Microsoft Windows Server Enterprise 2008 25 Client Review

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(More customer reviews)IMPORTANT! Windows Server 2008 can be purchased in many different forms. Picking the correct kind of license for your needs is not easy--even Microsoft says so on their site. BEFORE you buy, stop by the Microsoft "How to Buy" site. Since I can't put links in Amazon reviews, here's how you find it:
Go to Microsoft's web site, from the Windows menu choose Windows Server. Next look in the bottom right corner for How to Buy & Deploy" and click on that.
I've worked with Server 2008 almost daily for a year and a half now, and even now that I've gotten to know it pretty well, I still find it to be a mixed bag. Microsoft deserves praise for their hard work at improving Security, but the core of their solution (User Account Control) evokes a chorus of boos from the Administrator, who now has to use three or more clicks for almost every action they take.
Then there's also the matter of IIS: Server 2008 is the first operating system to implement IIS 7.0, and this version is substantially different from the IIS 6.0 found in Server 2003. Gone is the metabase, gone is the interface, all to be replaced by an entirely new way of handling everything, top to bottom. It was nice of Microsoft to still leave an IIS 6.0 mode for backwards compatibility, but really if you're going to the lengths of moving up to 2008, sticking with IIS 6.0 for web application deployment is ignoring much of the point of upgrading a web application tier in the first place. Just as with the Security layer, the goal of the IIS redo is noble: make applications easier to manage and more portable than ever. The downside is the learning curve--you really need to toss out much of what you know and patiently spend some time digging around in the interface (and reading--I recommend the Server 2008 Administrator's Pocket Consultant) to get the hang of it. You'll also need to educate your developers a bit if you want to take true advantage of its portability: for example, new sections in the web.config are created to handle the new features in IIS. Much of what was in the Metabase is now integrated into the web.config to make it easier to move an application from one machine to another and not have to manually reconfigure everything.
There are other fringe benefits that don't always seem apparent. For example, while I still feel that file copies and disk performance are bafflingly slow (Server 2008 and Vista like to think about copying, tell you how long they think the copy will take, and then continually update that estimate as they perform the copy, in my opinion wasting a lot of time to do so), we have also seen massive improvements in larger operations: backing up and restoring the system is exponentially faster for a Server 2008 box than it is Server 2003. Reboots seem to be quicker. Applications have more than one choice for memory management: Integrated mode threads resources noticeably better for our web applications than the "Classic" Mode that is more backwards compatible. Support for virtualization in both Hyper-V and VMWare has for us been (mostly) hassle-free. With both Vista and Server 2008 comes a Power Shell (command-line interface) that is amazingly strong: you can seemingly do almost anything at all using only a command line, if that sort of thing floats your boat.
The only remaining thing keeping Server 2008 from receiving much acclaim ties back into the security tedium I mentioned earlier. Reading the Event Viewer now involves an ugly, boxy interface that doesn't easily lend itself to resizing windows or boxes. Modifying a config file isn't as easy as right-clicking the file and opening in Notepad: you have to manually run Notepad as Administrator, respond to the UAC prompts, then choose File-->Open and manually browse to the file. The same is true for Command Prompts: if you don't run them as Administrator, there's seriously very little that you can accomplish. You can't copy from another machine directly into the web root: you will need to place your files in another folder on Windows Server 2008 and then locally copy them forward. And for security reasons, you cannot easily register an Assembly on the box: where Server 2003 would let you copy/paste or drag/drop, now you have to place the assembly in another folder and use the command line to manually register/unregister the assembly. IIS doesn't always pick up handler mappings: sometimes what I see in my developer's web.config I have to then manually re-add in the IIS interface.
If you're thinking of upgrading your Server 2000 or Server 2003 to 2008, you will find youself with what is ultimately safer, more powerful...and more frustrating. At the time I am writing this (Feb. 2010), I'd suggest that Server 2008 is, like Vista, not as polished and user friendly as its newer cousins Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2. Server 2008 inserts a learning curve into its use and a lot of gateways that slow down simple tasks. One can see where Microsoft was going with the new model: it just doesn't make the transition very gracefully.

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Microsoft Windows for Workgroups 3.11 Review

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(More customer reviews)If you have an older PC or dedicated system that needs it (many are still in use). This is also MS-DOS compatible so if you need to run programs that use DOS and Windows, this is for you. Still a great product and handy for people on a budget or smaller companies.

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Win Svr Std 2008 32Bit/x64 English 1pk Review

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(More customer reviews)Normally I buy the precious versions of microsoft products because they are buggy or difficult to use until the next version comes out. Not the case here though. Installation was super easy and haven't experienced any problems with the instance yet. The server management is much easier in 2008. However, I wouldn't recommend purchasing or installing this until you have read a good book about some of the new features in it and how best to run it.
For those non-techie reader, this product is not for you.
For those techie readers, good choice without doubt, the biggest problem I have had was with IIS after I installed IIS FTP 7.5... Making a bunch of changes to a single FTP site caused the site to get botched and I ended up having to delete the si and create it with anew name.

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Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Review

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(More customer reviews)I'll admit, I've been running Windows 7 for six months now: the preproduction version of it and have just upgraded to the gold code. So I have quite a bit of experience with the operating system. Let's get to the nitty gritty:
Should you upgrade from Windows Vista? YES! I mean it - upgrade today.
Windows 7 is quite simply faster, more stable, boots faster, goes to sleep faster, comes back from sleep faster, manages your files better and on top of that it's beautiful to look at and easy to use. Even the preproduction version of Windows 7 was better than my Vista with SP2.
Should you upgrade from Windows XP? Maybe, but for different reasons.
XP is a good operating system and if you don't need to add new hardware or software, XP is good. However, XP is old as an operating system. Also chances are that if you're running XP, you might not meet the minimum requirements for Windows 7 - check the compatibility site at Microsoft to see if your system will support Windows 7. That said, Windows 7 is light years ahead of Windows XP in terms of functionality, ease of use, etc - to me it's worth buying a new system.
64 bit or 32 bit?
If you don't know what I'm talking about, that's ok skip this section. If you have a core2 duo or core 2 quad or a multi cpu machine, go with the 64 bit OS, it handles memory and the CPUs much better. If you have a single core CPU, one CPU or run special programs that require 32bit, then stick with 32 bit for now.
BEFORE INSTALLATION:
I recommend you have:
-a core 2 duo or core 2 quad machine
-4gig of RAM (That's about $50 in today's market)
-good hard drive with (200 gig - it doesn't need that much but that's another $50)
-back up your files to a USB drive like Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive WDME5000TN (Midnight Black)
-check to make sure your computer is compatible with Windows 7
INSTALLATION:
Installation was very straight forward. You put in the CD and reboot your machine. You might have to enter your bios and enable the "boot from CD" option. Once the machine reboots a nice screen comes up to guide you through the installation. You have the option to upgrade your PC or do a clean installation. I did an upgrade and it brought in all of my files and settings from my windows Vista system. It worked great.
The upgrade did take about 2 hours for me so definitely consider.
I noticed that early on in the installation the operating system went out to Microsoft's site to look for the latest and greatest updates, so I think this should help Microsoft respond quickly to any hiccups with compatibility.
WHAT DOESN'T WORK:
The driver from my old HP Inkjet printer for 2001 doesn't work on Windows 7 so there are some things that will not transition. I had to use a generic HP driver which doesn't give me the quality that I got from an injet - so overall, I'm up and running with that printer but I'm degraded on the inkjet front. That said, I recently upgraded to a HP CP2025DN Color LaserJet Printer that I love so no real loss there. I'll likely pick up a cheap inkjet for the occasional photo that I might need to print. Everything else upgraded.
BENEFITS
-faster boot time
-faster go to sleep
-faster wakeup
-faster about 20% to 30% faster at running applications than my Vista - seriously (but those are my results without any benchmarks or anything like that, just seeing how fast Adobe Illustrator loads, and how fast all the applications respond)
-joining wireless networks is much easier
-the interface is just plain beautiful
-my wallpapers are now a slideshow that can be set to change every few minutes (I'm not stuck with the same picture)
-Gadgets - these are wonderful little small applications that you can drag onto your desktop. I have a weather gadget and a calendar gadget on my desktop that tell me
-Better taskbar management - hovering over the taskbar icons shows me mini windows of what's running
-Better file management - I can organize my files into Libraries that are sortable not only by type but by folder or other data. It's great! I can browse through my presentations or illustrator files!
-Windows Media appears to be smoother which I love.
-You get some virus protection and firewall with Windows 7 but consider something more comprehensive like McAfee Total Protection 3User 2010. Yes, it'll make your computer run a bit slower but
CONS:
- Some older programs might not work and some drivers might not be available like my inkjet driver.
- Other than that, there aren't too many drawbacks to Windows 7 - it's a great OS.
WHICH VERSION SHOULD I GET?
I got the ultimate version because I have clients who ask, "is your hard drive encrypted?" -- I wanted to be able to say yes and have sensitive data encrypted one of my computer volumes - Bitlocker is only available in the Ultimate version. Ultimate also includes Multilanguage support.
If you're a home user that doesn't do a lot of networking, you might consider just the home premium edition. If you're using a laptop and connect to networks at work, you might want the Professional version of the operating system to help you with domain joining. Also Windows Professional gives you the option to run applications in XP mode so if you have old applications you can use that nifty feature. I already have 1 application running in XP mode - it's nifty to run an old application.
NOTE:
The box contains both the 32 bit and 64 bit OS.
OVERALL:
It's very hard to write a comprehensive review on an entire operating system so I didn't even try - I'm sure magazines will devote entire articles to the operating system and several books will come out. My goal here is just to give everyone a glimpse of what I've found to date with this new OS. I do hope this has helped you in making a decision.
Hats off to Microsoft on Windows 7. It's more of a refined Windows Vista than an entirely new operating system but it was needed. Thank you.


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Windows 7 Home Premium makes it easy to create a home network and share all of your favorite photos, videos, and music. You can even watch, pause, rewind, and record TV (a broadcast TV tuner may be required). Get the best entertainment experience with Windows 7 Home Premium. Do you use your PC for work, run Windows XP programs, or require enhanced security? Consider Windows 7 Professional.

The best entertainment experience on your PC
Easiest Windows to use ever
Simplify your PC with new navigation features like Aero Shake, Jump Lists, and Snap.
Customize Windows to look and feel the way you like by changing themes and taskbar programs.
Setting up a home network and connecting to printers and devices is easier than ever.
Windows 7 Home Premium supports the latest hardware and software.

It's faster
Designed to make your PC sleep and resume quicker.
Takes full advantage of 64-bit PC hardware and memory.
Connecting to wireless networks is fast and easy.

Best PC entertainment experience
Watch, pause, rewind, and record TV with Windows Media Center.
Blu-ray read/write support for data files.
Includes integrated video and Dolby audio codecs.

Simplifies Everyday Tasks
Simple to use
Preview Manage lots of open programs, documents, and browser windows easily with thumbnail and full-screen previews of open windows.
Pin Open files and get around your PC faster with the improved taskbar. You can easily pin programs you use often to the taskbar and launch them in just one click.
Jump Lists Open files you use regularly in just two clicks with Jump Lists on the improved taskbar and Start menu.
Snap Windows 7 has simple new ways to manage open windows. For example, with Snap you can arrange two windows side-by-side just by dragging them to opposite sides of your screen.
Peek and Shake Windows 7 lets you peek behind open windows to get a quick look at your desktop.
Windows SearchInstantly locate and open virtually any file on your PC, from documents to emails to songs, right from the Start menu, with Windows Search.
Easy to connect
Wireless setup With Windows 7, setting up wireless connections is easier with consistent, one-click connections to available networks, whether those networks are based on Wi-Fi, mobile broadband, dial-up, or corporate VPN.
HomeGroup Connect Windows 7 PCs on a home network in just four clicks and easily get to the photos, music, and files on each one--even share printers--with HomeGroup.
Easy to browse the web
Internet Explorer 8Visual search helps you quickly find the information you want by adding visual cues and previews to search results from top search providers including Live Search, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Amazon, and others.
Internet Explorer 8 Use Web slices to conveniently keep up with changes on frequently updated websites, like eBay auctions or traffic sites, directly from the IE8 toolbar.
Easy to communicate and share
Windows Live Photo Gallery Windows Live Photo Gallery makes share your photos to your favorite photo site easy.
Windows Live Mail Windows Live Mail makes managing multiple email accounts easy.
Windows Live Family Safety Keep your child safeby managing what sites they can visit and who they can send/receive emails and im communications from.
Note: Windows Live components need to be downloaded separately.
Works The Way You Want
Faster and More Reliable Windows 7 will help your PC sleep and resume more quickly. It is designed to respond to commands more quickly and will help your PC to be more reliable.
Fewer clicks and less interruptions
Makes New Things Possible
Media on your terms
Windows Media CenterTurn your PC into a TV with Windows Media Center.
Windows Media Center Watch shows for free when and where you want with Internet TV.
DirectX 11 DirectX 11 technology delivers breathtaking game graphics so real, it's unreal.
New ways to engage
Windows Touch Windows Touch makes PCs with touch screens easier and more intuitive to use.
Media on your terms
Windows Media Player More and more consumer electronics, from TVs to digital photo frames, can be connected to home networks. With Play To in Windows 7, you'll be able to easily send music, photos, videos from your PC to a networked device throughout your home.
You can enjoy the photos, music, and videos on your home PC when you're away from home with remote media streaming.
Work anywhere
Location Aware PrintingWindows 7 will automatically pick the right printer for you when you move from home to work networks.

Work anywhere with less effort.
Instantly locate virtually any file, email, or document on your PC just by typing a word or two.
Get around your PC faster with the improved taskbar.
Open programs you use regularly in one click and files you use regularly in just two.
Manage lots of open programs, documents, and browser windows easily with thumbnail and full-screen previews of open windows.
Manage multiple email accounts, including Hotmail, Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo! Mail Plus, all in one place with one simple program.
Get to the files, photos, and music on any PC with Windows 7 in the house from any other.
Print to any printer in the house from any PC with Windows 7 in the house.


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LPI Linux Certification in a Nutshell (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly)) Review

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(More customer reviews)The first thing I want to say about reading this book is : I passed! Certification books serve four purposes: first, they serve as a way to prepare for computerized certification exams. Second, they provide a 'training plan' for learning the objectives in the certification. Third, can a book explain system administration concepts while limiting a reader's exposure to difficult, elusive topics until later? Fourth, can a book like this still be useful post-certification?
Part One (covering the 101 test) contained generous amounts of examples for text-processing commands and a really top notch discussion of permissions, ownership, booting and documentation. Helpfully, 'need to know' boxes are scattered throughout the book to indicate how important a topic is on the test. Frequently, the author will point out that although he explained a certain topic in depth, it won't be covered in depth on the test. I really appreciated that, although I found that the actual test covered certain topics (such as X Windows) in much more depth than Dean leads us to believe. One thing, by the way, to remember, is that often the book gives only the 5 or 6 most popular switches for each command. If you learned about these commands only from this book, you might be overlooking some important switches. I found this especially to be true when Dean discussed user management. I consider usermod 'g and usermod 'G to be really important commands, but this book didn't even mention them. On the other hand, Dean gave an explanation of regular expressions which was quite adequate for the purposes of this book. Although omitting some switches proved exasperating at times, the simplified view of the commands can be helpful for linux newbies.
Part Two (covering 102 test) covered a lot more ground: Apache, sendmail, nfs, dns, tcp-ip; heck, books have been written on each of those topics. The book covered well these topics in particular: compiling a kernel, troubleshooting tcp-ip and using rpm's. I found his discussion of Debian package management to be hard to follow, although that may be because I've never used it before in real life (but watch out! The test covers this in depth!). The book's discussion of network services (nfs, sendmail, apache, samba) was shallow at best, but I doubt anyone would rely on such a book for maintaining a web server, for example. But it provided some of the basics at least. The section on X Window was succinct and helpful. Also, some of the information presented is outdated, at least on Red Hat's latest distribution. Red Hat, for example, no longer uses inetd for startup, and some of the directory paths have since changed. These are minor quibbles, and one of the challenge of passing a certification like this is asking yourself: should I be learning things for the exam that are no longer accurate or relevant in current distributions? Certifications test the knowledge available at the time of test creation, when in reality new applications are being added and processes streamlined every day.
The book contains lots of sample multiple choice items, review questions and exercises. The multiple choice items didn't really add much to the book, but I frequently referred to the review questions. (Remember, the LPI exam has fill-in-the-blanks questions). Don't overlook the excellent 'highlighter's index' at the back of the book.
Two minor quibbles. First, the cover is not very strong and is bent, torn and curled over. The other is that the LPI exam objectives are not located at the front or back of the book. Rather, the table of objectives for 101 are in the front, and objectives for 102 are in the middle. I referred to this table constantly to see the amount of weight LPI was giving to a particular topic. Also, because the table of contents follow the LPI learning objectives (probably a smart thing), it is often difficult to find documentation about a certain command. For that I might recommend Linux in a Nutshell , 3rd Edition, which serves as a comprehensive index of commands and system utilities. It is excellent. Also, General Linux I Exam Prep (Exam: 101) by Dee Ann LeBlanc (published in 2000), is an extremely helpful book (and available for significantly reduced price used). Although it was one of the first to market and didn't address the LPI objectives explicitly, the exercises and presentation of material are every bit as good as Dean's book. Keep in mind also that LPI Linux Certification is not sufficient in and of itself. You will probably end up referring to other books such as Matt Welsh's Running Linux, Olaf Kirch's Linux Network Administrator's Guide or the unbelievably good Rute User's Tutorial and Exposition .

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Creating the Secure Managed Desktop: Using Group Policy, SoftGrid, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, and Other Management Tools Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been using this book to help me roll out a new Vista deployment. This book has been indispensible. It's really hard to know just how to go about a ground-up deployment (especially if you've never done one before), so this book approaches desktop management and security in an incremental approach, which is appropriate if you are still deciding on what level of desktop management is required in your situation. So I have no complaints. I just wish there was a similar book tha would help (especially small businesss, e.g. 25 employees or less) know what steps to take to plan a managed secure desktop enviroment and then roll it out.

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Learn how to secure and manage every desktop in your network with Creating the Secure Managed Desktop: Using Group Policy, SoftGrid, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit, and Other Management Tools. Understand the tools and technologies you will need to create a more secure network using Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista and other Windows platforms and learn how to manage, diagnose, configure, update, and protect multiple desktops in an Active Directory network. Master automating tasks, setting and controlling settings, managing user profiles, and locking down systems from this must-have reference.

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Linux Administration Handbook (2nd Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)The first edition of Unix System Administration was a classic. The updated versions have been split into a linux-only version and the original, pan-Unix treatment (including Linux--just not as many variants of Linux as this book covers). I bought the Linux one, but now I wish I had the updated pan-Unix book. The authors' strength is their knowledge of Unix fundamentals, not the (ever-changing) details of various Linux distros. You're better off learning from them how vendor Unices are different in major ways from each other and from Linux. Finally, the authors don't seem nearly as well informed about Linux as they do about the older Unices. While their older book's advice was bulletproof, in this one they miss some important information. The most serious example is their recommendation to use 'dump' for filesystem backups, when Linux Torvalds has explicitly announced that it's not safe to use. 90% of this book is the same as the Unix book, so it's not a loss either way, but I'd recommend you get your Linux info fresh off the net, or in some other book series that's updated more frequently.

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"As this book shows, Linux systems are just as functional, secure, and reliable as their proprietary counterparts. Thanks to the ongoing efforts of thousands of Linux developers, Linux is more ready than ever for deployment at the frontlines of the real world. The authors of this book know that terrain well, and I am happy to leave you in their most capable hands."—Linus Torvalds"The most successful sysadmin book of all time—because it works!"—Rik Farrow, editor of ;login:"This book clearly explains current technology with the perspective of decades of experience in large-scale system administration. Unique and highly recommended."—Jonathan Corbet, cofounder, LWN.net"Nemeth et al. is the overall winner for Linux administration: it's intelligent, full of insights, and looks at the implementation of concepts." —Peter Salus, editorial director, Matrix.net
Since 2001, Linux Administration Handbook has been the definitive resource for every Linux® system administrator who must efficiently solve technical problems and maximize the reliability and performance of a production environment. Now, the authors have systematically updated this classic guide to address today's most important Linux distributions and most powerful new administrative tools.

The authors spell out detailed best practices for every facet of system administration, including storage management, network design and administration, web hosting, software configuration management, performance analysis, Windows interoperability, and much more. Sysadmins will especially appreciate the thorough and up-to-date discussions of such difficult topics such as DNS, LDAP, security, and the management of IT service organizations.

Linux® Administration Handbook, Second Edition, reflects the current versions of these leading distributions:

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Sharing their war stories and hard-won insights, the authors capture the behavior of Linux systems in the real world, not just in ideal environments. They explain complex tasks in detail and illustrate these tasks with examples drawn from their extensive hands-on experience.

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Snow Leopard Server (Developer Reference) Review

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(More customer reviews)Mac OS X Server has come a very long way in usability, and Daniel Dilger's book makes server configuration approachable. Doing a good job of configuring any server, particularly one exposed to the Internet, is not easy, but Dilger's explanations usually provides not only 'how' but 'why' to do something.
If you're just starting out with OS X Server, this book will be a big help, but it might not be quite enough to get you from opening the box to a fully working configuration. There are plenty of "gotcha's" along the way (and I've stumbled on many of them myself.) (In particular, pay -very close attention- to the chapter on DNS. If you don't get your DNS working -perfectly-, the rest of OS X Server will not work right either. That's where it makes sense to pay for some expertise if you don't have it.) OS X Server's diagnostic messages in the face of configuration errors leave a lot to be desired, and Dilger's book provides some debugging advice but that is not its primary focus. Nor is this a book particularly focused on maintaining a running server.
If you're experienced with earlier versions of Server, there's a lot of new features in Snow Leopard Server; my copy has lots of dog-eared pages for "Oh, I need to try/configure/change that to take advantage of Snow Leopard."
I still think there's room for a book specifically tailored to Small Office/Home Office uses of Mac OS X Server (the Mini Server is a -very attractive- piece of hardware for such an environment.) But of the half-dozen OS X Server (Tiger/Leopard/Snow Leopard) books I own, this is easily the best.

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In-depth guide to all aspects of handling Apple's newest big cat
Whether you manage a large enterprise server or your own Macs at home or in a small office, this book has what you need to understand Apple's new Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server inside and out. Crammed with information, this detailed guide presents best practices and insights that have been field-tested by author Daniel Dilger, a professional administrator and Apple developer. You'll soon learn to deploy, administer, and update Apple's powerful new cat.
Get to know Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server, Apple's scalable, 64-bit UNIX-based operating system, and the most powerful Mac OS X version yet
Explains all aspects, both hardware and software
Shows how to host Web 2.0 applications, crunch tons of data, or centralize the day-to-day activities of a software development team
Covers installation and configuration, account authentication and authorization, using open directory, using print and file services, managing accounts and deployment, and using Apple Remote Desktop, Enterprise solutions, and command line control
Explores open source applications such as iChat Theater, Mail, iCal, Podcast Producer, and more

Keep Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server purring with this practical guide.
Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

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Windows Server 2008 Unleashed Review

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(More customer reviews)I went to the Windows 2008 launch event and got excited about migrating our company to Windows 2008, but wanted to get a third party book to help me better understand the REAL features, functions, and experiences of the product (rather than Microsoft's rendition of it). I jumped on Amazon and searched for a book, and this Windows 2008 Unleashed book was already rated with a couple 5-stars, so I bought it. I just got it last week.
At first, I was a little overwhelmed as the book is almost 2-inches thick and hard bound (definitely worth the cost for the shear volume and amount of paper it took to print this book)! I read the introduction chapter and got a lot more comfortable with Windows 2008 as the author provided a really good comparison of Windows 2008 to Windows 2003 (which I already know pretty well). The intro chapter also gave me links to different parts of the book that helped me organize the way I was going to review the text of the book (I prioritized chapters in the book based on my interests, which was outlined and highlighted very well in the first chapter).
I was most interested some of the new things I've heard about Windows 2008 such as the security stuff, Windows virtualization, terminal services, and Active Directory Federation. I flipped to each of the chapters that covered these topics, and I found the content very easy to follow. Each chapter started off with an overview of the topic (like an introduction of the concepts) and then as I got further into the chapter, it got more into the details on how to implement the technologies, and it had notes and tips throughout the chapters that made it obvious to me the authors have worked with Windows 2008 for a long time and provided great guidance!
After reading about 5 chapters, I then focused on what it would take to implement and migrate to Windows 2008 and flipped to the chapters on installation and on migration. Those chapters also were VERY well structured and helped walk me through what was involved. I was greatly relieved to read that the migration process from Windows 2003 to Windows 2008 wasn't that complicated. And while I have only been fiddling with Windows 2008 for about a week in the lab here at the company I work for (which is a pretty extensive lab with over 30 servers mirroring a portion of our production environment), I've gone from being overwhelmed to pleasantly relieved that our migration to Windows 2008 will be well planned, staged, and executed thanks to the content of this book!
I am grateful to the authors of this book! I just bought the books on Exchange 2007, SharePoint 2007, and Windows Vista written by the same authors (Rand Morimoto and Michael Noel) as I think their writing style and the value of the content is wonderful!
B

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Windows Small Business Server 2008 Unleashed Review

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(More customer reviews)More than half finished with this book, I am writing a review from the perspective of an in-house person who manages IT as just one of my job duties in our small organization rather than from a consultant's point of view. The short of my opinion is this: 1) The value of this book will far exceed its costs if it saves you from making just one or two mistakes (and I think it will); 2) You will need more than this book to manage an SBS environment; 3) The target audience for this book remains ambiguous to me.
Depending on how extensively you use each component of SBS and what you already know, I recommend separate SharePoint, IIS, Exchange, and Active Directory books as well as one that covers Server 2008 in general in addition to this book. SBS Unleashed is far too short at 800 pages to cover these topics in enough detail for you to make full use of the product's capabilities.
Specifically, I would not feel comfortable managing an Exchange Server with only this book at hand. With three chapters (Management, Client Connectivity, Disaster Recovery), it is easily the most in-depth covered topic. That is appreciated; however, something as crucial and common as how to configure and manage email addresses that use both internal and external domains is only covered tangentially even though you will have both if you follow the instructions in the installation chapter. An Exchange Admin would likely find this trivial, but if this book was written for her, I am sure she would find an example of how to add an additional external email address (which IS included) even more trivial.
The SharePoint chapter also demonstrates additional books are in order. Seemingly randomly included is a step-by-step on how to setup a Wiki, but an explanation of exactly what can be done with SharePoint is missing. The take-away sounds like this: "SharePoint is a great document management and collaboration software package, here are the default settings, steps to merge existing data, how to back-up settings, and one page on troubleshooting." Disappointing. The same thing goes for Exchange Public Folders. You might learn how to back them up and a few (important) notes, but don't expect to be told how you can make use of them.
I would not have subtracted a star if it wasn't for two things: 1) Target audience, and 2) The chapter on IIS.
1) If this book is targeted at people who already understand the standalone products and are mainly interested in what is different in SBS, why would something such as a screen shot of where you enter your organization's address information be included? (I use that just as an example of the conflicting target audiences).
2) The chapter on IIS was extremely frustrating as it was not fully edited (wizard names confused, repetitive paragraphs, sentences that I don't think I should have had to read more than once or twice but did), it included a full page of a log file with no explanation, and it did a rough job of explaining certificates, which are better covered in a future chapter on Exchange Client Connectivity. It just seemed rushed and not thought out besides not doing you much good if you aren't already familiar managing IIS.
Despite my criticisms, this book is a must-buy if you are a consultant who has clients that might use SBS or if your organization is planning or considering implementing an SBS solution. The authors are really part of the SBS community and you can find some of them active on blogs and newsgroups (see the SBS newsgroups at Microsoft Connect). I do think they have taken a very complex product and presented a substantial amount of useful information in an engaging way that will help you manage SBS. I'm sure as more seasoned IT admins read the book, they will disagree with me.

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Network Management: Principles and Practice Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I bought this book with great hope. I have spent the past 12 odd years of my career working on various networking protocols. But, I had never worked on network management systems. I figured I could use a good book about network management. Looking at the TOC and the author's info (the author teaches at GaTech), I figured I wouldn't go wrong if I read this book.
The author definitely covers a lot of ground. The emphasis is squarely on SNMP based systems. The author also has some decent discussion about EMS/NMS, event-correlation, commercial and open-source management systems, etc.
So, why am I giving it 2*-s? I didn't like the book because it is very hard to read. The sentences are very difficult to read and understand. You have to make a big effort to figure out what the author is saying and even then, it's not easy. I am hoping the author and the editors simplify the language of the book and update some of the content in the next edition. So, my suggestion would be: wait till the next edition if you can, else, be ready to put in a lot of time into reading this book.


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Network Management: Principles and Practice provides a balance of theoretical backgrounds and practical aspects of network management. Unlike other books that talk only about specific network technologies, Mani Subramanian lays the foundation for network management by presenting the background, the technologies, and the tools that all network managers simply must know. He does this by breaking the book down into three parts:*Part I provides a background on networking and network technologies such as hubs, routers, bridges, and switches. *Part II addresses network management architectures and protocols before moving on to discuss SNMP management, broadband management, and TMN. *Part III focuses on tools to monitor network parameters, network management applications, and solutions to manage networks and systems. Throughout the book, the author intertwines real-world examples based upon his experience in managing, engineering, and operating networks. 0201357429B04062001

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