While any manual, or instruction on a protocol can't begin to compare to Space Mountain, this book does compare with Sominex. I attempted to study from this tome, and never was able to sit and read an entire chapter without dozing off.I found it to be incomplete, inaccurate, complex, and completely useless. The "Microsoft" solution is to memorize a bunch of graphs and tables, not to actually LEARN what is going on behind the scenes. For example, it is very easy to calculate a custom subnet mask, this ignores the process and tells you to memorize a chart. When you test, you can't use a crib-note. If you forget the numbers, you are lost.You might pass the test with this book, but you certainly won't know what to do in the real world.Save your money...look for a different title.

I'm using this book now to study for my fourth MCSE exam, and find it very poor compared with other books. Here's why. 1. Many editorial mistakes make it hard to rely on. 2. The CD-ROM Multimedia materials do not illustrate the most important concepts, such as subnet masks. Instead, they illustrate fairl;y clear ideas. 3. The descriptions of subnet masks and addressing are far less clear than in other books. Examples are abitrary and not explained. The practices do not focus clearly on the themes of the chapter (try comparing the actual summaries with the actual exercises and you will see what I mean). 4. Answers to exercises are not explained in any detail. For this reason, I found the Microsoft Press material far less useful that materials such as Exam/Cram, on-line articles, and the comments of netizens. I cannot recommend this for anyone serious about self-study.

Although this book was helpful in studying for the TCP/IP test, the Sybex TCP/IP Study Guide by Todd Lammle was much easier to read and more helpful in passing the exam. As usual the questions in the MS training kits are weak. However this book is written by Microsoft, the reason why these tests exist.

The text was excellent, but including the CD is misleading. I found that the text did a fine job of preparing me for the exam, but I expected more from the CD. Especially for the price I payed. I suggest getting the test exams from Transender.com in addition to this book.

I used both this kit and New Riders 'Networking with TCP/IP' exclusively for this exam, which I scored well on. One thing about MS training is that they seem to assume you know nothing and start with the basics, but several topics (DNS and subnetting, especially) are not explained thoroughly enough for a rookie to master. This book may be enough to pass the exam, but not ace. The New Rider's book is enough to ace the exam.

I found this book good for giving a basic understanding of TCP/IP, but I can't see how anyone could pass the TCP/IP exam using this book... too watered down. This isn't the book to actually LEARN TCP/IP, but it gives a general overview.