Reviews & Information

Table of Contents

Speed and ease of reference is an essential part of this hands-on guide. The book has an expanded table of contents and an extensive index for finding answers to problems quickly. Many other quick reference features have been added as well. These features include quick step-by-step instructions, lists, tables with fast facts, and extensive cross-references. The book is broken down into both parts and chapters. Each part contains an opening paragraph or two about the chapters contained in that part.

Part I, “Microsoft Windows 2000 Administration Fundamentals,” covers the fundamental tasks you need for Windows 2000 administration. Chapter 1 provides an overview of Windows 2000 administration tools, techniques, and concepts. Chapter 2 explores the tasks you’ll need to manage Windows 2000 systems. Chapter 3 covers monitoring processes, services, and events. The final chapter in this part covers automating administrative tasks, policies, and procedures.

In Part II, “Microsoft Windows 2000 Directory Services Administration,” you’ll find the essential tasks for administering user, computer, and group accounts. Chapter 5 introduces Active Directory Service structures and details how to work with Active Directory domains. Chapter 6 explores core Active Directory Service administration. You’ll learn how to manage computer accounts, domain controllers, and organizational units. Chapter 7 explains how to use system accounts, built-in groups, user rights, built-in capabilities, and implicit groups. You’ll find extensive tables that tell you exactly when you should use certain types of accounts, rights, and capabilities. The core administration tasks for creating user and group accounts are covered in Chapter 8, with a logical follow-up for managing existing user and group accounts covered in Chapter 9.

The book continues with Part III, “Microsoft Windows 2000 Data Administration.” Chapter 10 starts by explaining how to add hard drives to a system and how to partition drives. Then the chapter dives into common tasks for managing file systems and drives, such as defragmenting disks, compression, encryption, and more. In Chapter 11, you’ll find tasks for managing volume sets and RAID arrays, as well as detailed advice on repairing damaged arrays. Chapter 12 focuses on managing files and directories and all the tasks that go along with it. You’ll even find tips for customizing folder views with folder templates. Chapter 13 details how to enable file, drive, and directory sharing for remote network and Internet users; it then goes on to cover Active Directory Service object security and auditing. Chapter 14 examines data backup and recovery and includes a section on managing media pools.

Part IV, “Microsoft Windows 2000 Network Administration,” covers advanced administration tasks. Chapter 15 provides the essentials for installing, configuring, and testing Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networking on Windows 2000 systems—covering everything from installing network adapter cards to actually connecting a computer to a Windows 2000 domain. Chapter 16 begins with a troubleshooting guide for common printer problems and then goes on to cover tasks for installing and configuring local printers and network print servers. The final three chapters in this section focus on the key Windows 2000 services: DHCP, WINS, and DNS. DHCP is used to assign dynamic IP addresses to network clients. WINS is used to resolve computer names to IP addresses. DNS is used to resolve host names to IP addresses.