Review of "Special Edition Using Microsoft Active Directory"

This is quite possibly one of the best technical books written in the last 5 years. I get a lot of books to read and I usually glance through looking for something worth writing about. I read this book cover to cover, it was that good.

Unlike so many of the books written lately it is not a rework of a previous book with all the sloppy errors we have grown to accept. This is partly as a result of the content dealing with such newer technology, but also because Sean and James really take a great deal pride in their book. They do not just glaze over the topics as some of the AD books do, they give step by step directions on how and where to make the modifications for the desired result.

Before going into the workings of AD they walk the reader through a refresher on the workings of DNS as well as the process of installing and configuring it. They explain how to integrate BIND and AD. They go into the similarities and differences of the DNS and AD Namespaces and also address Windows 2000 Name Resolution and troubleshooting DNS.

After this background they go into each component of the Active Directory and explain how to configure it and how to troubleshoot it. About the only thing I did not like with this book was the size of the screen shots. There are plenty of them, but they are just a little too small for my older eyes to focus on -- you young folks probably wont have this problem, though.

If you only buy one book on AD this should be the one. Here is a screen shot of the Contents at a Glance, the actual Table of Contents is 9 pages long, making it very easy to find the topic you're looking for.

Happy Reading

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