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Rating: 
Summary: House of Cards
Review: I'm halfway through this book and have recorded a total of 10 typos and a dozen flat-out errors. A typo is relatively harmless, but errors include things like saying the correct answer was "C" when in fact it was "B" or visa-versa (answers 4 & 5 on page 355), asking a question like number 7 on page 63 when the material is not covered until page 226, displaying a dialog showing a configuration that allows all IP addresses except 1, but claims to deny all except 1 (page 250), or just flat-out misinforming the reader, such as by saying things like a subnet of 255.255.254.0 can be expressed in CIDR notation as /21 (page 334) or that a misconfigured subnet mask will always result in NO other machines being reachable (page 497).Even the practice exam I took says that granting Change permissions to an NTFS folder is a correct answer. We all know that NTFS folders do not have a Change permission, only shares do. The book leaves you wondering what is true and what is false, although it is at least 90% true, so I guess I can expect to get at least a 90% on the exam, right? Overall, it reads well, doesn't beat around the bush too much, and is not a terrible choice of study material, but very sloppily edited. As a follow up: I understood all of the material in the book well and did well on the practice exams, but barely passed 70-290 and got a 693 on 70-291 (need 700 to pass). Passing the NT 4.0 MCSE or Win 2000 MCP using Exam Cram was a breeze by comparison. This book just doesn't cut it.
Rating: 
Summary: Concise but riddled with errors - and omissions
Review: I'm halfway through this book and have recorded a total of 10 typos and a dozen flat-out errors. A typo is relatively harmless, but errors include things like saying the correct answer was "C" when in fact it was "B" or visa-versa (answers 4 & 5 on page 355), asking a question like number 7 on page 63 when the material is not covered until page 226, displaying a dialog showing a configuration that allows all IP addresses except 1, but claims to deny all except 1 (page 250), or just flat-out misinforming the reader, such as by saying things like a subnet of 255.255.254.0 can be expressed in CIDR notation as /21 (page 334) or that a misconfigured subnet mask will always result in NO other machines being reachable (page 497). Even the practice exam I took says that granting Change permissions to an NTFS folder is a correct answer. We all know that NTFS folders do not have a Change permission, only shares do. The book leaves you wondering what is true and what is false, although it is at least 90% true, so I guess I can expect to get at least a 90% on the exam, right? Overall, it reads well, doesn't beat around the bush too much, and is not a terrible choice of study material, but very sloppily edited. As a follow up: I understood all of the material in the book well and did well on the practice exams, but barely passed 70-290 and got a 693 on 70-291 (need 700 to pass). Passing the NT 4.0 MCSE or Win 2000 MCP using Exam Cram was a breeze by comparison. This book just doesn't cut it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good concept material & excellent software
Review: Overall i am very happy with this book, It covers "all" exam objectives in a "easy concept based" way. This book features brian culp "which i think is a excellent author". I used his passport book and became an MCP certified in WinXP so i highly recommend him. All Objectives are throughly explained in detail. Im using this book in conjuction with the microsoft 2003 administrators companion russel/crawford, which is an excellent reference book. Its far better than the Self based training kits microsoft puts out for sure! All those books are good for is firewood! Sybex is only marginally better....
Rating:
Summary: Complete waste of my money
Review: This book is complately inadquate as a preparation for any of the tests mentioned on its cover. It cannot be a reference guide either because of all the bugs and mistakes in it. It can only be used as a door stopper when you don't have a spare phone book. I am very unhappy with this book and I doubt I will ever buy a certification book from Osborne. I took one look at the sybex book and it has so much more info and so much more stuff in it. Yes, you will need to buy 4 books instead of one, but either that or be stuck with a book where you will have to double check *everything* that is in it against MS build in help. You will thank me for telling you not to buy it. If you don't trust me and buy the book, you better have the recipt in a safe place because very quickly you realize I was writing the truth.
Rating:
Summary: House of Cards
Review: This text proves that on the internet or in print, a person or persons can create a completely fictional persona and "resume" of qualifications. I recommend searching further for a text with more experienced, polished, knowledgeable authors.
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