Mastering Exchange 2000 Server
Need a top-end resource to help prep you for the Exchange 2000 Server MCSE exam? This Microsoft training kit may just be the thing.
Today, as books about technology and technology
training are published as fast as new software is developed,
the quality can be compromised. I confess to being quite
picky about books in general and tend to spend hours scanning
through texts before choosing one. After comparing MCSE
Exam 70-224: Server Implementation and Administration
Training Kit to many other volumes on this topic—and
this certainly isn’t the first book on the subject I’ve
come across—I can say without a doubt that this is one
of the best Exchange 2000 Server resources you’ll find.
More than just a book, this resource is a
complete training kit designed to help you prepare for
exam 70-224, Installing, Configuring and Administering
Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server. The kit includes Exchange
2000 Enterprise edition and Outlook 2000 evaluation software,
an online version of the book, and multimedia instructional
files. Kit material is laid out so that a reader can go
through the book cover to cover and learn a great deal
about Exchange 2000 Server. Or, if so inclined, you can
concentrate on a specific topic by delving into the appropriate
chapter or two.
The level of information provided in the
text is quite good and appropriate for a technical audience.
The author maintains her focus on Exchange 2000 Server
technology without wandering off into irrelevant details.
Topics flow nicely, starting with general information
about Exchange 2000 Server’s architecture and how it integrates
with Windows 2000 Active Directory, then the book moves
into installation procedures. Later chapters cover Exchange
2000 Server administration, coexistence of Exchange 2000
Server with earlier versions and other mail systems, advanced
security implementation, and maintenance/troubleshooting.
As an accompaniment to the excellent text,
you’ll find instructions on how to set up a lab to put
the theory you’re learning into practice. The instructions
are clear and easy to follow, but there’s one drawback—the
lab is built around three networked computers. Now, it
isn’t a given that most people will have three machines
handy; but never fear, there’s hope! To work around a
lack of hardware, the training kit conveniently provides
multimedia files that contain simulations of every exercise
in the book.
I found these files useful. First, they provide
a pseudo hands-on experience for those times when stepping
through a process is key to clarifying a specific concept,
but a lab isn’t available. Second, they allow you to verify
your results as you experiment with Exchange 2000 Server.
Third, in case you have a lab and can’t get it to work,
the files provide a backup. The only bad thing about the
files is that, at times, it was difficult to make out
the words in the dialog boxes displayed on Windows Media
Player.
I should also point out that at the end of
each exercise there’s a summary, recapping key points,
and at the end of each chapter there are review questions.
These help you see if you need to spend some more time
on the topics covered or if you’re ready to move on.
Of course, when it comes to learning how
to maximize Exchange 2000 Server, nothing beats actual
hands-on experience, and I recommend you get as much of
that as you can. But this training kit does offer a variety
of excellent tools that can help prepare you for the Exchange
test.
About the Author
Valéria Struk Ganamet, MCSE, has worked closely with Exchange since its first release, and also Windows NT 3.51, 4.0 and Windows 2000. She is the project lead for the Exchange 2000 and Conferencing server deployment, and also lead on the Microsoft based collaborative strategy development for EDS globally.