Since the wizard is pretty straight forward the book wasn't much use. I would have liked more discussion of when to use the default and when to customize.



The book advises a minimum 8 gb system drive. Even with Exchange et al on another partition the updates eat up most of the 8 gb quickly causing performance problems. I suggest 14-16 gb wth hard drives so cheap and the time wasted if you have to repartition.



Another place the book recommends the hard drive be at least 2 gb. That may be the minimum per MS but the author should provide realistic minimums.

Since the wizard is pretty straight forward the book wasn't much use. I would have liked more discussion of when to use the default and when to customize.

The book advises a minimum 8 gb system drive. Even with Exchange et al on another partition the updates eat up most of the 8 gb quickly causing performance problems. I suggest 14-16 gb wth hard drives so cheap and the time wasted if you have to repartition.

Another place the book recommends the hard drive be at least 2 gb. That may be the minimum per MS but the author should provide realistic minimums.

Since the wizard is pretty straight forward the book wasn't much use. I would have liked more discussion of when to use the default and when to customize.

The book advises a minimum 8 gb system drive. Even with Exchange et al on another partition the updates eat up most of the 8 gb quickly causing performance problems. I suggest 14-16 gb wth hard drives so cheap and the time wasted if you have to repartition.

Another place the book recommends the hard drive be at least 2 gb. That may be the minimum per MS but the author should provide realistic minimums.

This book is great for those that only work on small business server on occasion. I refer to it every few weeks. a great reference.

This book is fine for an overview of the features included in SBS but, if you need to set it up, this would not be a book that I would recommend. In fact, I wish I could get my money back.

The author approaches the set-up as if it were almost an out-of-the-box program and does not address any of the potentially major problems that can crop up. - And a lot do - just check out the TechNet newsgroup for SBS on Microsoft's website - http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsServer2003/sbs/community/newsgroups/dgbrowser/en-us/default.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs

The main problem with this book is that so many things can go wrong with SBS and she has only 6 pages on troubleshooting, and it is totally basic - which she admits by naming the chapter 'Troubleshooting Basics' - but what about troubleshooting is ever basic and where is the 'Advanced Troubleshooting' chapter???

Plus, there is no section in this book on troubleshooting the set-up process.

She writes for troubleshooting: "'Repeatedly ask why?'; 'Ask, 'what just changed?'; 'Cut the problem in half'; 'look for a simple solution'; 'gather evidence', 'write things down' etc. -

What? Have none of us gone through a basic science class! What would have been helpful would have been if she went over what CAN go wrong - you know, typical scenarios.

For example, critical elements like the fact that you need to register with a third-party provider a second domain name for your local network, etc. are not covered in the book.

Under 'Domain Name Naming Conventions' the author writes:

"Typically, companies separate their Internet presence from their internal network by using a different extension. If your company already has an internet presence (website), you can use the domain name with the .local or .office extension. If you don't already have an Internet presence, you should consider a domain name that is somewhat descriptive of your business..."

What the author forgets to mentions is that, whatever you choose, you have to register it - EVEN IF you already have an internet presence and EVEN IF it is only for the internal network.

She gives this super-basic overview of domain names when the entire functionality of SBS is dependent on the DNS. I would say that most people picking up this book know already that a internet domain name needs to be registered but what some people wouldn't know is that an internal domain name also needs to be registered. More information on setting up an internal network is not there.

She took the easy way out and she does this through most of the book.

This is a great resource for anyone who is installing or maintaining Windows SBS. There are a lot of screen shots so you know where you're headed and the information is clear and concise. I didn't want a lot of technical jargon, just a book that could help step me through the setup and installation and help me avoid common mistakes. This job filled the bill and I'd recommend it to anyone who's working with SBS.

With few exceptions, this book simply instructs the reader to accept default prompts and reiterates the choices offered by dialog boxes. I suspect the book has two target audiences: 1) small business owners who don't want to know much about SBS and just get it running, and 2) those who need to get it running but also want to learn about the program. For the first group, I suggest you save the time you would spend reading the book and do whatever it is you do to make money and use it to pay an IT professional to install and configure SBS. For the second group, I suggest you buy another book that explains SBS in greater detail.

Susan Snedaker's superbly organized and presented instructional guide, How To Cheat At Managing Windows Small Business Server 2003, is a recommended pick for any Microsoft system engineer managing a Windows Server 2003 environment: it tells how to overcome common problems and time drains that Exchange Server creates, such as handling user permissions and security settings, and it also covers group policy, installing printers, managing client computers, and more. The disaster planning portion is particularly well detailed.

Significantly helped me deploy windows 2003 server small business edition. easy to read and with lots of practical advice, without adding lots of unnecessary information. If you are installing this o/s, I would advise this as your first purchase.

I recently installed Windows Small Business Server 2003 and used this book as my guide. The book's clear, direct approach to each of the planning and installation tasks helped me get through the installation without a hitch. Although I'm familiar with many aspects of the Windows Server environment (I had been running Windows 2000 Server before), the SBS software contains features new to me. Snedaker's concise treatment of the new features and how to best work with them saved me time and effort. Although the book doesn't contain every single detail related to SBS 2003, it contains enough of what you really need to know and helps point you in the right direction if you run into problems. The straightforward language of the book is definitely refreshing, and the approach is excellent. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone installing or maintaining a Windows Small Business Server 2003 system. Excellent from cover to cover.

Snedaker takes a pragmatic approach to the sysadmin tasks described in her book. She does not attempt to give a comprehensive discussion of all that is in Small Business Server 2003. For that, you can turn to Microsoft's official documentation. But a problem with the latter is that it is voluminous. Snedaker aims this book at someone who may not have the time or inclination to go through the latter.

So she describes what to her are the key issues you are likely to face. For these, she speaks as plainly as possible about how to solve them. You get enough information to (hopefully) perform your tasks. There is no elegant description of the structure of SBS. But do you really care?

The book can function as a good front end to the Microsoft documentation. You can try using it first. Then, for more detail, refer to those.

Excellent book, good examples, good step-by-step instructions. Covers remote access, adding users, computers, etc.m messaging, outlook web access. I can;t tell you how many times I've leafed through it in the last few days to find a piece of info. Good info on troubleshooting, errors, all the stupid stuff I do when I'm rushing.

From the author:

Many small companies do not have a dedicated IT department. In fact, it's often the person that shows a modicum of computer savvy that ends up at the "IT person" for the company. You're tasked with doing your regular job AND managing your company's network.

Microsoft's Windows Small Business Server 2003 is targeted at the millions of small businesses that don't have a dedicated IT staff to manage the company's network. The product goes a long way in making the complex Windows Server 2003 operating system more user-friendly, but it's always nice to have a clear, concise how-to book on hand to help answer questions, to show you step-by-step how a process will work and to provide easy-to-understand explanations for technical terminology.

Enter How to Cheat at Managing Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003.

We created a clear, concise, easy-to-understand (and use) guide to managing SBS 2003. We made the book understandable to both seasoned and less experienced net admins. If you're seasoned, you'll appreciate the no-nonsense approach to topics. If you're less experienced, you'll appreciate the concise technical explanations that help you learn as you go. We focused on providing step-by-step instructions with plenty of screen shots and explanations so that just about anyone with a solid computer experience could manage an SBS-based network.

If you were starting to wonder how you could manage your company's network AND do your real job, this book is for you. You can read it from cover to cover or you can read chapters as you need them. Either way, you'll find clear, concise, focused information you can use immediately. Now get going, you've got a network to manage.