Thanks to my wife, Rebecca, for working with me to get this book completed. I really don’t know what I would have done without her help in proofreading my rough draft. She also helped research, compile, and edit some of the information that appears in this book.

Russ Mullen deserves thanks for his technical edit of this book. Russ greatly added to the accuracy and depth of the material you see here. In addition, he sent some of the URLs you see spread throughout the book and helped research some of the tougher areas of the text.

This book required a lot of discussion with other people. A special thanks goes to Gerry O’Brien. Day 17 wouldn’t exist without his help. Many of the development staff at Microsoft assisted with this book by providing answers to my never-ending questions. The members of the various Microsoft newsgroups were also a source of constant aid. Some of the material in Day 18 is the result of aid from members of the Novell support staff.

Matt Wagner, my agent, deserves credit for helping me get the contract in the first place and taking care of all the details that most authors don’t really think about. I always appreciate his help. It’s good to know that someone wants to help.

Finally, I’d like to thank Terry Neal, Steve Rowe, Marta Justak, Carol Light, and other members of the Sams staff for their assistance in bringing this book to print. Writing this Windows XP book presented many logistical challenges, and I appreciate their willingness to give me the time required to put a good book together. I especially appreciate Terry’s help in locating someone with Linux experience to help with Day 17 and his aid in obtaining some of the software required to write the book.