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Rating: 
Summary: An absolute necessity for IT Pros
Review: If you have to support a Microsoft Windows network installation of any size you need a TechNet subscription. I have been using my subscription not only to support my network administration duties but it has been absolutely great as a resource for my MCSE certification efforts. If you are just beginning your MCSE quest AND you have a slow Internet connection, the TechNet subscription should be part of your educational materials. Most of the current material on the TechNet subscription is available on the TechNet web site but it might be hard to find. Also once you've got it on the CD or DVD disk it won't disappear when it becomes "obsolete" on the website. Consider the subscription a moving 1 year "window" on Microsoft products. Any time you order the subscription, you start out with what is current in the subscription for the last 12 months. At the beginning of each month you get the updates. You remove the CDs that are considered obsolete. I save the removed disks, especially if they cover old software I'm still supporting. The seminars on the training disks that are part of the subscription are usually very good. I have been to some of the same TechNet seminars covered by the training programs on the CDs in the subscription. It appears that Microsoft picks the best presentations or seminars and puts them on the disks. I have found that hot fixes and Service Packs on the TechNet disks usually come out pretty close to their release on [their] website. Knowledge Base articles on the TechNet subscription have been and always will be a subset of the website articles. That's one area that Microsoft should improve on. It might be possible that a full DVD release will allow a broader range of Knowledge Base articles. Lately the subscription has been focused more tightly on Windows 2000 products, no surprise there! There is still some support for Windows NT 4.0 products but you'll be seeing less of that this year. The problem with Microsoft's policy with TechNet is that it has a horizon line that follows the marketing department. Anything over a year old or deemed "obsolete" by the marketing weenies gets deleted eventually from the TechNet subscription. They should expand coverage to include more legacy products. I still see Novell 3.12 network installations running Windows 3.1! If you are supporting legacy Windows systems, the support in the TechNet subscription has already begun to decrease. Microsoft could make a "Legacy" edition for Windows 3.1, Windows NT 3.1 through 4.0 and the Windows 9X products. Maybe not a subscription, but a pack of CD or DVD disks for each of the Windows versions.
Rating:
Summary: An absolute necessity for IT Pros
Review: Product information about Microsoft products is critical for IT professionals. While this product is far too expensive and detailed for average users, IT people that are using Microsoft products will find it envaluable. Extras include on CD seminars and training that is really pretty good most of the time. The new 32 bit search engine is excellent (for searching technet). All in all, it's 5 stars for a network professional but zero stars for any home user that is running Windows 98 and a few Microsoft apps.
Rating:
Summary: Professional Support for IT Professionals
Review: Product information about Microsoft products is critical for IT professionals. While this product is far too expensive and detailed for average users, IT people that are using Microsoft products will find it envaluable. Extras include on CD seminars and training that is really pretty good most of the time. The new 32 bit search engine is excellent (for searching technet). All in all, it's 5 stars for a network professional but zero stars for any home user that is running Windows 98 and a few Microsoft apps.
Rating: 
Summary: A good resource for supporting Microsoft products
Review: TechNet has been invaluable a few times in supporting Microsoft products (who else but Microsoft knows more about their own bugs!) The information in the CDs (updated monthly) is more complete and extensive than what you can find on Microsoft's Knowledgebase (online support). This is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing when I can find a solution on it that I could not find in the Knowledgebase or anywhere else. It is a curse when I search for a solution and have to browse through hundreds of hits. What I usually do in troubleshooting is search the Knowledgebase first. If I don't find a solution there, then I search TechNet. TechNet has saved me hours of work more than a few times - enough to make TechNet worth the price.
Rating:
Summary: A good resource for supporting Microsoft products
Review: TechNet has been invaluable a few times in supporting Microsoft products (who else but Microsoft knows more about their own bugs!) The information in the CDs (updated monthly) is more complete and extensive than what you can find on Microsoft's Knowledgebase (online support). This is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing when I can find a solution on it that I could not find in the Knowledgebase or anywhere else. It is a curse when I search for a solution and have to browse through hundreds of hits. What I usually do in troubleshooting is search the Knowledgebase first. If I don't find a solution there, then I search TechNet. TechNet has saved me hours of work more than a few times - enough to make TechNet worth the price.
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