Answers to Assessment Test

1. C. System components are essential for the basic functionality of a computer system. Many of the landmarks found on the motherboard can be considered system components, even expansion slots to a degree. What you plug into those slots, however, must be considered peripheral to the basic operation of the system. For more information, see Chapter 1.
2. A. Except for DIMMs, all options represent some form of secondary storage, all of which are covered in Chapter 2. For more information, see Chapter 1.
3. A, B. Motherboards commonly have RAM slots and expansion slots. Older motherboards even had CPU slots. Modern motherboards have connectors for powering cooling fans. Gyroscopes are most commonly found in mobile devices. Scanners are external devices. Although there might be one or more types of HDD interfaces built into the motherboard, the HDD itself is not. For more information, see Chapter 1.
4. A. DL stands for double or dual layer. With DVDs, the capacity almost doubles, but with Blu-ray discs, it actually does. For more information, see Chapter 2.
5. C. The standard peripheral power connector, or Molex connector, is commonly used on larger drives because it allows more current to flow to the drive than smaller peripheral connectors. For more information, see Chapter 2.
6. C, D. Except for RAID 0, all implementations of RAID offer a way to recover from the failure of at least one drive, which is an example of fault tolerance, through the implementation of some mechanism that stores redundant information for that purpose. Some RAID types offer faster read and/or write performance. RAID 1, for instance does not guarantee either. For more information, see Chapter 2.
7. D. Although technically PCI could be used for graphics adapters, PCIe supports high-speed, 3D graphic video cards. PCIe offers better performance than older graphics adapters. USB and FireWire can stream video, but they are not used for attachment of graphics adapters. For more information, see Chapter 3.
8. C. Digital rights management (DRM), using High-bandwidth Content Protection (HDCP), is supported by adapters and monitors that support HDMI and later versions of DVI. If the content is protected, HDMI in the adapter will use HDCP to encrypt the stream across the cable, and the monitor will use HDCP to decrypt it for playback. From the information given, it cannot be assumed that the monitor changed when the adapter did. As a result, the monitor might have an older DVI-D port that uses a passive converter to receive the HDMI cable’s signal but that does not support HDCP. The signal over the HDMI cable is always digital. As a result, a VGA cable, which only supports analog signals, cannot be used when a DVI-D or HDMI interface is involved. HDMI supports all resolutions supported by a VGA interface. For more information, see Chapter 3.
9. B, C. RJ-11 ports are used in analog telephony, and they allow modems attached to computer serial ports to transmit modulated digital information across the public switched telephone network (PSTN). RJ-45 ports are used by various network interface controller (NIC) cards for attachment to networks such as Ethernet. RG-6 and RG-11 are coaxial cable types, and Thunderbolt connectors are not modular. For more information, see Chapter 3.
10. A. The native resolution refers to how many pixels an LCD screen can display (across and down) without distortion. The native resolution is based on the placement of the actual transistors that create the image by twisting the liquid crystals. The contrast ratio is the measurement between the darkest color and the lightest color that an LCD screen can display. For more information, see Chapter 4.
11. D. Although there is a Super AMOLED display, employing active-matrix technology, there is no corresponding “super” passive-matrix version. The other technologies exist and are discussed in further detail in Chapter 4.
12. B. Privacy filters are used to limit the viewing angle for a monitor. With such filters, the screen image becomes indiscernible when viewed at just a few degrees from center. For more information, see Chapter 4.
13. D. A thick client is any computer system with a standard configuration. The gaming PC has enhancements over thick clients to their CPU, video, audio, and cooling. The home server PC must have specialized capabilities and services along with a faster NIC than the thick client and a RAID array. The thin client is a lesser device in comparison to the thick client, but that cost-saving feature is its enhancement. These less expensive computers can connect over the network to servers for their operating system images and applications. For more information, see Chapter 5.
14. C. Virtualization workstations require more RAM than standard systems and need to be equipped with as many multicore processors as possible. Video and audio are not resources that need to be enhanced for such workstations. Although a RAID array is a wise addition whenever servers with valuable information are involved, a virtualization workstation does not require one. For more information, see Chapter 5.
15. A. A TV tuner card is a requirement for a home theater PC but not for a home server. The other options are among those features that are required. For more information, see Chapter 5.
16. C. A router does not pass along broadcasts to computers on other segments. Hubs and switches send broadcasts along because they do not segment traffic at the logical network address level. See Chapter 6 for more information.
17. D. A key role of the Transport layer is to provide error checking. The Transport layer also provides functions such as reliable end-to-end communications, segmentation and reassembly of larger messages, and combining smaller messages into a single larger message. See Chapter 6 for more information.
18. A. FTP listens on port 21. See Chapter 7 for more information.
19. D. The IMAP and POP3 protocols can be used to retrieve email from mail servers. See Chapter 7 for more information.
20. B. An Internet service provider (ISP) provides direct access to the Internet. See Chapter 8 for more information.
21. C. An ISDN B (bearer) channel provides 64Kbps data throughput. A home-based BRI ISDN provides two B channels. See Chapter 8 for more information.
22. A. The backlight provides light to the LCD screen. The inverter provides power to the backlight, and the screen displays the picture. See Chapter 9 for more information.
23. B. If the laptop is using shared video memory, then the system memory is shared with the video card. If the video card is using 512MB (half a gigabyte), then there is 1.5GB left for the system. See Chapter 9 for more information.
24. D. ExpressCard supports PCIe and USB 3.0. See Chapter 9 for more information.
25. D. Capacitive touchscreens react to slight changes in electrical charges. The human finger is used as an input device for capacitive touchscreens. For more information, see Chapter 10.
26. C. e-Readers use electrophoretic ink, also known as E Ink. E Ink uses less energy than other LCD displays, prolonging battery life. For more information, see Chapter 10.
27. B. Card emulation mode, reader/writer mode, and peer-to-peer mode are the three valid NFC communication modes. For two devices to transmit to each other, they will use peer-to-peer mode. For more information, see Chapter 10.
28. C. The laser creates an image on the photosensitive drum that is then transferred to the paper by the transfer corona. The fuser heats up the toner so that it adheres to the page. The transfer corona charges the page, and the eraser lamp cleans the drum before a page is printed. A rubber blade is also used to remove toner physically from the drum. See Chapter 11 for more information.
29. A. Laser printers use toner, which they melt to the page in the image of the text and graphics being printed. A toner cartridge holds the fine toner dust until it is used in the printing process. See Chapter 11 for more information.
30. C. AirPrint was created by Apple to let iPhones and iPads print without installing a printer driver. See Chapter 11 for more information.
31. C. Toner on the transfer corona wire is most likely the cause of white streaks on printouts. A scratch or a groove in the EP drum causes vertical black lines. If the fuser was not heating properly, toner would not bond to the paper and you would have smearing. Faulty print drivers will cause garbage to print or there will be no printing at all. See Chapter 12 for more information.
32. C. The IPCONFIG utility can be used with Windows computers to see the networking configuration values at the command line. It is one of the most commonly used command-line utilities that can be used in troubleshooting and network configurations. To renew IP configuration information, the IPCONFIG /renew command is used to force the DHCP server to renew the IP information assigned to the system. See Chapter 12 for more information.
33. A. The most likely cause of those listed is a worn paper feed roller. Stepper motors control the back-and-forth motion of a print head in an inkjet printer. If the fuser assembly were faulty, the images would smear. See Chapter 12 for more information.
34. C. A proxy server can be configured to block access to websites containing potentially objectionable material. See Chapter 20 for more information.
35. A. Google Docs is software, so it is an example of Software as a Service (SaaS). See Chapter 20 for more information.
36. D. The hypervisor is the key piece of software needed for virtualization. See Chapter 20 for more information.
37. A, D. Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS are two of the most popular operating systems for mobile devices on the market. The other two are not. Although some mobile operating systems are based on Linux or UNIX, Ubuntu is a Linux distribution not used for mobile devices. For more information, see Chapter 21.
38. B. Bluetooth allows you to pair a mobile device to a computer or to a device such as an automotive sound system or headset. Data can be transferred between devices, and media can be streamed from the mobile device. For more information, see Chapter 21.
39. D. Synchronizing a mobile device with a computer system allows you to mirror personal data between the devices, regardless of which one contains the most current data. Calibration refers to matching the device’s and user’s perceptions of where the user is touching the screen. Remote wipes allow you to remove personal data from a lost or stolen device. Pairing is what must be done in Bluetooth for two Bluetooth devices to connect and communicate. For more information, see Chapter 21.
40. A, C. Monitors and power supplies can retain significant electrical charges, even after they’re unplugged. Don’t open the back of a monitor or the power supply unless you are specifically trained to do so. See Chapter 23 for more information.
41. C. Roughly half the time spent communicating should be devoted to listening. See Chapter 23 for more information.
42. B. Chain of custody describes the procedure used to track handling and the location of evidence in the event of an incident such as discovering illegal or improper material on a user’s computer. See Chapter 23 for more information.
43. B. HTTPS connections are secured using either Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS).
44. A, D. WiMax and LTE are the two current 4G cellular technologies. GSM and CDMA are 3G technologies.
45. C. PCMCIA 5.0 is also known as CardBus.
46. A. When lifting heavy equipment, center the weight as close to your body as possible. Then, keep your back straight and lift with your legs.
47. A. A controller chip is responsible for encoding data to be stored on the disk platters as well as performing geometry translation for the BIOS. Translation is necessary because the true number of sectors per track of the hard disk drive system usually exceeds what is supported by the BIOS.
48. C. IDE (ATA-1) and EIDE (ATA-2 and later) were specific nicknames for the ATA series of standards. Although ATA is technically accurate, it refers to legacy IDE standards as well as newer SATA standards. Instead of using the term ATA to be synonymous with IDE and EIDE, as had been done in the past, the term PATA was coined, referring to the parallel nature of IDE communications. The term PATA differentiates the IDE and EIDE form of ATA from Serial ATA. SCSI is a related, yet completely different type of technology.
49. D. The hypervisor is a virtual machine manager—the software that allows the virtual machines to exist.
50. C. Standard permissions are collections of special permissions, including Full Control, Modify, Read & Execute, Read, and Write.
51. C. Windows includes Windows Update, a feature designed to keep Windows current by automatically downloading updates such as patches and security fixes and installing these fixes automatically.
52. B. Windows supports both basic and dynamic storage. Basic can have a primary and an extended partition, while dynamic can be simple, spanned, or striped.
53. C. For applications that don’t need to drop all of the way down to Low, this equates to a base priority of 6.
54. A, C, D. EFS is available in the Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions of Windows 7, allowing for encryption/decryption on files stored in NTFS volumes.
55. A. Power over Ethernet (PoE) is a handy technology to supply both power and an Ethernet connection. The purpose of Power over Ethernet (PoE) is pretty much described in its name: Electrical power is transmitted over twisted-pair Ethernet cable (along with data).
56. B. With half duplex, communications travel in both directions but in only one direction at any given time.
57. D. The Sync Center in Windows Vista is the primary interface for configuring synchronization.
58. C. Component Services allows you to administer as well as deploy component services and configure behavior like security.
59. B. It can be set from 1 to 999.
60. A. Windows Firewall (Start ➢ Control Panel ➢ Windows Firewall) is used to block access from the network (be it internal or the Internet).
61. B. Trojans are programs that enter a system or network under the guise of another program. While rootkits may do this, it is not their primary feature and thus not the best answer for this question.
62. C. Degaussing involves applying a strong magnetic field to initialize the media (this is also referred to as disk wiping). This process helps ensure that information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
63. D. On a number of wireless devices, the term Network Lock is used in place of MAC filtering, and the two are synonymous.
64. A. A restore point is a copy of your system configuration at a given point in time. It’s like a backup of your configuration but not necessarily your data.
65. C. A computer virus is a small, deviously ingenious program that replicates itself to other computers, generally causing those computers to behave abnormally. Generally speaking, a virus’s main function is to reproduce.