McSa/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-284): Implementing and Managing Microsofta Exchange Server 2003: Implementing and Managing Microsoft(r) Exc

Excellent prep for the exam, but you definitely need a multi computer lab environment. W2003 Server(32 and 64bit) will run on an old machines with only 512Mb memory. Useful to also upgrade old servers via W2000 and various service patches, change and kill old domains etc. Trivial problems can sometimes take a long time to resolve, but you learn a lot in the process.

Well, I'm impressed. For starters, I got a valuable education from this book, not to mention a 980 on the exam. This book is a thorough course and will prepare you as much for the real world as it will the exam, but it requires a practice network of at least 2 computers (I recommend 3), and a lot of time - 250 to 300 hours. This isn't the kind of book that you read in bed or on the couch. The book is approx. 25% reading, 75% hands on lab work. I give my money to Microsoft reluctantly, especially on products that depend on solid communication skills, but since the book came with a trial version of Server 2003, I plugged my nose and bought it. I expected a litany of typos, endless ambiguity and the "good enough" quality standards that their software has accustomed me to, but that wasn't the case at all. The book was 98% accurate. The practice exam software was an asset, and like I said, it was thorough. It's only shortcoming was in the topic area of "Windows Software Update Service". I should add that I had two years of experience within an Active Directory environment under my belt.

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 Windows 2003 Network Infrastructure. While I am not sure you can pass the MSCSE 70-291 test with just reading this book it is a great foundation to compliment a good purchased sample test.

It has taken a while to get this book published. 1230 pages of material takes a lot of time to put together. Obviously the stated aim of this book is to prepare the student to take the exam. However, even if you are not planning on taking the exam, the material covered here is a complete book on Windows Server 2003 Networking. It covers everything from defining TCP/IP to troubleshooting nearly any kind of trouble. Of course the main thrust of the book is to pass the test, so there are a lot of small tests throughout the book and then there are three CD's. This includes a 180 day evaluation version of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition. In addition there is a review test that will give you the look and feel of the real test. This is by no means light reading for the IT newbie, but it's all you will need to pass the certification test.

No 1 book is ever perfect. Like one reviewer said it does not do a lot of explanation. I think it explains enough for you to practice and figure out the rest. That's what some computer books are about. That's what makes this book extremely enjoyable to read without over burdening you with details. However, i did need a little more in depth to IIS 6.0 so bought the Resource Kit from Microsoft Press, that was excellent.