McSa/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit (Exams 70-292 and 70-296): Upgrading Your Certification to Microsofta Windows Servera[ 2003: Upgrading Your Certific

by Dan Holme and Orin Thomas

Intended for network administrators who already have Windows 2000 certification, this book explains the technologies underlying Windows server 2003, the variety of options for configuring feature... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0735619719
• ISBN13: 9780735619715
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Microsoft Press
• Length: 1 Pages
• Weight: 5.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.8" x 7.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Nearly perfect, and surely the best prepguide there is available

I've used two preparation guides, this one and the one from Sybex. MSPress is definitely the best of these two books. Covers it all, the sybex version is too superficial and just does not cover it all, it actually lacks some important material. This book contains lots of exercises, so you get hands on experience with all kinds of tools. Believe me, you are going to need it! The actual exam contains several simulations, so just reading about the available tools, options and functions is just not enough. Futhermore every chapter ends with a small case study with some questions all of course regarding to stuff outlined in the chapter. Without this book I would not have passed, both exams.

Heavy but great value

Other reviews have mentioned it, but it's hard to ignore the obvious: this is a huge, massive book. This is because it covers two exams. If you're taking only one of the exams, then it loses some of its value, but it's a great value for those taking both exams. You don't need to read the entire book before taking 70-292 (the cover page of every chapter tells you whether its covering 70-292 or 70-296 content), but I would recommend it. For example, even though the IPSec chapter says it's for 70-296, you can take my word for it that there is IPSec on the 70-292 exam. I recommend reading the entire book and then scheduling the exams just a day or two apart. This book is well-laid out and packed with practice questions. The included CD also contains a lot of questions. As has been mentioned, there are some small things on the exam that are not covered in this book, but, in all fairness, none of the exam books cover them. In fact, Microsoft re-wrote the 70-292 exam in Dec '04 to make it much more difficult, and most exam books had already been published. This book is still extremely comprehensive and applicable to the new exam; it's just that you may want to supplement this book with a good bit of internet research. This is a very comprehesive book and a good study guide. It'll get you most of the way to passing, but 70-292 is a very, very difficult exam now and extra study resources are highly encouraged. I've put online study notes for the exam, but I can't include a URL here, so just do a web search. There are also others out there besides mine. 70-296 is more passable and this book should be mostly sufficient. Though this book can't be your only study guide for these two exams, no book can. I, therefore, highly recommend this book.

Great foundation for 70-292 and 70-296 studies

I recently upgraded my MCSE 2000 to MCSE 2003 and used this book as my core study material. First off I must say that unless you are very experienced with Windows 2003 I doubt any single book alone will suffice to provide all the needed material. Having said that for me it was a great start explaining the differences between 2000 and 2003 and hammering home the important points. It makes references to other online sources such as various white papers for more detailed information which should be taken advantage of. The explainations of trusts, dns namespace and name resolution, sites/global catalogs, UPN logon, users/groups, Group Policy, software installations, Organzational Units, redirected folders, Terminal Services/Remote Desktop, and backup/restores/shadow volume, were particualry good and very accurate. However I thought that the information on Certificate Services/PKI was a bit lacking and is HEAVILY covered in the 70-296 exam. The quiz questions in the book are quite good with some real brain teasers that help you determine if you know a subject good enough. I would not spend too much time on questions that relate to rote memory facts but concentrate on those that present a problem/solution format. The real exams rarely test you on memorizing facts anymore like the maximum memory this edition of the operating system can have, etc. What is very helpful is that many of the questions will supply the answer, why it is right and why the others are wrong. I did not even try the cdrom quizzes. There are several hands on practice examples in the book. Unless you are real familiar with the particular topic I would be sure to do them and at least read through the others as there is often helpful information included such as the permissions needed on a share for redirect folders. Beyond the book I did supplement my studies with pertinent chapters from the Windows 2003 Server Resource kit which you can download free. Of course I have had a lot of hands on experience with Windows 2003. In my case this was on my own home network, so you don't have to work in a large network. The one area as mentioned previously I thought Upgrading Your Certification to Microsoft Windows Server 2003 was lacking in was Certificate Services/PKI to the extent that the exam covered it. In general the upgrade exams, particularly 70-296, were heavy on security. Much more so than any past exams I took. What I suggest and what worked for me was to also supplement my studies with the Microsoft Press MCSE book on implementing security for the 70-299 exam. That book covered PKI, ipsec, kerberos/ntlm authentication, smart cards, and wireless network security in much more detail that I found helpful. All in all if found the Micrsoft Press MCSA/MCSE Upgrading Your Certification to Microsoft Windows Server 2003 to be a great core study guide. If you look at it in that regard and not the sole source of information to pass the exams, which in my opinion is unrealistic, I believe you

The book that meets the exam requirements

Hey, you all know that people respond differently to different authors styles... Mark Minasi is quite entertaining; but IMO his style is better suited to conferences and desk references than certification study. This book covers the topics you need to pass the test. If you want entertaining reading, may I recommend the /Lensman/ series by E. E. "Doc" Smith or the /Redwall/ series by Brian Jacques? I wager you'll find the bad reviews are either from folks who read the book superficially and expected to pass the test without sufficient hands-on experience or people who hate MS Press. Similarly, the good reviews are a mix of MS Press shills and folks who _did_ pass the tests. You can draw what conclusions you will from that bit of overly obvious prose. I read the book, did the practice work, and passed 70-292 _easily_ (in and out of the test center in less than an hour). And since I'm old and slow, you young'uns could do better than me!! I'm working my way back through, more carefully this time, to prepare for 70-296. Key Points: 1. When the book says look up something online, look it up. 2. When the book gives an example, try to recreate it in your home or office testing lab. 3. Those who try to short-sheet their studying are wasting their time and money. Have a blessed day!! And may you meet good fortune on your quest to upgrade your MCSE certification!!

good book to pass the exam

This book is not designed to be a comprehensive Server 2003 guide but a study guide on passing the Server 2003 upgrade exams. Under that criteria, it is an excellent book. Don't expect to be a Windows Server 2003 guru with this book, but do expect a simple, straight-forward book on understanding the new features of Windows Server 2003 and how to pass the upgrade exams, 70-292 and 70-296.