MCSE: NT Server 4 in the Enterprise Study Guide, 3rd edition

While not quite up to the value of the other core MCSE books thanks to a wrongheaded effort to be all things to all people, the third edition of MCSE: NT Server 4 in the Enterprise Study Guide is still a solid reference for those looking to pass the notoriously tricky Enterprise exam. In other words, the sensible, efficient writing that graces the Workstation, Server, and Networking Essentials is still here, it's just that there's not nearly enough of it.

The Sybex Study Guides are famed for being accessible to both the neophyte and the advanced field techie, and this book is no exception. Lisa Donald and James Chellis bring you through the basic concepts of NT Server, from setting up printer pools to NetWare interoperability to monitoring and optimizing NT networking performance. The writing is very lucid but extremely dense, varying mildly in quality; the section on NetWare interoperability stands among the best explanations around (even if it unnecessarily shunts File And Print Services For NetWare into a footnote), while the sections on DHCP servers and RAS will probably require more than a few rereadings before you get them down. Several hands-on exercises help flesh out your comprehension, but many of the exercises require more than one computer... which is a reasonable assumption, given that this is an exam that's supposed to test your knowledge of how thousands of networked computers interact.

(Incidentally, sharp-eyed surfers may note that the reader reviews of previous editions have complained of numerous technical errors; the four pages of errata that marred the second edition have been corrected here. No worries, mate.)

Unfortunately, the book was written to straddle both worlds and services neither fully; it seems to want to be a complete reference for someone who's completely unfamiliar with NT Server, while still trying to provide content for the advanced Enterprise topics. As such, it falls between the cracks, providing a lot of redundant data on topics like printing, user management, and permissions--things that have already been covered quite thoroughly in their NT Server and Workstation books. The space given to those chapters eats up valuable pages, and doesn't allow the guide to explore in nearly as much detail on advanced topics (like Enterprise-style troubleshooting, Network Monitor, and DHCP) as it should. Unfortunately, this takes away from the "one-stop shop" nature that is the hallmark of the other core MCSE books from Sybex. The nature of this makes it a fine introduction to Enterprise topics, but a more advanced and thorough book will most likely be needed if you want to guarantee a passing grade.

The end-of-chapter questions are flawed simply because they're, well, simple. The Enterprise exam is famed for having large, complex scenario questions designed to confuse the rookies, and the Sybex questions tend to lean more toward the baldly factual--i.e., "What RAS callback option provides the greatest level of security?" There is a chapter devoted to troubleshooting, but even there the questions are elementary. If you know your troubleshooting skills are weak--or, worse yet, have never troubleshot--a supplementary book to bolster this area would probably be in order. (Incidentally, the secondary nature of this guide isn't a reflection on poor writing, though--few study guides cover all areas equally, and reading more than one book to prepare for an exam is generally a good idea.)

Overall, this is a wonderful effort whose aim is just a little off. If you're looking to start somewhere, this is a good choice that will probably get you to 80 percent of where you need to be--and, in fact, many people have passed the exam using this book alone. But when you're the one paying $100 a pop.... --William Steinmetz