Description:
More a volume of condensed wisdom than a traditional reference book, Windows 2000 Essential Reference serves its readers well in a couple of ways. You can use it to glean specific information about particular aspects of Windows 2000 in all its forms, such as when you refer to the authors' step-by-step instructions on how to configure a server for remote configuration via a terminal. Alternately, you can read it straight through in order to extract somewhat softer wisdom, such as what software system administrators should carry in their briefcases and how to design Active Directory systems for maximum reliability and minimum network traffic. The thankfully small reference of command-line utilities disappoints, as it lacks syntax templates and documentation of switches. But the rest of this book more than compensates for the shaky command-line reference, and it's possible to use the index as a surrogate for the alphabetical listings you would expect to find in a reference. On virtually every Windows 2000 subject (the authors pay attention to all four variants of the OS, by the way), you'll find some explanatory prose and some procedures for common situations. Best of all, there's a bunch of bulleted points in which the authors share nuggets of knowledge that don't fit well anywhere else. These succinct facts make this book a worthwhile buy for Windows 2000 systems administrators, particularly new ones who are in need of guidance from more experienced users. --David Wall Topics covered: Microsoft Windows 2000 for system and network administrators. Sections deal with planning and installation, hardware configuration, network setup and modification, Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and other administration tools, accounts, and network services. There's emphasis on Active Directory and its way of working with the Domain Name System (DNS), as well as information on Windows 2000's TCP/IP implementation.
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