[geeks] Help with MCSE

[Phil Brutsche]

On Sat, 2002-03-16 at 11:07, alex j avriette wrote:
> My girlfriend is attempting to get an MCSE (which as I understand is 
> actually a set of six or seven tests). I originally thought when she 
> signed up for the series of courses, that I would be able to help her. I 
> know all the protocols and stuff underlying what microsoft's stuff 
> actually does (e.g., IMAP is not some funky marketing-named "exchange 
> protocol" or whatever). However, she was complaining to me today that 
> she was frustrated with the class and the professor. I thought, gee, 
> this should be easy.
> 
> I was way wrong. Its like a whole new language. I mean, take regular 
> network protocols and switch it all around so youre talking pig latin 
> and thats about the size of it.
> 
> "see-pee-eye-pee-tee-aye" -> tcp/ip

Such people should not be allowed to teach network fundamentals.

Either that or they're dyslexic (sp?).

> Below is an excerpt from this link: 
> http://polaris.umuc.edu/~lgibbons/cmit366/htmdocs/answersqmf4051.htm

Hrm... can't open any of the links on that page...

> You work for XYZ Company as the head of network administration. The 
> company has 250 computers running Windows 2000 Professional with two 
> domain controllers running Windows 2000 Server. You have two assistants 
> that help you administer the network and the client machines. To make 
> work easier, you have created a custom MMC with tools that you need to 
> work on the machine; however, you have noticed that a few users have 
> been adding and removing snap-ins that you put into the custom MMC. This 
> needs to be corrected so that users cannot adjust any settings on the 
> MMC.
> 
> Required results: Keep users from altering the MMC.
> Optional results: Allow full access to all the snap-ins in the custom 
> MMC.

'tis not hard using Group Policy.  Enable the setting "Restrict the user
from entering author mode" under "$GroupPolicyName\User
Configuration\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Management Console". 
The setting "Restirct users to the explicitly permitted list of
snap-ins" used in conjunction with the "Restricted/Permitted snap-ins"
subtree you can meed the optional requirements.

The kicker is to have a sufficiently well-organized AD structure to make
permission inheritance in the AD organizational units (OUs for short)
easy.

> She's a pretty clueful geek; where can I find information that would 
> help her pass MCSE exams from the perspective of somebody who doesnt buy 
> into the marketing?

A test environment where you can play with AD without fear of screwing
things up :(

Note that I'm not an MCSE, just a (now disgraced) Unix geek that has
spent too much time with AD over the last month or so.

-- 

Phil