Rating: 
Summary: Expected Little, Got Less
Review: As the publisher states in the Introduction, "This book is aimed strickly at exam preparation and review. It will NOT teach you everything you need to know about a topic." This is the general philosophy of the Exam Cram series. So, given this and the fact that the book only contains 338 pages, I didn't expect very much. However, I did expect what little was there to be accurate. This is not the case. The Authors (one of whom is Server+ certified, according to the About the Authors page), missed on several points. For example, the use the term Micro Channel Interconnect (MCI) to refer to Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) throughout the book. I could not find a single reference anywhere (including their own) that called IBM's bus MCI. Could it be that the authors confused Micro Channel Architecture (MCA, later called just MicroChannel) with Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)? In another example, the definition of Intelligent Input/Output (I20) on page 106 is totally wrong. Many of the descriptions of networking (SNMP, RMON, Ethernet, Token Ring, server roles (Bridge, Gateway) are way out in left field. It is like if the authors didn't really know the stuff they made it up. With practice questions like: "How many bits are in a byte?" (Page 108), I'm sorry that there isn't a CD with this book with more realistic exam questions. Since this is an Exam Cram book, there are few illustrations, which is good, because the ones that are there are confusing at best, totally wrong at other times. However, many of these look like printing errors, not actual misinformation. By the way, plenum is not a type of cable coating or housing. A plenum is an architectural term that describes the open area above a suspended ceiling that is used for an air return. Cables are often run in a plenum. The correct term is plenum-rated cables, which describes a cable with a special coating that does not give off toxic gases in case of a fire. Everybody knows that these Exam Cram books are not for novices, but I'm not sure this one is useful for professionals either.
Rating:
Summary: This one takes the prize! (That's not a good thing)
Review: Coriolis books always seem to have more typos than other books but this one takes the prize! There were so many blatant errors in this book! In one of the explanations to a question on the sample test (#36, p.304) starts off saying, "Answer d is correct." and the very last line of the paragraph is "... therefore, answer d is incorrect." If that wasn't bad enough, the "correct" answer to question 5 on p.207 is wrong if you read the text on p.195. Give me a break! I took this exam today and passed but I think I actually did worse because of this book. If I would have chosen one of the other study guides, I'm sure I would have done MUCH better. If it weren't for the quality of the I-Net+ Exam Cram I would be through with this series permanently!
Rating:
Summary: This one takes the prize! (That's not a good thing)
Review: Coriolis books always seem to have more typos than other books but this one takes the prize! There were so many blatant errors in this book! In one of the explanations to a question on the sample test (#36, p.304) starts off saying, "Answer d is correct." and the very last line of the paragraph is "... therefore, answer d is incorrect." If that wasn't bad enough, the "correct" answer to question 5 on p.207 is wrong if you read the text on p.195. Give me a break! I took this exam today and passed but I think I actually did worse because of this book. If I would have chosen one of the other study guides, I'm sure I would have done MUCH better. If it weren't for the quality of the I-Net+ Exam Cram I would be through with this series permanently!
Rating: 
Summary: Used with the Exam Prep and a very good combination.
Review: Finishing up with my study for the Server+ exam by CompTIA I wanted a book that puts all the finer points in one easy to understand and reference manual. Coriolis has taken the opportunity to create just such a book for everyone. Taking the Server+ exam apart is no small task but this book does manage to take the important points like the Server Room layout and security, data storage with SCSI, ATA, USB, SAN and RAID, CPU and memory and put in a format that makes the studying easier. Moving on the book talks about the bus architecture and the BIOS setup structure. Then you have coverage of the topics like peripherals, network interface cards, network hardware, server types. Also very good overviews of the NOS like NT, 2000, Novell, UNIX and Linux is in this book Finally the book closes up with troubleshooting and disaster recovery. This book should be the final reading before the exam, overall a very good source of information.
Rating: 
Summary: You expect me to pass the exam with this?
Review: I give you 2 stars for effort. This book didn't not have any relevant information in it about the Server+ exam.
It did cover the basics of the topics but it did not include any useful tips or proper practice questions relating to the exam. It did not go into detail on what to expect on the real exam or did it cover the objectives fully. I was very disappointed in this book and was surprised it was so thin for a study guide. Do not use this as your only source for the exam. You will need more then what is presented in this book
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good
Review: I've been taking exams for a long time now, and this is the most on-target book I've seen since the original Core Four (NT) from Coriolis. I'm glad to see that they're getting their act together again.
I was very happy with the content coverage and the specific points I needed to brush up on the exam. I'm also glad to see that there was no fluff in there that I didn't need.
If you have some experience in IT in general or servers specifically, this is definitely the book to help you focus on the specifics covered in the exam. If you're a novice, you might want to look at something that has more background information so that you can better understand what's going on.
Rating: 
Summary: Not enough detail to stand alone
Review: Not too bad but I think it would be difficult for anyone to create a "braindump" book like this that can stand alone
as your only resource for the exam. I found most of the topics in this book that were on the exam, but was a little
shy on troubleshooting server problems. It did cover backup rotation methods with pretty good graphics for a visual understanding of the procedure and of course it covered RAID and SCSI which is imperative to know for the exam. Some area's didn't go into enough detail about certain objectives and you will not find anything new in this book that is not in any of the text books. so make sure you have at least 2 years experience of more if you are using this book as your only
resource.
Rating:
Summary: Not enough detail to stand alone
Review: One thing I noticed when I took the exam was the generality of the questions, even when it was dealing with specific items. I would highly recommend this as your starting point in preparing for the exam. As with most CompTIA exams, the Server+ doesn't do the outline justice and you'll need the insights in this book to pass.
Rating:
Summary: Great overall Study Guide
Review: One thing I noticed when I took the exam was the generality of the questions, even when it was dealing with specific items. I would highly recommend this as your starting point in preparing for the exam. As with most CompTIA exams, the Server+ doesn't do the outline justice and you'll need the insights in this book to pass.
Rating:
Summary: If you like Exam Cram books you'll like this too
Review: Same format same detail as any other Exam Cram book.
The only thing is it doesn't have the CD with test questions.
(it does have a sample test in the book though).
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