Certification Books

I found this book to be a great resource and a good foundational book. I goes into enough detail to get a good understanding of the principals of Active Directory. While I am not sure you can pass the MSCSE 70-294 test with just reading this book it is a great foundation to compliment a good purchased sample test.

The 70-294 Self-Paced Training Kit does an outstanding job in teaching the objectives of the exam. Especially useful are the practice activities at the end of each lesson/chapter. Getting hands-on experience with Active Directory is a must to pass this exam, and this books makes getting that hands-on experience a breeze.

Of all the MSPress books I have bought, this one is the best.

Although this book is larger than most of the other MS exam books, it provides great detail and enabled me to pass the exam the first time and with flying colors. I've had some "issues" with some of the other MS exam books, however, this one MS actually did a good job with.

Piece of Advice for the Exam - Study and KNOW the GPO sections, OU sections (especially design and managment), and RRAS sections. Very little is covered outside of those things, believe it or not.

Good Luck!

This is another excellent book from Microsoft Press. I'm not a native English speaker but the books from Microsoft Press are pretty good to read because Microsoft uses clear technical languages that is easy to understand. The questions, practices and troubleshooting labs are good resources to prepare for Exam.

I would like to recommend this book for any Windows Admins who is going to take the 70-294 exam.

This is a superb book. I purchased this book in late May as my primary study guide for the Sharepoint Server 2007 Configuration exam. This books gives one the opportunity to gain real work expertise via the many well worked out exercises that guide you step by step through the installation, configuration and administration of Sharepoint Server 2007. The book assumes no prior expertise with Sharepoint although familiarity with networking concepts is a must. The text is well written and engaging. Nevertheless, do bear in mind that Sharepoint Server 2007 is an Enterprise product with SQL database, IIS and .NET requirements and thus the book is technically demanding and requires a certain level of motivation from the reader.

Each chapter is punctuated with sections on real world scenarios involving the usage of Sharepoint Server 2007. These make for light reading and are good motivational aids. All chapters finish with a series of 20 tough review questions in order to test your knowledge of the studied material. The book contains a total of 16 chapters. The last 6 deal with the Enterprise features of Sharepoint Server 2007 such as Excel Services, Business Forms, Web Content Management and the Business Data Catalog. These areas are available as books in their own right; suffice to say this text will sufficiently wet the appetite to get you started. The beginning chapters cover Authentication, Building of Sites, Lists and Libraries etc all of it well presented in bite size logical steps.

I sat the Microsoft exam in early July and comfortably passed. This book, coupled with a desire to learn and the motivation to go through the hands on exercises, the review questions and the sample examinations ( there are two bonus exams on the accompanying CD ) will give you not only the knowledge to successfully pass the exam but the confidence to comfortably administer and configure Sharepoint Server 2007 in the real world. I would strongly recommend this book. Best of luck.

Very good book on MOSS 2007 Admin. It's got great insights into MOSS Deployment scenarios, configuration, and built-in development features.

Much more in-depth and better than Microsoft's MOSS admin book.

I bought this book in preparation for the exam (which I did pass), and found it to be an excellent resource.
A month ago, I knew very little about Sharepoint; I have been a software developer for years, and, over those years, have had to learn many systems and environments. This book, combined with the online learning packages from MS, prepared me quite well for this exam.
I agree with B. Abler: I found the practice exams and the flash cards to be MUCH harder than the actual exam. I had scheduled the exam before I had finished the book and online tutorials; I was extremely anxious that I was not going to do well on the actual exam, based on my performance on the practice tests.
I highly recommend this book to anyone planning to take the 70-630 exam.

I recently passed exam 70-630 (MCTS: MOSS Configuration) and this book was one of the study methods I used for preparing for the exam. Overall, this is an excellent resource for not only the exam but I found it to be a decent reference manual as well. The book covers all of the concepts you "need to know" without going into the great depths of every detail. It's easy to read and follow and retain the information. It is also they only book available specifically geared towards exam 70-630.

If you understand all of the concepts of this book and can answer the practice questions provided with it, you are more than ready for the real exam. My only critique about it is that I did not find the practice questions to be very helpful as many of them were much more detailed and more complicated than the actual exam. However, it's better to err on the side of complexity than making the practice questions too easy.

I would recommend pairing this book with a practice test vendor such as Self Test Software or Transcender and you should be successful in achieving your MCTS in MOSS Configuration.

Overall it's a very good study guide and reference book.

I have found this book to be quite informational on different aspects that will be covered on the certification exam. I continue to use it as in my studies and as a reference.

This is the best product I have ever used. It is excellent to have a guide that gives you rationale for an answer.

Medical Coding Specialist's Exam Review Hospital is a wealth of information for anyone planning on taking either one of the hospital exams. It contains challenging coding activities and explanations to the answers. It also has mock exams that really get you thinking! The book also pinpoints the importance of preparing for the exam, test taking tips, and what happens after the exam. A great book!!

Sylvia Gonzalez CCS, CCS-P

This is a MUST have book if you are studying for the CCS or the CPC-H test. It is clear and to the point, and easy to understand. Each Chapter has invaluable information that you need to know for the tests, and then it is followed by a quiz and then the answers after that. There is a CD that is included that is VERY helpful, because it has mock tests for both the CCS and CPC-H. After finishing the test then it is automatically scored so you know how well you did and what you need to study more.

Rita Montierth CCS-P, CPC-H

A Super Must Have book for anyone who's creative.

If you're new to Microsoft Image Composer, then you must get this book. Brian Johnson writes with clarity and humor which takes the intimidation factor out of learning this program. While MIC makes web graphics creation as easy as it gets, it's still a great help to have a guide to lead you through the short learning curve. Brian Johnson inspires confidence. With a little patience and this book, you'll be cranking out graphics like a pro. Power users of MIC may not lean anything new, but for the price, it's a good reference tool.

My FrontPage CD included the Microsoft Image Composer, but Inever really made much use of it. Then I bought the "Dummies'book and realized how much I had been missing. The first fourchapters, alone, were worth more than the price of the book. I recommend it to anyone who is at all creative, and not just for web sites.

I must give this book 5 stars. I am not a big fan of the " dummies" series nor am I new to web graphics. I had sooooo much trouble with MIC , even the bottun editor. I bought every book I could find and there wasn't many. This book was the winner, it did help clarify what Microsoft found it so hard to make easy. I do prefer Illustrator or even Freehand but if you are forced to use MIC this book you must have!

Superb. I looked at, and bought, a number of books focused on studying for the Word 97 Exam. This was the best. It is carefully edited, concise, and accurate. I just took the Expert test and scored 90% with the help of this book (75% is passing). Highly recommended!

I've used Word97 for a while, just picking up what I can when I can. I don't intend to take the Word97 exam but I do want to learn the material. I found the explanations very clear and helpful. After reading just the first chapter I had many new tips to share with coworkers. Can't wait to finish!

This book is the best resource I've found for passing both the Proficient and the Expert exams. I passed both on the 1st try, however, I also encountered a few questions that were not covered in the book. Just make certain you have an above average user's knowledge before you try to take the exams. Otherwise, you may find this book cannot teach you all that you need to pass the exams.

I bought this book to prepare for the exam. I've used Word for years, but needed to make sure I had all the exam requirements covered. The book was perfect. It taught exactly what I needed to know. It was concise, and it presented each topic three ways: step-by-step narrative, review questions, lab exercises. I highly recommend it.

We all know that Mike Meyers is go to man for A+ and that is All-In-One Guide is a huge success and that a great number of people, including myself, owe him a huge bit of thanks for helping us to pass the exams. Now imagine taking the best parts of his guides and break it down even further and that is exactly what has been done here in this book.

The book is an excellent study tool for passing the A+ exams as both the Core and OS exam are covered in the 950 plus pages. One thing that could be added in future updates is a few more exercises. And once again as with other books from Mike, this one has material I have not seen anywhere else before. I also found that this book is current with the newest exams, which is another plus.

The thing that has always impressed me is the way that Mike Meyers can explain any topic. He is able to convey the concepts and ideas without boring the reader; in fact several students in my current A+ Class have found this manual to clear up some confusion from the study guides we are currently using.

The cd included has several practice exams and some videos you can use as additional study tools. The Learn Key Videos does a hardware check before allowing you to run the video demos, which is a good thing since 1 of my machines was not hardware ready. As with the written material, Mike is even better in the video segments with his use of real life situations and examples.

If you are just getting started and need a first step in the right direction, than let this book be the pace is all begins. Overall just another superb effort from Mike Meyers.

I am an EET studying for certifications. Also I use this book for a general troubleshooting reference. This is one of the best out there. I have several others and most just ramble about the technologies as an overview but do not get into applications needed. Meyers conveys the information as he is addressing people who are working in the real world. Good diagrams and the book is very well put together. Hey it is McGraw Hill. A top notch Publisher. A+

While I would not count on the book to teach me everything I must know to pass the A+ exams, I would definitely trust it to give me a strong foundation. Meyers includes all the basics and then some, and he goes into detail in a manner that should cater to almost all experience levels. The thing I liked the best about this book was how easy it was to read from beginning to end. Highly recommended to those who are looking for a place to start.

The text is well presented with about 40% white space on each page. The important items in each topic are highlighted and reviewed at the end of the chapter. My only suggestion for improvement would be to provide an answer key. Each question and key word has the page the topic was covered and hopefully the answer is there staring you in the face.

The author's tone is that of a "regular" person talking to a "regular" person. The CD that came with book is excellent, but simply not enough questions to feel comfortable passing the A+ exam on the first try.

Several schools in the local area use this exact text for instructor lead classes. I'd buy this text (expensive !! like a college text) but well worth it. Not too much detail for a tech, but more than a newbie would know going in.

That's just yet another great title from Cisco Press! There are just too many books available on MPLS both as a technology and service enabler, but it's hard to see a book that focuses on only one aspect of MPLS applications, i.e., MPLS VPN Security. I just love the fact as to how the book is structured to serve both novice and the advanced user to MPLS VPNs and its Security aspects. I like the idea that authors keep both enterprise and SP implementation aspects of MPLS VPN. Information throughout the book is precise, up to date and easy to follow. Book is structured into four Parts;

Part I focuses on MPLS VPNs and network security fundamentals, upon completion of this part you are not only up to speed with the key security concepts for analyzing MPLS network scenarios and where security needs to be implemented (i.e., zones of trust) but also the complete threat model for it which even discusses on securing NOC.

Part II introduces you to advanced concepts of MPLS VPN security, i.e., Inter-AS, Carrier's Carrier (CsC) architectural security. Authors do a good job of keeping in check the security issues which are independent of MPLS and need to be solved separately. They also make it very clear that security is an important network design aspect and how some design decisions can make an entire network insecure. Chapter 5 is mostly a re-hash of basic network security fundamentals in Cisco IOS feature set.

Part III walks you through the practical guidelines of how IPSec complements MPLS and security of Layer 2 VPNs and concludes with how you can effectively operate a secure MPLS VPN core. Authors make it clear that both technologies work together very well, but before considering IPSec into MPLS, one should clearly outline what are the goals (basically when to use PE-to-PE versus CE-to-CE encryption etc.).

In Part IV, the chapter I like most is the "case studies" - it provides use cases, application examples, and best practices guidelines for the key concepts discussed in the whole book.

This book discusses security in the context of MPLS VPNs Security and other related aspects (like Internet access within a VRF, Extranet or common services etc.). Both authors are very well known at IETF and Distinguished engineers at Cisco Systems. Their experience in the areas of network security and attack mitigation shines throughout the book.

Overall, I strongly recommend this book to all network security engineers as MPLS (due to its inherent advantages and applications) is gaining momentum not only in the service provider space but also in the enterprise market segment.

This is one of the few books I've seen that starts off with a discussion of just what is secure. Secure from the casual hacker that might try to get into your network is one thing. If the resources of the NSA are applied to getting by your security it's an entirely different matter.

The second chapter continues this analysis through the design of a threat model. Just what is it that you want protection against?

The chapters that follow go into the design of a secure system, followed by some case studies that are used to illustrate the theoretical discussion points from the previous chapters.

It would be nice if the world out there were a friendlier place, but it isn't. If it's your job to set up a secure system using MPLS, this book will provide the basic background information you need before you start entering parameters into the various security devices.

A very good examination of MPLS security that goes way beyond "its just like Frame Relay". The authors do an extremely deep dive on those aspects of MPLS technology that may effect the security of carriers who run MPLS or enterprises who utilize MPLS services. This is a rare book of interest to both carrier and enterprise network engineers. There is also some excellent coverage of link layer MPLS technologies and their security issues. It should be noted that this is not a primer on MPLS nor is it an MPLS book for security engineers. Instead it is (so far) the best available work on MPLS Security for network engineers who are already familiar with MPLS and WAN technology. Strongly Recommended.

MPLS VPN Security (Paperback)
by Michael H. Behringer, Monique J. Morrow ISBN 1587051834
As Multiprocotol Label Switching (MPLS) is becoming widely deployed for providing virtual private network (VPN) services. Security becomes a major concern for companies planning to migrate from the legacy VPN's to MPLS VPN's. This book provides an indepth look at what are the real security issues that both service providers providing MPLS VPN's and companies utlizing such services face. The authors provide a clear understanding of how the MPLS VPN's work differently from other VPN technologies.
The book is divided into four parts MPLS VPN and Security Fundamentals form Part One. The first part of the book provides an excellent overview on the three basic components of security: the architecture, design and operations and defines the "zones of trust" for an MPLS VPN environment. It provides an excellent Security Reference Model for MPLS VPNs. The various threats to a VPN are broken down into parts for better understanding, like threat, intrusion, Denial of Service against a VPN. Threat against an Extranet site. Threats against the core, and from within a Zone of trust.
Part Two of the book provides an analysis of Advanced MPLS VPN Security Issues like VPN Seperation (Address Space and traffic), Robustness against attacks (where and how), protection against spoofing, Specific Inter-AS considerations and comparisons. And other issues not addressed by the MPLS Architecture. It examines in detail Secure MPLS VPN designs and shows how to design a DOS resistant network and the tradeoffs between DOS resistance and network cost. The security recommendations provide tips on general router security, basic templates and ACL Examples. CE-Specific router security and topology design considerations. LAN Security Issues. CE-PE routing Security Best Practices. IPSec both CE to CE and PE to PE. And a comprehensive checklist for securing Core and Routing.
Part Three provides practical guidelines to MPLS VNP Security and shows how IPSec complements MPLS. It explains the deployment of IPSec on MPLS and use of other encryption techniques. It underlines the importance of security of MPLS Layer 2 VPNs and the various generic Layer 2 security considerations. The section ends with providing a plan for the operation management and maintenance of a MPLS core. It deals with the secure management of CE devices, management of VRF and VRF details.
Part Four provides deployment examples and lessons learned, highlighting theoretical discussion points from the previous chapters. It also provides various scenarios for internet access and points out security considerations for each example.
The coauthor Michael H. Behringer is an active member of the IETF and has published work on MPLS VPN security since 2001.
The coauthor Monique J. Morrow (CCIE # 1711) is active in both IETF and ITU-T SG 13 with a focus on OAM. She is currently engaged in MPLS OAM standards development.
I feel this book would be extremely useful for security and operations staff of enterprises that deploy MPLS or subscribe to a service based on MPLS.
I give this book 5 stars on a scale of 5, 5 being the highest. I strongly recommend this book.
Niloufer Tamboly, CISSP

I used this book to pass tho of the exams. I am confident I will pass the rest. But this book is boringly lengthy. Again it is tooooo lengthy. He is adding many non-relevant text. Almost 20 percent of the book is unnecessary stuff.

BUT, it is the most accurate book. In other books, you can find a lot of errors. This has few. NO book on CNE is better than this book. Some other books are easy to read and understand. But, they are not enought to pass the exam!

This set is a complete source for everything you need to pass your CNE exams, plus a handy reference later on as well

It is an excellent book!

-Why I bought his book? 1. You can fill up the small room with MS stuff books. It's tough to find any decent one Novell book. I believe this is the only authoritive book on the market.

-Why I bought this book set instead of the CNA guide?

1. This book set comes with the evaluation Novell 5.0 CD. CNA study guide 5.0 does not have evaluation CD. Now he has a CNA 5.1 study guide which comes with evaluation CD. If you are interested in getting CNA like me, you might want to check that out.

-How do I like this book?

1. Overall this is decent. I would say "wordy" instead of "fluff.":) 2. Be patient:). He repeats same stuff MANY times. That might be useful way for study.

-Did I pass the exam?

1. Yes I did. No sweat.

-What else do I need to pass the exam?

1. I read his CNA note. It focus more on the exam with useful notes. Basically it's less wordy CNA study guide.

2. I bought a practice exam from certify.com which seems authoritive Novell practice test like Transcender for MS

3. After all those readings and practice test, I feel I spent too much time for preparation. Don't spend too much time and money.

-What's the deal?

1. You need CNA. --> check out his new CNA 5.1 Study guide. Maybe practice test. Remember not to spend too much. 2. You need CNE. --> I believe this is it.

-Why do I write review?

1. IMHO, this book deserves better review.

---- Nwadmin32 is under sys\public\win32

Excellent review material; closest review to actual test. I will use again when I recert.

This was an excellent review book and I really recommend reading it from front to back 2-3 times! It provides information in an organized manner that allows for easy recall! I will definitly refer to this book in my practice.

This review guide is an excellent resource for the PNP exam and PNP program. I would highly recommend it.

Read this book front to back 2-3 times and you can rest assure that you will pass the PNP exam. This is an excellent review of pertinent information and is also my most used reference now that I am a certified APRN in practice.
Excellent review guide.

Prentice Hall MOUS Test Preparation Guide for Access 2000 and CD Package is a great book and a study guide. Despite a few flaws, I will still give it two thumbs up.

I spend alot of time sifting through preparation materials, and purchased this one based on the two other reviews. The preparation guide is extremely well written with tons of illustrations and the PinPoint software is fantastic. This was the only guide I used to prepare for the exam. How'd I do? Perfect 1000.

With NO prior Access experience, I completed the 26 questions on the MOUS test in about 30 minutes (out of the 45 minutes allowed).

You will pass the certification test easily after completing all of the material in this book and on the CD.

The material is well focused on just that information needed to answer the MOUS test questions correctly.

The only complaint I have is that the software on the CD would "flag" questions for review that were marked correct on the Test Report and it would not flag some questions for review that were marked as incorrect on the Test Report.

Note: I spent about 120 hours going through all the material twice (and experimenting with Access 2000 a little) before taking the test.

If your are pursuing the MOUS certification for Microsoft Access 2000, then this book is your best friend. The text is thorough and easy to follow. It concentrates on the test, so you won't be confused by peripheral discussions. But the real gem is the PinPoint CD that accompanies the book. The Access tasks are presented in the same manner as the test, with excellent walk-throughs for any tasks which you might find difficult. When you miss a task, the software keeps track so you can easily try it again. Using Susan L. Wise's MOUS Test Preparation Guide as my primary study tool, I pulled a perfect 100% on the Microsoft Access 2000 exam!