Commodore Books

I will be avoiding this author in the future (though other Sybex books have been very good) because 1.)He doesn't explain things very well in general and in particular doesn't cover what is on the MCSE tests (I just failed this one after passing the others using only the Sybex book) and 2.) The answers in the question and answer sections are wrong and in some instances the answers would be a copy/paste of the previous question. A terrible author.

I'm a teacher at a technical training center and we have the opportunity to try several training products. Sybex typically delivers the best all-around package, but of course we also encourage our students to use additional training resources such as the Transcender practice tests.
In the case of the Sybex Network Infrastructure book, the first edition was hampered by overly-simplistic practice questions. The second edition is much improved in this regard. Overall, the book provides excellent coverage of both the exam and the skills you will be required to perform in the real-world. In particular, DDNS, DHCP, WINS, routing, RAS, and NAT are fundamental network infrastructure topics that this book nails.
Like some other reviewers stated, the voice-work on the included videos leaves much to be desired, but this really doesn't detract from the book itself.

I would recommend this book, but only with grave reservations -- don't use it as your only study material. I have been using Sybex's excellent study guides for years (all the way through my NT MCSE certification and now on Windows 2000), and this 70-216 study guide is definitely inferior. The material presented is handled well, but numerous omissions make it unreliable. The chapter tests are particularly atrocious. Questions are badly worded; several tests contain duplicate questions; there are numerous questions on material that is not covered at all in the book (e.g., WINS proxy, DNS round robin, DHCP database migration). I've come to expect far better from Sybex; this has been a major disappointment.

I used Sybex for a lot of my MCPs, but this one is truly horrid.
The style is fun and admittedly the author made an attempt to amuse you while you're reading. This would be a good thing (although unnecessary and uncalled for) if it was accompanied by reliable and well written technical material, which isn't the case.
The book is structured in a rather confusing way - you get most of the stuff explained roughly in the first couple of chapters, and then explained in detail afterwards. This is just a stupid approach as it is confusing: if you talk to me about NAT, do it all in one go, and the same for everything else!!
After reading the book I took a transcender... wow, the questions there are really tough, and most of them require knowledge that this book doesn't provide at all.
The main problem though is in the questions and answers. The questions are often written quite poorly and in a very misleading way. Also, the answers sometime state the opposite of the theory (e.g. according to an "answer" you don't need WINS during a WinNT-Win2k migration in a mixed network!) ... of course, there was another "answer" for an identical scenario where it was stated, correctly, that you do need WINS.
Was this book EVER proofread by a tech? I seriously doubt it.
I waisted 2 weeks. Now I bought the MS Press book, and everything makes sense.
The authors did a very bad job. Sybex was thoroughly disappointing for allowing the publication of the book. Do not buy it.

Exams are a way to make "money for nothing and checks for free." This book is barely discernable from the NT books and I am sure the XP will not be long off. I did not buy it for the exam as People that pass exams only show that they can remember questions. However windows 2000 seems to be with us for a while and this book does a good job of pointing out problems before they happen allowing for a preventive plan. Networking is networking is networking However Windows 2000 is not intuitive and is convoluted. So without this or a similar book your goose is cooked.

The book has 14 chapters and an appendix. In them they seem to take you from ground zero to an administrator with a few diagrams and a few pictures. Most of the contents seem to be written by someone who already knows the subject well enough to leave out what he thinks you should already know.

As stated before one reason for using this book is to cut through the convolution. On a UNIX based host the use of DHCP is as simple as filling out a form with base information all in one location. This book takes 20 pages to describe where and how to use DHCP as if it was a separate process than the operating system.

There are better books but this book is better than not.

I've always preferred the Sybex study guides for my certification studies, and this one continues the standard of excellence. The exam is a difficult one, covering a lot of subject matter, and this Sybex guide is good preparation (though hands-on practice is vital too). The authors make a good team -- their study guide for 70-210 (Windows 2000 Professional) is also excellent. Highly recommended.

This book will help in studying some of the concepts for the 70-215, but will not help very much in passing. Almost all books do not cover what is really on the test( I took test in Dec2002 ). The subjects and wording of the test is different than just about anything that you will encounter in the MCSE/MCSA books.

... you will not find any usefull information here, for example there are lot of discriptions of how to install services and so on, but no information about what this service is for and how to use it. I ended up buying other book yo study.

I planned to use this book as a sole study guide for this exam, however I didn't think it went into enough detail and at times had to use the net to understand some of the features. After using the 70-210 book to pass that exam, I went into the exam feeling prepared after reading the book however quickly found out that the book didn't contain enough info to pass the exam. Its ok to get you started with W2K Server but left me 100 points short on the exam!

Vague. That is the word I use to describe this book. As a fan of Sybex materials, I say this with a heavy heart: RUN FROM THIS BOOK! Run like the wind. The only thing this publication will do is pump your ego to the point of you saying, "God has smiled on me today. I will pass the 70-215 test with little or no effort, for I have mastered much more than what can be found in this great and noble tome. Windows 2000 Server is my friend, and it will not let me down." There is NO detail at all, and the index is HORRIBLE. Maybe the Dummies book would do a better job.

I'll start by saying that I did pass the test, so it's apparent that this isn't just sour grapes. But, having passed the test, I can assure you that, for the most part, nothing in this book applied. The labs are fine, but they just take you through one or two canned scenarios per subject, and nothing in the book or the labs actually contributes to your understanding of the subject matter.

I know that the point isn't to be a paper MCSE. You need experience to pass the test. The study guide should be either a starting point that gives you the theory so you can implement it and experience it, or it should be the reference that fills in the gaps in your existing experience. This book is neither.

Sure, this is pretty late for a review of this book. If you are just now buying a book to prepare for this test, you have problems. However, I am still fairly upset with the lack of depth to this book, and I would like Sybex to know about it.

In most cases, what I would consider crucial topics are only covered in the slightest detail. In fairness, the two chapters on TCP/IP and RRAS were fairly decent. There was a good amount of explanation as to WHY to configure things a certain way rather than just HOW.

Plusses: Not very many errors at all. Errors in previous Sybex books were frustrating, so it's nice to see this go.
Minuses: Too many bulleted lists and tables, not enough good meat. Reminds me more of a Test Success book than a Study Guide.

This book is completely worthless! It is absolutely, positively the worst excuse for a Technical Book I have EVER read - and I've read hundreds. The material is EXTREMELY thin (MCS in 3 pages). In addition, you have to continuously flip back and forth between the book and the CD-ROM. If you want to be a paper MCSE - buy a different book. If you want to know the material thouroughly, buy a different book. (...) it has absolutely no value as a reference book! The ratings should include zero stars, since this is exactly what this book is - worthless!

Just passed the 70-240. I used this book to study for the whole thing and it was the best of all the books I saw. If you want a concise guide (most of them are just too long) that will give you all the essentials then this is it. You have to know every little bit that is in here because it doesn't repeat things but the text, exercises (on CD-ROM) and Exams (also on CD-ROM) are all spot on - very clearly explained and not riddled with mistakes like some others. I did also use a 4 day Wave bootcamp to reinforce the material and fill in a few gaps before passing the exam.

Unfortunately, this book does not follow the trend of well written Sybex books. To put it bluntly, this book is miserable. It is poorly organized, full of errors and poorly written. It also wastes time with reduntant text tossed all over the place.

It is also obvious that this is a "beta" book as it includes SEVERAL examples mentioning Alpha support. Alphas are NOT supported in Windows 2000!

This book was rushed and it is painfully obvious in every way.

I'm not sure there are a lot of offerings for this exam, but if there were, I would not be able to recommend this book.

I've relied on Sybex books for a long time and with great success (MCSE, CNE, CCNA, and 3 CCNP tests to date, all on the first try), so I expected the Accelerated Windows 2000 guide would be equally useful. I went through the book twice before taking the test. I might as well have used a copy of "Grim's Fairy Tales". I could see I was in significant trouble with the very first question. The test covers subjects the book doesn't even mention in passing; the book's chapter on Active Directory is so weak, it's worse than useless. And I'm no newbie to directory services, having many years experience with NDS.

The Microsoft upgrade is one BRUTAL test, harder than any Cisco exam I've taken. If the rest of the 2000 series tests are anything like the upgrade, then Sybex's texts aren't worth the lives of the trees killed to produce it.

The book as a preparation for the CID is sparse in the depth of content and I found it difficult to navigate through. The book functions well as the last resource to jog one's memory of the most basic of concepts. However, as with any resource, there's a time investment involved and I found this one more time consuming to work through that outweighed the benefit I received from it. The CID test covers a very wide array of topics and requires much more indepth understanding of the core concepts and terminology than the scope of the 'trigger' concepts covered in this exam notes publication. I would consider the book a Test Objective and Concepts/Glossary review on modified steriods. Where I found the most value out of the book was after I took the exam and reviewed for those areas that I scored lower in.

The official Cisco Press CID book was by far the best resource in terms of money and time invested in studying for the exam. You need to integrate the many different desktop, LAN, WAN, remote protocols and configurational aspects, and apply these concepts as concrete design elements in order to move beyond the CID functioning as a review for these areas. Therefore, integrating the 'nitty gritty' details becomes an important strategy in preparing for this test.

The other book I would recommend is the Cisco Press CID Exam Guide. As with all exams, a good test preparation technique is to pay special attention to the sections pertaining to notes, diagrams, tables, graphics, and foundational key concepts. The 'official' Cisco exam guidebook was better in presenting these areas along with the questions included in the book. I'm not tryping to push Cisco Press but as with any vendor-centric test, this is a Cisco test and does require Cisco specific answers and design solutions. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". The two Cisco books seemed to do a better job at helping me prepare for and passing the test. Good Luck!

I have been using the Sybex books to study for Cisco exams for a couple of years. The original CCNA book by Lammle was excellent, but subsequent books (while still including Lammle's name) have not lived up to the earlier standard. The CID 3.0 is a fairly tough test due to the vast amount of material covered. This book can be used as an outline, but I certainly recommend using additional sources to study. The Cisco Press CID book (Birkner), along with this book, should suffice as long as you read and fully understand the material. Good Luck!

I found this book not only very informative & funny. The only reason I didn't give the 5th star is that it was written before the exam was released & the practice questions, while helpful to reinforce fundamentals, did not match what the exam authors came up with. In the real world, I'd trust Gary & Bob far more than the exam authors with security of a network. For sitting in a little room facing tough questions, add a good practice exam to run the score up. This book helped me pass on the first try.

I picked up this book to see if Sybex had a different angle on test 220. Due to it being different than all other tests with "choose, move and link " items in the test. By page 12 in the text they use the phase "slim to none, and slim left town" describing your chances of being called infront of shareholders. PLEASE! In addition still in the first section they begin stabs at Bill Gates "(isn't that right Mr. Gates?)"

The authors have a very poor choice of wording throughout the entire book and side jokes that are dumb and inappropriate. I rate this as the worst "tech" book I have ever read.

The last criticism is lack of spell check before going to press. Page 11 begins the errors with the following phrase "This stuff is more of the "for your information" ILK". From this point on either grammer or mispelled words riddle the text.

Save the money and time.

I've been using this book for a couple of months now, teaching from it to my MCSE students. I would not recommend Govanus & King. Their writing style makes it very difficult to understand the material. They often use undefined terms causing one to have many reference texts open on one's desk to even understand them. I find my students getting lost in the chapters as well due to poor chapter structure. The info is there, but it's not very easy to glean the important material from this one. Save your money, this material does not meet Sybex's usually high standards.

I found the book to be a little offensive as well due to the numerous off-color remarks and profanity present in the book. (Although the profanity may be considered light, I see it as wholly unnecessary.)

One such remark was "You would have to be living under a rock for the last five years not to have used a DNS name..." Do the authors realize that only about 5% of the world has even used the internet or a computer? Do we really need to catagorize everyone who hasn't their level of knowledge as "living under a rock"? That's the tone of the book however.

What sort of a biography of a very well known person would use the wrong picture on the cover. That photograph is of William Henry Vanderbilt, who was the Commodore's son. They didn't even resemble one another. The fact that this book made it to press with such a glaring blunder right up front is reason enough for me to avoid it.