security, sharing and distributed file sharing. Follow that up with over 350 pages of information on networking, security, encryption, naming services, VPN and IP security data management and disaster recovery, terminal services, IIS issues, clustering, indexing and message routing. This is simply one of the best books for 2000 administration on the market today. There is also an appendix with over 100 pages of 2000 commands and utilities, by far the most complete collection I have ever seen. Finally the book makes working with and supporting 2000 a whole lot easier. The layout of the topics and information itself is what makes this book a must have for all those studying for the certification or the longtime administrator
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Summary: Big disappointment
Review: Yes, I thought that book would be a good help for my work as an administrator, and it ended up being a big disappointment. I have read a lot of computer books in the last three years as I passed my MCSE exams, and this is the most poorly written I have come across. There is no linear thinking about how things work, you often have to guess what the author is talking about, which makes reading at time confusing. It's always a sign to me when I have to read a paragraph three times to understand what the author really means, and then realize it wasn't that complicated, but was only written in a clumsy way. Lot's of guessing work. Definitely not my cup of tea...
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