Appendix A
Answers to Review Questions

Chapter 1: Motherboards, Processors, and Memory

  1. A. The spine of the computer is the system board, otherwise known as the motherboard. On the motherboard, you will find the CPU, underlying circuitry, expansion slots, video components, RAM slots, and various other chips.
  2. C. DDR SDRAM is manufactured on a 184-pin DIMM. DIMMs with 168 pins were used for SDR SDRAM. The SIMM is the predecessor to the DIMM, on which SDRAM was never deployed. DIMMs with 240 pins are used for DDR2 and DDR3 SDRAM.
  3. B. Remember the 8:1 rule. Modules greater than but not including SDR SDRAM are named with a number eight times larger than the number used to name the chips on the module. The initials PC are used to describe the module, the initials DDR are used for the chips, and a single-digit number after PC and DDR is used to represent the level of DDR. The lack of a single-digit number represents DDR as long as the number that is present is greater than 133 (such as PC1600). Otherwise, you’re dealing with SDR (such as PC133). This means that PC3-16000 modules are DDR3 modules and are populated with chips named DDR3 and a number that is one-eighth of the module’s numeric code: 2000.
  4. D. The ITX motherboard family consists of smaller boards that fit in standard or miniature cases and use less power than their larger counterparts.
  5. A. The lower-end Core i7 desktop (nonmobile) processors call for the LGA 1156 socket, but the 9xx series requires the LGA 1366 socket.
  6. B. ZIF sockets are designed with a locking mechanism that, when released, alleviates the resistance of the socket to receiving the pins of the chip being inserted. Make sure that you know your socket types so that the appearance of a specific model, such as Socket 1366, in a question like this does not distract you from the correct answer. Only LGA would be another acceptable answer to this question because with a lack of pin receptacles, there is no insertion resistance. However, no other pin-layout format, such as SPGA, addresses issues with inserting chips. LPGA might have evoked an image of LGA, leading you to that answer, but that term means nothing outside of the golfing community.
  7. B. The Northbridge is in control of the local-bus components that share the clock of the frontside bus. SATA and all other drive interfaces do not share this clock and are controlled by the Southbridge.
  8. A. A hard drive stores data on a magnetic medium, which does not lose its information after the power is removed and can be repeatedly written to and erased.
  9. C. This processor requires an AM3 socket. The only other version of Phenom II was for the AM2+, and it is not compatible with DDR3 RAM.
  10. B. Soft power is the feature whereby the front power button acts as a relay to initiate various system power changes, depending on the duration that the button is held.
  11. B, F. DIMMs used in desktop motherboard applications have one of three possible pin counts. SDR SDRAM is implemented on 168-pin modules. DDR SDRAM and 16-bit RIMMs are implemented on 184-pin modules. DDR2 and DDR3 are implemented on 240-pin modules with different keying. Dual-channel RIMM modules have 232 pins. Modules with 200 and 204 pins are used in the SODIMM line, and there are no modules with 180 pins.
  12. C, D. Both the CPU and BIOS have to be designed to support virtualization in hardware.
  13. D. Most motherboards have a jumper or similar momentary closure mechanism that will allow you to clear the CMOS memory of any user settings and cause the BIOS to use factory defaults, including no user or supervisor passwords.
  14. A. The easiest solution that works to cool your CPU is to connect the four-pin connector into the three-pin header. The missing pin allows you to control the speed of the fan. Without it, the fan will run at top speed, which is fine, albeit a little noisier. The heat sink alone should not be relied upon for proper cooling of modern CPUs.
  15. D. The PCIe 1.1 specification provided 250MBps of throughput per lane per direction. With the 2.x versions of PCIe, this rate was doubled to 500MBps. As a result, each v2.0 lane is capable of a combined 1GBps. A x16 slot consists of 16 lanes, for a total bidirectional throughput of 16GBps.
  16. C. The reset button causes the computer to return to nearly the same point it is in when you power it on, but without the need for power cycling. Using Restart in the Start menu does not reboot as deeply as the reset button. Hibernation is a power state that completely removes power after saving the contents of RAM to the hard drive; pressing the power button is required to resume the session in the same manner as starting the computer after a complete shutdown. The power button cannot be used as a method of restarting the system.
  17. B. None of the options are required, but a UPS is by far the most helpful among the answers in that loss of power during this procedure can range from annoying to devastating.
  18. A. These CPUs integrate the graphics-processing unit. The Core i7 before them integrated the memory controller, eliminating the FSB. Math coprocessors have been integrated since the 80486DX.
  19. D. Pentium 4 processors are always mated with memory mounted on DIMMs.
  20. B. Although technically all of the slots listed could be used for video adapters, PCIe excels when compared to the other options and offers technologies such as SLI, which only make PCIe’s advantage more noticeable.

Chapter 2: Storage Devices and Power Supplies

  1. B. A conventional HDD contains discs called platters, on which data is stored magnetically through read/write heads by way of a magnetic coating.
  2. A. A conventional hard disk drive system consists of the hard disk and its often-integrated controller as well as a host adapter to gain access to the rest of the computer system. The drive interface is a common component of the controller and host adapter.
  3. D. A fixed number of clusters is supported by each operating system, leading to a corresponding maximum volume size. If the maximum NTFS cluster size of 64KB is used, NTFS can support a single-volume size of 64KB less than 256TB. When a cluster size of one sector, or 512 bytes (1/2KB), is used, the maximum volume size reduces to 2TB.
  4. C. Solid-state disks (SSDs) are capable of replacing conventional HDDs, contingent upon cheaper components and higher capacities.
  5. B. A solid-state hybrid drive incorporates the features of both conventional magnetic-only hard drives and solid-state drives. As a result, the performance of an SSHD exceeds that of a hard drive but costs less than the equivalent-sized SSD. A dual-drive option still requires the purchase of a full-sized SSD. Adding the cost of the SSD and the HDD, the dual-drive solution does not satisfy the requirement of an affordable technology.
  6. B. Blu-ray discs have a single-sided, single-layer capacity of 25GB. The best the other options achieve is no more than roughly 17GB.
  7. A. Hot-swappable devices can be removed while the power to the system is still on. Warm-swappable devices need to be stopped in the operating system before being removed. The term has nothing to do with the heat level of the device.
  8. C. Power supplies and AC adapters use standard wall outlets for an input of AC voltage, which they convert to the DC voltages required by the components to which they supply power.
  9. A, C, D, E, F. A PC’s power supply produces +3.3VDC, +5VDC, –5VDC, +12VDC, and –12VDC from a 110VAC input.
  10. D. PC power supplies accept alternating current as input and produce direct current for the internal components. Europe requires the voltage selector switch be set at the higher setting. SATA drives most often use a specific power connector that is not compatible with the Molex connector used by PATA drives. Legacy AT-based motherboards called for P8 and P9 connectors; ATX motherboards have a newer 20- or 24-pin single power connector.
  11. C. Today’s hard drives, regardless of their rpm, have standard internal power connections. Each of the other options are valid concerns when installing an internal drive.
  12. A. Although inefficient as an interactive medium, sequential tape-based storage continues to be developed in increasing capacities. Tape remains the best choice for frequently backing up large amounts of data for redundancy and archival purposes.
  13. A. The e in eMMC stands for embedded. MultiMediaCard memory cards were modified to be able to be embedded on circuit boards in small or inexpensive devices. The eMMC module acts as solid-state form of secondary storage, performing similar functions to the HDDs and SSDs of larger or more expensive systems.
  14. D. 12,000 rpm HDDs were once produced in low quantities but were never common.
  15. B. Personal computers do not have permanently installed power supplies. Like other electrical and electronic components, power supplies can and do fail on a regular basis. Permanently mounting a power supply to a chassis would be a disservice to the consumer. You should consider the cumulative power needs of your installed components, and you might have to obtain adapters and splitters if you do not have enough or you have the wrong types of connectors coming from the power supply.
  16. B. The red stripe on the cable indicates pin 1.
  17. C. One drawback to dual-rail power supplies is that despite the fact that they supply more cumulative power, they offer less power on each individual rail than the single rail of other power supplies. As a result, it is easier to overdraw one of the two rails than it is to overdraw a single-rail power supply’s rail because the two rails do not combine their power but instead offer it separately, thus reducing the relative output of each individual rail.
  18. B. Hybrid drives are named for their inclusion of traditional hard drive technology as well as newer solid-state technology. Hybrid systems can be all in one or comprise one drive of each technology. Special software is needed to optimize the hybrid drive’s usage and performance.
  19. D. Each concept applies to both HDDs and SSDs except for platter spin rates. Revolutions per minute (rpm) measurements refer to drives with moving parts. SSDs have none.
  20. A. Power supplies are rated in watts. When you purchase a power supply, you should make sure the devices inside the computer do not require more wattage than the chosen power supply can offer. The voltage is fairly standard among power supplies, and it has nothing to do with the devices connected to the power supply. Amperage and resistance are not selling points for power supplies.

Chapter 3: Peripherals and Expansion

  1. D. A PS/2 port is also known as a mini-DIN 6 connector.
  2. D. The USB 2.0 spec provides for a maximum speed of 480 megabits per second (Mbps—not megabytes per second, or MBps).
  3. C. Touchscreens are used as standard displays, making them output devices, but they are also used as input devices because they translate the user’s touch to a point on a two-dimensional plane, which is then transferred to the software interface to replace such stimuli as the combination of a mouse movement and click. Webcams, motion sensors, and touchpads are used only for input.
  4. C. The IEEE 1394 standard provides for greater data transfer speeds, increased power, and the ability to send memory addresses as well as data through a serial port. USB 3.0 proves to threaten more competition in these areas, but USB 2.0 could not compare to the overall performance of IEEE 1394.
  5. B. USB hubs are used to connect multiple peripherals to one computer through a single port. They support data transfer rates as high as 12Mbps, or 1.5MBps (for USB 1.1, which is the option listed here).
  6. D. The IEEE 1284 standard specifies that the ECP parallel port use a DMA channel and that the buffer be able to transfer data at higher speeds to printers.
  7. C. The description 5.1 refers to six channels of audio. The 5 in the name refers collectively to the single center channel, the right and left front channels, and the right and left rear channels. The 1 in the name refers to the single LFE channel connected to the subwoofer.
  8. A. Intel and Apple collaborated on Thunderbolt to add PCIe to VESA’s DisplayPort and to make the resulting interface smaller and less expensive to connect.
  9. C. HDMI is a digital interface and cabling specification that allows digital audio to be carried over the same cable as video.
  10. C. Such a connection should not be made. DVI-I cables act like universal cables; they can connect two DVI-A interfaces or two DVI-D interfaces with adapters. Natively, they are used to connect two DVI-I interfaces, both of which are configured as either analog or digital. They are unable to convert the analog signal to a digital one, however. Analog and digital DVI interfaces are too disparate to interconnect.
  11. B. Biometric input devices scan a physical trait of the user, such as voice, fingerprint, and retina, for authentication purposes when the user attempts to access computer systems and other property.
  12. D. KVM switches are ideal when you have multiple computers situated near one another and do not want to commit the extra desk space to each computer having its own keyboard, mouse, and monitor.
  13. C. MIDI devices use a 5-pin DIN connector similar to the one used with the original AT keyboard.
  14. B. A video capture card is used to convert raw video input to a format that can be shared electronically. Although many TV tuner cards provide this functionality, it is their video-capture component that gives them this capability. Any adapter that is strictly a TV tuner cannot capture video.
  15. A. Multimedia input devices, not standard input devices, use 1/8″ jacks. Standard input devices include human interface devices, such as keyboards and mice. The other three options can be used for such devices.
  16. C. Network interface cards are considered to be a form of communications adapter.
  17. B. Interfaces such as USB ports are considered input/output ports. If you have to add USB capability to a computer, an I/O adapter with USB ports on it would meet the need.
  18. A. Modems have RJ-11 jacks to provide an interface to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). The modular jacks that Ethernet NICs have are known as RJ-45 jacks.
  19. C. A trackball is a sort of stationary upside-down mouse that has the ball for movement detection on the top of the device along with the keys. The ball is actuated by the thumb or fingers, not by moving the device along a flat surface or mouse pad. Trackballs are ideal where desk space is limited. Touchpads feature a touch-sensing surface with no ball for movement, while trackpad is a rarer term meaning the same.
  20. B. VGA signals are analog, uncompressed, component signals that carry all of the video information for all three components of the original RGB signal.

Chapter 4: Display Devices

  1. C. LCDs do not have electron guns that are aimed by magnets as CRTs do. This difference makes LCDs more compatible with nearby speaker magnets. Additionally, the cathode ray tube for which CRT monitors are named is a rather bulky component, requiring more desk space to accommodate the CRT’s cabinet. Projectors are not common personal display devices; they are used more in group environments. HDMI is a standard for connecting display devices, not a type of display device.
  2. B, E. Early LCD monitors featured one or more fluorescent bulbs that were used to produce light that shone through the LCD panel. Modern LCD monitors have LED panels to generate the light, the advantage being that there is now a separate LED for each picture element instead of a common light source for the entire monitor.
  3. D. The maximum allowable refresh rate does tend to be affected by the resolution you choose in the operating system. The refresh rate is most often expressed in cycles per second (Hz), not millions of cycles per second (MHz). You must usually select the refresh rate that you want from the display settings dialogs, not through the monitor’s built-in menu system, although the monitor can often tell you the refresh rate that you’re using. Finally, both the monitor and adapter must agree on the refresh rate you select. If either device does not support a particular refresh rate, such a rate cannot be used.
  4. C. TN-based LCDs are less expensive and offer better response times for the money. TN, not IPS, technology suffers from color shifts when viewed at wide angles.
  5. A. The amount of memory installed on a graphics adapter is directly related to how many pixels can be displayed at one time and how many colors the pixels can be set to. Monitors don’t have memory installed in them. LCDs, not CRTs, have a single, fixed resolution called the native resolution. You might be limited to a particular refresh rate because the resolution is too high, but the refresh rate is automatically adjusted down, if necessary, when you select a resolution.
  6. B. SXGA has a resolution of 1280 × 1024. Consult Table 4.2 for the resolutions that characterize other technologies.
  7. D. Although the Q stands for quad, the pixel count for each axis is only doubled, resulting in four times as many total pixels.
  8. A. Contrast ratio is a selling point for LCDs. Higher contrast ratios mean darker blacks and brighter whites. The measure of luminance between adjacent pixels is known as contrast, not contrast ratio.
  9. D. Both OLED and plasma displays use electrodes to excite the material in a sealed chamber to produce light. Each in its own way uses that light to create red, green, or blue light within individual subpixels. All LCD panels form images that require an external light source to view.
  10. C, E. Older LCD panels might have employed passive-matrix addressing for their pixels, resulting in a poorer viewing angle than that created by active-matrix LCD panels. Additionally, privacy filters intentionally limit the angle of screen visibility by changing the light’s polarization when viewed from the side. Antiglare filters might unintentionally do the same thing.
  11. B. Although it’s true that you must start with the Display Settings dialog box, which ironically shows a single tab labeled Monitor, and that you subsequently click the Advanced Settings button, the Monitor properties tab is where you select the refresh rate. The Adapter tab in those same properties pages has no selection for refresh rate.
  12. A. Unplugging the power to the projector before the projector’s fan has had the opportunity to cool the unit and stop running on its own can lead to expensive repairs on the projector or to the cost of replacing the projector outright.
  13. D. Safe Mode disables as many nonessential drivers and services as possible. One of the nonessential drivers it disables is the driver for the graphics adapter. Windows uses its standard VGA driver to control the graphics adapter while you are in Safe Mode. Another reason for defaulting back to standard VGA is that you might have a corrupt or incorrect driver for your adapter.
  14. C. If your monitor allows you to change the resolution, it might not actually allow you to change the resolution. As confusing as that sounds, your monitor might maintain its optimal hardware resolution, such as an LCD’s native resolution, and force you to scroll to see any pixels created by the chosen software resolution that it cannot fit on the hardware screen at that particular moment.
  15. A. An LCD’s native resolution is the single, fixed resolution that provides optimal clarity.
  16. D. The multimonitor feature allows two monitors to display exactly the same thing (clone) or to extend your Desktop onto the second monitor. There is no need to use one adapter to achieve this result. In fact, the two adapters don’t even have to use the same expansion-bus architecture. The two cards must, however, use the same graphics-adapter driver.
  17. A. Active matrix is a superior technology to passive matrix. Dual scan is merely an enhanced form of passive matrix, but it is not on par with active matrix. Dual matrix isn’t an LCD type.
  18. B. Dividing 16 by 10 produces a value of 1.6. Dividing the first number of a 16:10 resolution by the second number always results in 1.6. Resolutions with a 4:3 aspect ratio produce the value 1.333, while 5:4 resolutions such as 1280 × 1024 produce the value 1.25.
  19. C. Regardless of how high the refresh rate, which measures the total number of all screens of information that is displayed per second, is on a monitor, only the number of unique frames in the content being played back during each second is considered when computing frame rate. Each frame represents a complete screen of information.
  20. B. A lumen is a unit of measure for the total amount of visible light that the projector gives off, based solely on what the human eye can perceive.

Chapter 5: Custom Configurations

  1. A. Graphics design and CAD/CAM design workstations do not require a fast hard drive because the artist works with static images that do not stream from the drive. However, RAM is needed to hold the highly detailed, sometimes 3D, artwork before saving, and a powerful processor is required for implementing complex algorithms on a small amount of information during rendering. High-end video is necessary for assisting in the rendering and display of the images.
  2. D. A/V editing workstations require specialized audio and video cards and large and fast hard drives, and they also benefit from dual monitors. A fast NIC, extra RAM, and a faster than normal processor do not support the requirements of A/V editors.
  3. B. Virtual machines do not imply virtual processing. The data storage, processing cycles, and RAM usage are all real. The separate hard drive and chassis for each operating system are virtual. The other answers all have at least one fundamental problem with their logic. CPU cores are not installed in virtual machines but in CPU packages within physical machines. CPU cores do not take over for each other. There is no fault tolerance among them. Storing data is the job of RAM, which should also be maximized for virtualization workstations.
  4. A. The processors found in a gaming PC are many, and the CPU is often overclocked. Such a configuration generates too much heat for conventional cooling to dissipate before the system is damaged. These machines don’t have unusual hard-drive requirements. The cooling has no effect on external controllers, and sound cards don’t generate much heat, but analog would certainly generate more than digital.
  5. C. Home theater PCs are based on the mini-ITX motherboard and have their own form factor, HTPC, a more compact form factor than chassis made for micro-ATX boards.
  6. B. Thick clients are standard desktop PCs. They stand in contrast to systems with specialized requirements, such as the remaining options.
  7. D. Although not all thin clients are devoid of local processing capability, some are. High-resolution graphics are not a requirement, but thin clients do require a system unit with a NIC.
  8. C. Optimally, the server should communicate across a link that is the aggregate of all client links, but at the very least, the server’s link should be a faster one to alleviate the potential bottleneck when all clients try to access the server simultaneously.
  9. D. Quite simply, the rendering of 2D and 3D graphics makes use of complex algorithms that need all of the processing power they can get to remain usable. CAD workstations deal with static images, not streaming video. Manufacturing equipment is generally slower than computers used for the design phase. CAD workstations call for high-end video, which includes graphics adapters with GPUs often more powerful than the system’s CPU.
  10. A. Editors of this type of media have numerous controls and timelines to track. These constructs often lie along the bottom of the application and run horizontally. Subsequent monitors allow the editor to spread out without shrinking the view excessively.
  11. B. Maximum RAM and CPU cores are the primary requirements for such systems. Although there are multiple guest operating systems, generally there is but one host to those guests. File sharing may be a service the administrator decides to offer, and multiple NICs might prove advantageous with virtual machines that are popular among the clients, but these workstations do not require either.
  12. B. Gaming PCs are not known for requiring fault tolerance or data persistence. RAID arrays, therefore, are generally not included. The other components are a benefit for gaming PCs, however.
  13. A. A/V editing workstations require video enhancements and a hard drive capable of storing a large quantity of data and accessing it quickly. The other system types require faster or more plentiful processors.
  14. C. Because of its exceptional capabilities of digital video and audio output as well as its potential for support of future standards, HDMI is the home-theater video output technology of choice. Neither DVI nor component video (YCbCr and YPbPr) can make the same claims. WUXGA is a resolution of 1920 × 1200 and not a video output technology.
  15. D. These standard systems do not have any special requirements, only that they can run Windows and desktop applications.
  16. C. Clients request services of servers. Thin clients can request software services from their servers, whether in the form of running the software and passing the results to the client or passing the code of the software to the client to be executed by its processor and kept only in RAM.
  17. B. Additional RAM in the home server PC offers no advantage for the performance of the server past a certain point. The tasks the server is asked to perform do not require high performance.
  18. A, D. Virtualization and graphic design workstations benefit from as much RAM as can be installed. Home theater PCs and gaming PCs do not require a large amount of temporary storage of instructions and data. They are more about the rapid movement of graphical data toward an output device.
  19. A. The Windows 7 computer can be built as a normal system with a 2TB or 3TB drive. WHS 2011 needs a home server PC. A type of CAD/CAM workstation capable of CNC crafts the rims. A home theater PC is an ideal choice to take the place of both the BD player and DVR.
  20. B. The clients of the home server PC that use the server for streaming video content might benefit from enhanced video, but the server will not.

Chapter 6: Network Fundamentals

  1. D. Companies that want to ensure the safety and integrity of their data should use fiber-optic cable because it is not affected by electromagnetic or radio-frequency interference. Even though some copper cables have shielding, they are not immune to EMI or RFI. This eliminates twisted-pair and coaxial. CSMA/CD is an access method, not a cable type.
  2. C. The IEEE 802.3 standard originally specified a bus topology that uses coaxial baseband cable, and it can transmit data up to 10Mbps.
  3. C. It is the responsibility of the Transport layer to signal an “all clear” by making sure that the data segments are error free. It also controls the data flow and troubleshoots any problems with transmitting or receiving data frames.
  4. B. Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) specifies that the NIC pause before transmitting a packet to ensure that the line is not being used. If no activity is detected, then it transmits the packet. If activity is detected, it waits until it is clear. In the case of two NICs transmitting at the same time (a collision), both NICs pause to detect and then retransmit the data.
  5. A. The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model is used to describe how network protocols should function. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) designed the OSI model.
  6. D. A hub or a switch is at the center of a star topology. A NIC is a network card, which each computer must have to be on the network. Bridges and routers are higher-level connectivity devices that connect network segments or networks together.
  7. C. Fiber-optic cable can span distances of several kilometers because it has much lower attenuation, crosstalk, and interference as compared to copper cables.
  8. A. Routers are designed to route (transfer) packets across networks. They are able to do this routing, determining the best path to take, based on the internal routing tables that they maintain.
  9. D. A peer-to-peer network has no servers, so all of the resources are shared from the various workstations on which they reside. This is the opposite of a client-server network, in which the majority of resources are located on servers that are dedicated to responding to client requests.
  10. A. Bluetooth networks are often called wireless personal area networks (WPANs).
  11. A, C, D. In a star network, all systems are connected using a central device such as a hub or a switch. The network is not disrupted for other users when more systems are added or removed. The star network design is used with today’s UTP-based networks.
  12. A. For areas where a cable must be fire retardant, such as in a drop ceiling, you must run plenum-grade cable. Plenum refers to the coating on the sleeve of the cable, not the copper or fiber within the cable itself. PVC is the other type of coating typically found on network cables, but it produces poisonous gas when burned.
  13. D. The local connector (LC) is a mini form factor (MFF) fiber-optic connector developed by Lucent Technologies. If it helps, think of LC as “Little Connector.”
  14. A. If you need to make a connection that is 5 kilometers long, then you are limited to fiber-optic cable, specifically SMF. The two common SMF standards are 10GBaseER and 10GBaseEW. (Think of the E as extended.) A T designation in an Ethernet standard refers to twisted pair. SR and LR are fiber standards that do not stretch for 5 kilometers.
  15. C. In a mesh network, the number of connections is determined by the formula (x × (x – 1)) ÷ 2. With seven computers, that amounts to 21 connections.
  16. B. A crimper can attach connectors to the end of a network cable. A punch-down tool will attach a cable to a wiring frame such as a 110 block. Cable testers will see if the cable works properly after you’ve created it. A loopback plug is for testing network cards.
  17. B. The job of a firewall is to block unwanted network traffic. Firewalls do this by using a list of rules called an access control list (ACL). Routers connect networks to each other. Internet appliances give the user Internet access. A network attached storage (NAS) device is like a dedicated file server.
  18. A. The two RG standards used for cable television are RG-6 and RG-59. Of the two, RG-6 is better and can handle digital signals. RG-59 is for analog signals only. RG-8 is thicknet coax, and RG-58 is thinnet coax.
  19. C, D. Bridges and switches are Layer 2 devices. Hubs work at Layer 1, and routers work at Layer 3. Note that some switches are called multilayer switches, and they will work at Layer 3 as well.
  20. B. Multimode fiber (MMF) can transmit up to 550 meters, depending on the Ethernet specification. Other standards using MMF can transmit only up to 300 meters. If you need to transmit up to 40 kilometers, you will need to use single-mode fiber (SMF).

Chapter 7: Introduction to TCP/IP

  1. B. A Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server provides IP configuration information to hosts when they join the network. A Domain Name System (DNS) server resolves hostnames to IP addresses. A domain controller may provide login authentication, but it does not provide IP configuration information. There is no IP configuration server.
  2. B. Class A addresses have a first octet between 1 and 126, Class B between 128 and 191, and Class C between 192 and 223. With a first octet of 171, this is a Class B address.
  3. A. HTTP uses port 80. HTTPS uses 443, Telnet 23, and POP3 110.
  4. D. An IPv6 interface is not limited in the number of addresses that it can be assigned, although there could be limitations based upon practicality.
  5. A, B, C. An IPv6 address contains 128 bits, written in eight 16-bit fields represented by four hexadecimal digits. Option A contains all eight fields expressed in full. Option B is an IPv4 address expressed in IPv6 form. Option C is the same address as option A, but written in accepted shorthand. Option D is not valid because the double colons (::) can be used only once within an address.
  6. A. DNS servers resolve hostnames to IP addresses. On the Internet, a DNS server needs to have a public IP address. The address 10.25.11.33 is in a private address space, so that address would not be valid for a DNS server on the Internet.
  7. D. The address assigned to the computer is an APIPA address. Microsoft client computers (and others) will configure themselves with an address in this range if they are unable to reach a DHCP server.
  8. C. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is responsible for sending email. IMAP4 and POP3 both receive email. SNMP is a network management protocol.
  9. D. Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) works on port 3389. DNS works on port 53, IMAP4 works on 143, and LDAP works on 389.
  10. C, D. The two protocols that work at the Host-to-Host layer are TCP and UDP. IP and ARP both work at the Internet layer.
  11. A, D. TCP is a connection-oriented protocol that establishes virtual circuits and acknowledges delivery of packets. Because of these features, it has higher overhead than UDP and is a little slower.
  12. B. The HTTP protocol is inherently unsecure, but the HTTPS protocol is secure. (SSH and SFTP are secure as well, but they are not protocols used to connect to websites.)
  13. A. The router is your doorway out into other networks, and it is known in TCP/IP terms as the default gateway. Without this configuration option, you will not be able to get to external networks.
  14. A, B. The only mandatory IPv4 configuration items are an IP address and a subnet mask. If you are not connecting to another network, you do not need a default gateway. DNS servers resolve hostnames to IP addresses, but they are not mandatory.
  15. D. IMAP4 and POP3 are the two protocols that are used for email delivery. Of the two, only IMAP4 provides security features. SMTP sends email. SNMP is a network management protocol.
  16. B. The Secure Shell (SSH) was developed as a secure alternative to Telnet. SMB is Server Message Block, which is a network file system. SNMP is for network management. SFTP is designed for secure file downloads. It’s a secure alternative to FTP, not a replacement for Telnet.
  17. A. Telnet uses port 23. SSH uses port 22. FTP uses ports 21 and 20. DNS uses port 53.
  18. E. IPv6 does not have broadcasts. IPv6 does have multicasts, which are a bit like targeted broadcasts. FF00:: is the first part of a multicast address.
  19. A. DNS is typically known as a name resolver on the Internet, but it will work on private networks as well. DNS resolves hostnames to IP addresses. DHCP automatically configures clients with IP address information. FTP is for file downloads. APIPA is a process used to assign clients a private IP address automatically when they can’t reach the DHCP server.
  20. C. The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) resolves IP addresses to hardware (MAC) addresses. RARP does the reverse—it resolves MAC addresses to IP addresses. DNS resolves hostnames to IP addresses. DHCP automatically configures TCP/IP clients.

Chapter 8: Installing Wireless and SOHO Networks

  1. B, D. Both 802.11b and 802.11g operate in the 2.4GHz range and use similar transmission standards. Many devices on the market are listed as 802.11b/g, meaning they will work with either system. Alternatively, 802.11a and 802.11ac operate in the 5GHz range.
  2. C. A service-set identifier (SSID) is the unique name given to the wireless network. All hardware that is to participate on the network must be configured to use the same SSID. Essentially, it is the network name. When you are using Windows to connect to a wireless network, all available wireless networks will be listed by their SSID.
  3. A, C. The two technologies that 802.11ac employs to achieve high throughput are channel bonding and MIMO. Channel bonding is the combination of multiple smaller channels into one large channel for greater bandwidth. MIMO is enhanced over 802.11n to allow for more multiple inputs and outputs. 802.11ac also uses beamforming, but that helps the range, not the throughput.
  4. C. WEP was the original encryption standard developed for Wi-Fi networks, but it is easily hacked. WPA is an upgrade, but WPA2 is more secure and incorporates the entire 802.11i standard. SAFER+ is used to encrypt Bluetooth communications.
  5. C. QoS level 5 is designated for interactive voice and video, with less than 100ms delay. Level 1 is for background applications and is low priority. Level 4 is known as controlled load, which is lower priority than interactive voice and video. Level 6 only has 10ms latency but is reserved for control traffic.
  6. A, B. You should always change the default administrator name and password as well as the default SSID when installing a new wireless router. Enabling encryption is also a good idea, but WPA and WPA2 are better options than WEP. The channel has nothing to do with security.
  7. A. Of the options listed, DSL provides the fastest speed. DSL can easily provide 12Mbps downloads. Dial-up is limited to 56Kbps, and BRI ISDN (128Kbps) and PRI (about 1.5Mbps) don’t even come close. Satellite is also much slower than DSL.
  8. D. Network Address Translation (NAT) allows users to have a private IP address and still access the Internet with a public IP address. NAT is installed on a router and translates the private IP address into a public one for the user to access the Internet. DHCP assigns IP configuration information to clients. DNS resolves hostnames to IP addresses. A DMZ is an area on a network between an external router and an internal router.
  9. C. There are 14 communication channels in the 2.4GHz range, but only the first 11 are configurable. The three non-overlapping channels are 1, 6, and 11.
  10. A, C, D. Three standards listed—802.11ac (1300Mbps), 802.11g (54Mbps), and 802.11n (600Mbps)—give users the required throughput.
  11. B. To join the network, client computers need to find the SSID, ensure that the security settings are correct (to match the router), and enter the security passphrase. As an administrator, you should have configured this passphrase to be different than the router’s administrator password.
  12. B. Infrared is limited to about 1 meter, with a viewing angle of about 30 degrees. Most Bluetooth devices can transmit up to 10 meters. WiMAX has a maximum range of about 5 miles. Satellite signals can travel from the surface of the Earth to a small metal can orbiting the planet.
  13. B, C. Dial-up Internet is archaic by today’s standards, but it is widely available (anywhere there is phone service) and it’s generally lower in cost than other Internet access methods. It’s definitely not high speed, and its security is really no different than that of broadband Internet access methods.
  14. B. WEP could use a 64-bit or 128-bit security key, but it was a static key. TKIP introduced a dynamic per-packet key. AES and CCMP came after TKIP.
  15. D. The good news is that 802.11g is backward compatible with 802.11b. The bad news is if you run in a mixed environment, all devices that communicate with the WAP (or router) will be forced to slow down to accommodate the older technology.
  16. D. MAC filtering is a security option that can specify that only computers with specific MAC (hardware) addresses can access the network. Port forwarding is a feature of firewalls. WPS is an easy setup mechanism for wireless networks. SSID is the wireless network name.
  17. B. The set of rules for access on a firewall is called an access control list (ACL). An SLA is an agreement on service level for QoS. Default deny is a good policy for firewalls because it doesn’t let any traffic through. A DMZ is a subnet located between an external network router and an internal router.
  18. C. If your router is using AES, the clients will need to use WPA2. TKIP is a protocol utilized by WPA. WEP is the weakest of the encryption options.
  19. A. Bluetooth also operates in the 2.4GHz range.
  20. D. Basic rate interface ISDN (BRI ISDN) provides two separate 64Kbps B channels for data transmissions. These channels can be combined to increase throughput. A PRI ISDN uses 23 B channels. DSL, cable, and satellite do not offer multiple dedicated digital channels.

Chapter 9: Understanding Laptops

  1. D. Laptop service manuals can be obtained from the manufacturer’s website. It’s very rare that paper service manuals are shipped with the laptop. Pressing F1 while in Windows will open Windows Help, and pressing F2 on many laptops during the system boot will take you into the BIOS.
  2. B. By and large, compromises always must be made when comparing laptops to desktops. Although laptops can be used as desktop replacements, their performance is almost always lower than comparably priced desktops.
  3. A, B. The components of an LCD screen are the inverter, screen, and backlight. The video card is also a key component of the LCD system. A CRT is a different technology than LCD.
  4. C. The Touchpoint point stick was released with the IBM ThinkPad series of laptops.
  5. B. A DC adapter converts the DC output from a car or airplane accessory power plug into the DC voltages required by your laptop.
  6. C. DDR2 MicroDIMMs can have 172 or 214 pins.
  7. C. USB is used most often in laptops as an expansion bus for external peripherals. Although parallel and PS/2 ports allow for connection of external peripherals, they are not as flexible or widely used for expansion as USB.
  8. A. Your best bet is to turn off your wireless connection immediately in order to sever the tie between your laptop and the public network. This is done using the Wi-Fi toggle.
  9. C. Sometimes the only way to ensure that equipment doesn’t walk away is to lock it down physically. Laptops come equipped with holes for cable locks that can be used to secure them to a desk or other workstation.
  10. C. The backlight won’t really affect the viewing angle of the laptop. What you should look for is a laptop that uses LCD IPS technology, which offers a wider viewing angle than does TN.
  11. A. The ExpressCard bus brings USB 2.0, USB 3.0, and PCIe to the small-form-factor computing industry. CardBus is an older technology that supports USB 1.1 and PCI only. Mini PCI is PCI, not PCIe.
  12. C. The user needs a digitizer, which takes input from the device, such as drawn images, and converts them into electronic images on the computer.
  13. D. Thunderbolt 2 provides for speeds up to 20Gbps. USB 3.1 only supports speeds up to 10Gbps.
  14. A. A docking station made specifically for its associated brand and model of laptop can host desktop components permanently, regardless of whether the laptop is attached to the docking station. When the laptop’s portability is not required, but instead use of the desktop components is the priority, attaching the laptop to the docking station makes such components available to the laptop without separately attaching each component.
  15. D. The processor can reduce how fast it’s working, which is called throttling, to help conserve battery life.
  16. B. Think of wattage as a “bucket” of power that the attached device can draw on. A bigger bucket simply holds more power but does not force the power on the device. Less wattage is not advised, however. Voltage can be thought of as the pressure behind the power to the device. Anything but the proper voltage is dangerous for the device. When you replace a laptop’s AC adapter, you should match the voltage ratings of the original adapter. This also means that you should use an adapter with a fixed voltage if that matches the characteristics of the original; otherwise, obtain one that automatically switches voltages at the levels needed.
  17. C. Battery calibration for Li-ion batteries allows the powered device to drain the battery’s power before recharging. Battery exercising is the initial charging and discharging of nickel-based batteries so that they will function as expected. You should never short a battery’s terminals, and replacement is a last resort, used when any battery has reached the end of its life.
  18. D. Laptop hard drives commonly have a 21/2″ form factor. The most common form factor for desktop hard drives is 31/2″. Laptop hard drives use the same drive technologies as their desktop counterparts, such as serial and parallel ATA. As with desktop hard drives, laptop hard drives are available in both solid-state and conventional varieties. Unlike desktop hard drives, laptop hard drives do not have separate power connectors.
  19. B. A USB Bluetooth adapter should do the trick. Replacing the laptop is a much more expensive proposition.
  20. C. SODIMM and MicroDIMM are the common laptop small-form-factor memory standards. Of the two, MicroDIMM is smaller.

Chapter 10: Understanding Mobile Devices

  1. C. Most mobile devices today use capacitive touch screens, which allow the user to use their finger as an input device.
  2. A. Apple created a new OS for its watch called WatchOS. It’s very similar to iOS 8.
  3. A. Multi-touch simply means that the touch screen can accept multiple inputs from different parts of the screen at the same time. This allows for functionality such as pinch to zoom. It could mean that multiple people are using the touch screen at once, but it does not have to mean that.
  4. C. Google Glass uses augmented reality (AR) technology, which is common on heads-up types of displays.
  5. D. GRiDPad was the first commercial tablet released, in 1989. None of the others were released until at least the year 2000.
  6. B. The iPhone 5 was the first iPhone to use the Lightning connector. iPhone 6 uses it as well.
  7. A. Tablets generally have a screen size between 7″ and 12″. Phablets are between 5″ and 7″, and smartphones are smaller than phablets. GPS touch screens are usually around the same size as the screens on smartphones.
  8. B. Most mobile Bluetooth accessories are Class 2 devices, which have a maximum functional range of 10 meters.
  9. B. The app store for Android-based devices is Google Play. iOS devices download apps from the App Store.
  10. C. Near field communication (NFC) has a maximum range of about 10 centimeters. Wi-Fi depends on the standard, but it usually has a range of 30 meters or more. Bluetooth Class 2 devices can operate at about 10 meters, and infrared (IR) has a maximum range of about 1 meter.
  11. B. Phablets are larger than smartphones but smaller than tablets. Typically, a phablet will have a screen size of from 5″ to 7″.
  12. D. Infrared has an operational range of about 1 meter. Near field communication (NFC) has a maximum range of about 10 centimeters. Wi-Fi depends on the standard, but it usually has a range of 30 meters or more. Bluetooth Class 2 devices can operate at about 10 meters.
  13. B, C. e-Readers that use electrophoretic ink (E Ink) have a longer battery life than tablets and are easier to read in bright light conditions.
  14. D. Tethering is when a Wi-Fi enabled device attaches to a cellular device to get on the Internet. The cellular device is usually called a mobile hotspot.
  15. B. GPS uses 24 satellites. There are 32 GPS satellites in space, but the extra 8 are backups.
  16. C. The three speeds supported by NFC are 106Kbps, 212Kbps, and 424Kbps.
  17. A. GLONASS is the Russian version of GPS. Galileo is European, BDS is Chinese, and IRNSS is Indian.
  18. D. NFC uses Simple NDEF Exchange Protocol (SNEP) in peer-to-peer mode. It’s based on LLCP.
  19. C. It’s the receiver’s job to perform triangulation to determine its position based on data received from the satellites.
  20. D. Micro SDXC cards can hold up to 2TB. SDHC cards can hold up to 32GB, and standard SD cards can hold up to 4GB.

Chapter 11: Installing and Configuring Printers

  1. A. Because the toner on the drum has a slight negative charge (–100VDC), it requires a positive charge to transfer it to the paper; +600VDC is the voltage used in an EP process laser printer.
  2. C, D. A page printer is a type of computer printer that prints a page at a time. Common types of page printers are the laser printer and the inkjet printer.
  3. D. The rate of transfer and the ability to recognize new devices automatically are two of the major advantages that currently make USB the most popular type of printer interface. However, it is the network printer interface that allows the printer to communicate with networks, servers, and workstations.
  4. D. Dot-matrix printers are impact printers and therefore can be used with multipart forms. Daisy-wheel printers can be used with multipart forms as well.
  5. A. The writing step uses a laser to discharge selected areas of the photosensitive drum, thus forming an image on the drum.
  6. B, D. Of those listed, only PostScript and PCL are page-description languages. There is no PDL or PageScript.
  7. A. For the toner (which has a charge of –600VDC) to be transferred from the print drum (which has a charge of –600VDC) to the paper, there must be a positive, or opposite, charge of greater difference to break the –600VDC charge from the drum.
  8. B. In an inkjet printer, the ink cartridge is the actual print head. This is where the ink is expelled to form letters or graphics. Toner cartridges are used by laser printers to store toner. A daisy wheel is the device that impacts the letters on the paper in a daisy-wheel printer. Paper trays are the storage bins in laser printers and inkjet printers that allow the pickup rollers to feed the paper into the printer.
  9. D. The correct sequence in the EP print process is processing, charging, exposing, developing, transferring, fusing, and cleaning.
  10. D. There are nine standard assemblies in an electrophotographic process printer. Early laser printers using the electrographic process contained the nine standard assemblies. Newer laser printers do not require an ozone filter and contain only eight standard assemblies.
  11. A, B, D. An electrophotographic (EP) laser printer toner cartridge includes the toner, print drum, and cleaning blade. The laser is usually contained within the printer, not within the toner cartridge.
  12. A. After a laser has created an image of the page, the developing roller uses a magnet and electrostatic charges to attract toner to itself and then transfers the toner to the areas on the drum that have been exposed to the laser. The toner is melted during the fusing stage. The laser creates an image of the page on the drum in the writing stage. An electrostatic charge is applied to the paper to attract toner in the transferring stage, which happens immediately after the developing stage.
  13. A, C, D. Printers can communicate via parallel, serial, USB, infrared, wireless, and network connections.
  14. C. If a printer is using out-of-date or incorrect printer drivers, the printer may produce pages of garbled text. The solution is to ensure that the most recent printer drivers are downloaded from the manufacturer’s website.
  15. B. The daisy-wheel printer gets its name because it contains a wheel with raised letters and symbols on each “petal.”
  16. A. The high-voltage power supply is the part of the laser printer that supplies the voltages for charging and transferring corona assemblies.
  17. C. The transfer corona assembly gets the toner from the photosensitive drum onto the paper. For some printers, this is a transfer corona wire, and for others, it is a transfer corona roller.
  18. D. Developing happens after exposing. The correct order is processing, charging, exposing, developing, transferring, fusing, and cleaning.
  19. B. The fuser assembly presses and melts the toner into the paper. The transfer corona transfers the toner from the drum to the paper. The printer controller circuitry converts signals from the PC into signals for the various printer assemblies. The paper transport assembly controls the movement of the paper through the printer.
  20. A. Firmware upgrades for laser printers are downloaded for free from the manufacturer’s website. A technician does not need to install a new chip because firmware is upgraded via software. It’s unlikely that the manufacturer will send you the upgrade on a CD; it will refer you to its website to download it.

Chapter 12: Hardware and Network Troubleshooting

  1. A, B. Two helpful things to try are toggling the video output function key (usually Fn+F8) and plugging an external monitor into the laptop. Removing the display is possible but not recommended. Powering the system off and back on isn’t likely to correct the problem.
  2. C. Discolored areas on the board are often caused by overheating. This can be the result of power surges.
  3. A. The NET USE command allows you to connect to shared resources such as shared drives and printers on the network.
  4. C. Every computer has a diagnostic program built into its BIOS called the power-on self-test (POST). The BIOS is the software stored on the CMOS chip. DNS is Domain Name Service, which in networking resolves hostnames to IP addresses.
  5. B. The IPCONFIG command is perhaps the most used utility in troubleshooting and network configuration. The IPCONFIG /RENEW command will send a query to the DHCP server asking it to resend and renew all DHCP information. For a more detailed look at the IPCONFIG command, type IPCONFIG /? at the command prompt.
  6. B. If print jobs are seemingly getting “stuck” in the printer queue, you should stop and restart the print spooler service. There is no Printer Troubleshooting utility that will diagnose printer problems. Deleting and reinstalling is not necessary.
  7. A, D. Heat sinks and fans are commonly used to cool components within a PC. Compressed air can be used to blow out small particles or dust. Freon is a coolant used in some air conditioners, but it is not typically used for personal computers.
  8. B. The manufacturer’s website is the first place you should go for information on your products, including troubleshooting information. Many years ago, manufacturers would provide paper manuals with their products, but that’s almost unheard of today unless you download a PDF version from the website. Server logs can show error codes, but they won’t tell you how to fix anything.
  9. A. The most likely cause is a groove or a scratch in the EP drum. Toner is collecting in that groove or scratch, and then it is being deposited onto the page.
  10. B. It has to be a problem with the LCD display. If it were the video card, the display would appear warped and fuzzy on the external monitor as well. While many motherboards contain video circuitry, this answer is not specific enough. If the video driver were corrupted, you would have the same problem on all displays.
  11. A. If an ink cartridge is faulty or develops a hole, it can release excessive amounts of ink, which will lead to smearing. A corrupt print driver would result in printing garbage. Inkjet printers do not have a fuser. Excessive humidity may cause smearing, but it wouldn’t cause the disbursement of too much ink.
  12. B. The ipconfig utility can be used with Windows 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 view IP configuration information, use the IPCONFIG /All command.
  13. C, D. Seeing images from previous print jobs is a phenomenon called ghosting. It’s most likely due to a bad erasure lamp or a broken cleaning blade.
  14. D. It may well be that the video card is dead. Different BIOS manufacturers use different beep codes, though, so you’ll want to look it up to be sure. If the motherboard was dead or the BIOS weren’t functioning, you wouldn’t get to the POST routine, so you wouldn’t get a beep code.
  15. B. Tracert is a Windows command-line utility that enables you to verify the route to a remote host. It is often used in the troubleshooting process to verify the path a data packet takes toward its final destination.
  16. C. The only components that typically make noise are the ones that have moving parts, such as fans and hard drives. In most cases, a rhythmic ticking sound will be something that’s generated by the hard drive.
  17. C. If there is a consistent blank space, it likely means that a pin is not firing properly and the print head needs to be replaced. If the print ribbon were old, you would have consistently faded printing. If the ribbon were not advancing properly, you would get light and dark printing. If the wrong driver is installed, you will get garbage.
  18. A. If a laptop won’t power up on battery, always try to use AC power. You never know when a battery could have failed. If the user had a spare and didn’t have an AC power cord, trying a spare might work, but trying AC power is the best bet. There is no battery power switch on laptops.
  19. D. Loopback plugs are used to test the sending and receiving ability of network cards. Wireless locators find wireless network signals. Cable testers validate cables, and toner probes are used to trace a cable from one end to the other.
  20. C. A RAID 0 array is also known as disk striping. RAID 0 actually decreases your fault tolerance versus one hard drive because there are more points of failure. You need to replace the drive, and hopefully you had it backed up so that you can restore the data.

Chapter 13: Operating System Basics

  1. B, C. To open a command prompt, you can use CMD or COMMAND.
  2. D. A driver is extremely specific software written for the purpose of instructing a particular OS on how to access a piece of hardware.
  3. C. You can increase the Taskbar’s size by moving the mouse pointer to the top of it, pausing until the pointer turns into a double-headed arrow, and then clicking and dragging. Keep in mind that in Windows XP, you have to unlock the Taskbar first by right-clicking on it and deselecting Lock The Taskbar.
  4. A. FAT32 does not have as many options as NTFS, such as Encryption and Compression, which are attributes available only on NTFS partitions.
  5. B, C. The Windows File Explorer program can be used to copy and move files and to change file attributes.
  6. D. Standard permissions, unlike special permissions, have been grouped together to make it easier for administrators to assign permissions.
  7. B. The shell is a program that runs on top of the OS and allows the user to issue commands through a set of menus or some other graphical interface.
  8. C. To run any program, select Start ➢ Run and type the name of the program in the Open field. If you don’t know the exact name of the program, you can find the file by clicking the Browse button. Once you have typed in the executable name, click OK to run the program.
  9. D. Multithreading offers the ability for a single application to have multiple requests in to the processor at one time.
  10. B. All deleted files are placed in the Recycle Bin. Deleted files are held there until the Recycle Bin is emptied. Users can easily recover accidentally deleted files from the Recycle Bin.
  11. D. To turn off a Windows 7 machine, select Start ➢ Shut Down, and choose Shut Down. This will turn off the computer.
  12. D. The minimum amount of memory recommended for Windows 8.1 is 1GB for 32-bit installations and 2GB for 64-bit installations.
  13. B. The minimum amount of free hard drive space recommended for the installation of Windows Vista Home Basic is 15GB.
  14. B. The minimum recommended memory for a 32-bit installation of Windows 7 is 1GB.
  15. C. In Windows, a quick way to access Help is to press the F1 key.
  16. B. The Sidebar existed only in Windows Vista and provided a quick interface that allowed you to access common utilities such as the headlines.
  17. C. The system tray is located on the right side of the Taskbar.
  18. A. In addition to right-clicking on the Desktop, you can access the Display Properties settings by using the Display icon under Control Panel (as long as you are not using Category view in some versions).
  19. B. The interface included with Windows Vista is called Aero.
  20. C. The minimum recommended memory for a 64-bit installation of Windows 7 is 2GB.

Chapter 14: Operating System Administration

  1. B. The GPUPDATE utility is used to update Group Policy settings and replaces some of the functionality that previously existed with SECEDIT.
  2. D. In Windows, CDFS is the file system of choice for CD media.
  3. C. The SHUTDOWN.EXE utility can be used to schedule a shutdown (complete or a restart) locally or remotely.
  4. A. The BOOTREC /FIXBOOT command can be used to write a new boot sector.
  5. D. ExFAT is a proprietary file system created by Microsoft for use with large flash drives.
  6. D. The TASKLIST utility will list all running processes at the command line.
  7. B. Virtual memory settings are accessed through the Performance tab or area of the System applet in the Control Panel.
  8. D. Services can be started automatically or manually or be disabled.
  9. D. You can use Task Manager to deal with applications that have stopped responding.
  10. B. MSTSC can be used to configure a remote connection.
  11. A. The screen shot shows DxDiag with the name of the utility purposely obscured.
  12. A. Device Manager is used in Windows to configure all hardware resources about which Windows is aware.
  13. B. The Backup utility provided with Windows 7 and Windows Vista versions of Windows has different levels of functionality. In Windows 8, this could be done with File History.
  14. D. The SFC command will run System File Checker. The /SCANNOW option will scan files, and SFC automatically repairs files that it detects as corrupted.
  15. C. The operating system boots from the active partition. Active partitions must be primary partitions, but a primary partition does not have to be active. (There can be up to four primary partitions per hard drive.)
  16. B. There are five basic hives in the Windows Registry: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, HKEY_CURRENT_USER, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, HKEY_USERS, and HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE stores information about the computer’s hardware. HKEY_CURRENT_MACHINE, HKEY_MACHINE, and HKEY_RESOURCES do not exist.
  17. C. GPT is replacing the MBR in 64-bit versions of the Windows operating system.
  18. A. Windows Disk Defragmenter rearranges files on your hard disk so that they occupy contiguous spaces (as much as possible).
  19. B. The /MIR switch can be used with ROBOCOPY to mirror a complete directory tree.
  20. D. The DxDiag utility (DirectX Diagnostics) is used to test DirectX functionality. Telnet is used to establish a remote connection, Msinfo32 shows configuration settings and Ping can let you know if a remote host can be reached.

Chapter 15: Working with Windows 8/8.1

  1. D. The Windows 8 interface was originally called Metro. It is now more commonly referred to as the Windows 8 UI.
  2. A, B. Only the Pro and Enterprise versions support BitLocker and EFS.
  3. A. The minimum hardware requirements for a 32-bit installation are 1GHz (or faster) processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB hard drive space, and a DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver.
  4. B. For 64-bit installations, 2GB RAM and 20GB hard drive space represent the minimum requirements.
  5. C. OneDrive is the online/cloud storage account that comes with your Microsoft account.
  6. D. File Explorer is the new name for Windows Explorer.
  7. A. The Windows Store is an online site where you can download apps, games, software, and so on. Windows 8 or higher is required to use the Windows Store.
  8. D. Charms are controls that are available on the side of the screen. They consist of Search, Share, Start, Devices, and Settings.
  9. C. Within PowerShell, you can write script files based on the .NET programming framework.
  10. B. Windows 7 Ultimate can be upgraded to Windows 8 Pro.
  11. D. Windows Upgrade Assistant can evaluate your current system and determine if it can be upgraded to Windows 8.
  12. A. The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (commonly called MDT) simplifies the process and reduces the time each install takes.
  13. C. If you install Windows on a system with multiple hard drives, you can use diskpart to make sure images are pointing to their intended drives.
  14. B. Windows To Go can be used to boot Windows 8 from flash drives.
  15. C. Microsoft recommends that WinSAT.exe be used with the formal option to optimize Windows for the SSD. (This reduces the number of write operations Windows makes.)
  16. D. By definition, a system partition is one that contains the hardware-specific files needed to load Windows.
  17. A. Only Windows 8 Enterprise includes the Windows To Go feature.
  18. C. The refresh repair option keeps personal files and settings along with the default apps and those that you installed from the Windows Store.
  19. A. The Windows 8 product key is a 25-character code used for Windows activation.
  20. D. The system partition usually appears as 0, but the system can assign different numbers and different computers with identical hardware configurations that can have different disk numbers assigned to them.

Chapter 16: Working with Windows 7

  1. B, C, D, E. While all editions of Windows 7 can join a HomeGroup, only Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate can create one.
  2. D. Even though Windows 7 does not have Sidebar (a feature that lived and died with Windows Vista), the file that runs for gadgets is SIDEBAR.EXE.
  3. B. BitLocker uses (if it is present) the Trusted Platform Module (TPM).
  4. C. Libraries allow files and folders to be grouped logically and appear as if they are in the same location even when they are not.
  5. B. The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit can be used to get an inventory of computers on your network and plan a rollout of the new operating system.
  6. D. Only Windows Vista Business can be upgraded to Windows 7 Professional.
  7. C. The utility shown is Windows Anytime Upgrade, which can be accessed from Control Panel. Portions of the screen that would reveal the name of the utility have been hidden in the screen shot.
  8. C. Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE), is a stub operating system that creates a Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE).
  9. A. The utility shown is WINVER. This utility will show the operating system, the edition, and the service pack installed on any Windows operating system.
  10. D, E. Only Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate support BitLocker drive encryption.
  11. B. In Windows 7 (and Windows Vista), the ability to do this has been moved to the System Protection tab of System Properties.
  12. A. The Action Center replaces the Security Center (which existed in Vista) and adds the Maintenance portion.
  13. C. Windows 7 requires the installation to be followed by a process known as product activation to curb software piracy.
  14. B. The maximum number of physical CPUs supported by Windows 7 Enterprise edition is two.
  15. B. The UAC default in Windows 7 is “Notify me only when programs try to make changes to my computer.”
  16. C. The ReadyBoost feature allows you to use free space on a removable drive (such as an SD card) to speed up a system.
  17. D. The utility shown is Windows Remote Assistance. Portions of the utility that show its name have been obscured in the screen shot.
  18. C. When remote computers and virtual machine utilities are used in Windows 7 networking, port 3389 is the default port used.
  19. A. On a standard, default installation, the BOOT directory holds the boot file configuration for Windows 7.
  20. D. The Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions support 192GB. The maximum amount of RAM supported by Home Premium is 16GB. The Starter edition supports only 2GB.

Chapter 17: Working with Windows Vista

  1. C. The two biggest modifications to offline folders in Windows Vista are the inclusion of the Sync Center and the restriction of offline file support to the Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate versions.
  2. D. The first file used in the Windows Vista boot process is BOOTMGR.
  3. B. The maximum amount of RAM supported by 64-bit Home Premium is 16GB. The Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions support 128GB. The Home Basic edition supports only 8GB.
  4. C. Wake on LAN is an Ethernet standard implemented via a card that allows a “sleeping” machine to awaken when it receives a wakeup signal.
  5. B, D. Only the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista include support for BitLocker.
  6. D. Shadow Copy is a Windows Vista feature that allows you to recover from an accidental deletion or overwrite.
  7. C. For just one machine, Windows Easy Transfer should be used for transferring user state data and application files. For a mass rollout across a network, USMT can be used.
  8. C. In Windows Vista, and all Windows versions with which you need to be familiar for the A+ exam, the winver utility can be used to see the edition and service pack installed on a system.
  9. D. The utility shown is Component Services (with the name of the utility obscured). This MMC snap-in allows you to deploy and administer component services.
  10. B. WINLOGON presents the Logon screen and wraps up the boot process.
  11. C. The Windows Memory Diagnostics utility (Start ➢ Control Panel ➢ Administrative Tools ➢ Memory Diagnostics Tool) can be used to check a system for memory problems.
  12. C, D, E. Only the Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista support Local Security Policy (secpol.msc).
  13. C. Windows Vista requires the installation to be followed by a process known as product activation to curb software piracy.
  14. B. The maximum number of physical CPUs supported by Windows Vista Business edition is two. Both Home Basic and Home Premium editions support only one, while Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate support two.
  15. B. The System Configuration tool is msconfig.exe in Windows Vista.
  16. C. The ReadyBoost feature allows you to use free space on a removable drive (usually USB) to speed up a system.
  17. A, D. Windows XP Professional can only be upgraded to Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate.
  18. C. When the network location is set to Public, network discovery is disabled. Network discovery is enabled for both Home and Work. There is no such location as Personal in Windows Vista.
  19. A. On a standard, default installation, the oot directory holds the boot file configuration for Windows Vista.
  20. C. The 64-bit Enterprise, and Ultimate editions support 128GB. The maximum amount of RAM supported by Home Premium is 16GB. The Home Basic edition supports only 8GB.

Chapter 18: Working with Mac OS and Linux

  1. C. The command ls –la will show all files (including hidden ones) in long-listing format.
  2. D. Boot Camp can be used to install a 64-bit version of Windows on a Intel-based Mac and then let you choose which operating system to use upon bootup.
  3. A. Time Machine is an application from Apple that can be used to make backups.
  4. B. The vi utility is a visual editor that can be used to edit files.
  5. C. There is a utility called ifconfig that is used to see and edit network configuration files. It has a counterpart, iwconfig, that works with wireless connection configuration files.
  6. B. The Keychain app is used for password management.
  7. A. The shell serves as the interpreter between the OS and the user. A number of different shells are available.
  8. D. Working copies are backups kept on site at the computer center for immediate recovery purposes.
  9. C. The apt-get utility command can be used in Linux to download files, including patches.
  10. C. The chown utility is used to change the owner from one person to another.
  11. A. The fsck utility can be used to check and repair disks in Linux.
  12. B. Force Quit exists for the purpose of stopping those runaway applications when they pop up.
  13. C. The Bash shell (borne again shell) is the most popular one included with Linux distributions.
  14. D. The area at the bottom of the screen is known as the Dock.
  15. C. The Command+space sequence is used to access Spotlight from within an app.
  16. A. The sudo command is used to run a command as another user, and the default user is root.
  17. C. The ps command will show running processes on your system.
  18. B. To change to the parent directory of the one you are in, use two periods (..) with the cd command.
  19. B. The middle set of three permissions applies to the group. In this case, the value is rw-, which means read and write permission only (not execute).
  20. C. This option is used to create the folders as well as subfolders, making the parent so to speak.

Chapter 19: Security

  1. A. The first layer of access control is perimeter security. Perimeter security is intended to delay or deter entrance into a facility.
  2. A. The advantage to assigning the IP addresses statically is that you can make certain which host is associated with which IP address and then utilize filtering to limit network access to only those hosts.
  3. A. Social engineering uses the inherent trust in the human species, as opposed to technology, to gain access to your environment.
  4. C. A fingerprint scanner, or any device that identifies a person by a physical trait, is considered a biometric security control.
  5. A. Although the end result of any of these attacks may be denying authorized users access to network resources, a DoS attack is specifically intended to prevent access to network resources by overwhelming or flooding a service or network.
  6. B. A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack uses multiple computer systems to attack a server or host in the network.
  7. C. In a back door attack, a program or service is placed on a server to bypass normal security procedures.
  8. C. A replay attack attempts to replay the results of a previously successful session to gain access.
  9. D. TCP/IP hijacking is an attempt to steal a valid IP address and use it to gain authorization or information from a network.
  10. A. A worm is different from a virus in that it can reproduce itself, it’s self-contained, and it doesn’t need a host application to be transported.
  11. D. A smurf attack attempts to use a broadcast ping (ICMP) on a network. The return address of the ping may be that of a valid system in your network. This system will be flooded with responses in a large network.
  12. A. A password-guessing attack occurs when a user account is repeatedly attacked using a variety of passwords.
  13. B. Biometrics relies on a physical characteristic of the user to verify identity. Biometric devices typically use either a hand pattern or a retinal scan to accomplish this.
  14. A. Tokens are created when a user or system successfully authenticates. The token is destroyed when the session is over.
  15. C. Someone trying to con your organization into revealing account and password information is launching a social engineering attack.
  16. A. Some viruses won’t damage a system in an attempt to spread into all of the other systems in a network. These viruses use that system as the carrier of the virus.
  17. B. A symptom of many viruses is unusual activity on the system disk. The virus spreading to other files on your system causes this.
  18. A. A software exploitation attack attempts to exploit weaknesses in software. A common attack attempts to communicate with an established port to gain unauthorized access.
  19. A. Packet filters prevent unauthorized packets from entering or leaving a network. Packet filters are a type of firewall that block specified traffic based on IP address, protocol, and many other attributes.
  20. D. All of these devices can store and pass viruses to uninfected systems. Make sure that all files are scanned for viruses before they’re copied to these media.

Chapter 20: Network Services, Cloud Computing, and Virtualization

  1. B. For secure transactions, the web server should be using HTTPS, which uses port 443. If non-secure portions of the website work, then the server is fine. It’s most likely that the firewall is blocking inbound traffic on port 443.
  2. C. It sounds like the manager wants a unified threat management (UTM) device. They are designed to be one-stop network protection devices.
  3. C. If the data on the server does not need to be accessed via the Internet, then the server should be in the most secure place possible, which is inside the firewall(s) in the secure network.
  4. A. Platform as a Service (PaaS) is probably the right level of service for the developer team. It provides infrastructure like IaaS, and it also supplies needed programming elements.
  5. A, C. Print servers should make printers available to clients and accept print jobs. They also process print jobs and manage print priorities. Finally, they provide client computers with the right print drivers when the clients attempt to install the printer.
  6. B. The ability to expand services without provider intervention is called on-demand self-service.
  7. A. A proxy server can be configured to block access to websites that contain potentially dangerous or inflammatory material.
  8. D. A hybrid cloud provides the best of public and private clouds. You get the scalability and cost effectiveness of a public cloud but the security that you need for important files on the private portion of the cloud.
  9. B. Every DHCP server needs to have a scope, which is the range of addresses available to clients, as well as other options that it can give to client computers.
  10. C. When multiple organizations with similar objectives want to combine efforts in a cloud, the best choice is generally a community cloud. This allows for the flexibility and scalability normally found in a public cloud, but it also limits the number of users to a smaller, trusted group.
  11. A. DNS server records are contained in the zone file, which must be configured by administrators. A hosts file is an alternative to using DNS (but that does not work well when scaling to the Internet). A scope is created on DHCP servers.
  12. B, C, D. Cloud solutions are great for enhancing scalability and reliability while generally lowering costs. The biggest issue with cloud computing is security.
  13. D. The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is used to transfer email between servers.
  14. B. Each virtual machine will use its own virtual NIC. The virtual NICs will communicate with a virtual switch managed by the hypervisor. The virtual switch will communicate with the physical NIC.
  15. D. The quad A record is used to represent IPv6 hosts. IPv4 hosts need an A record. The CNAME record is used if one host has alias (multiple) names. MX is for a mail server.
  16. B. There needs to be enough RAM to support both OSs, so the answer is 6GB. More is better though!
  17. A, B, C. Legacy systems are ones that use older hardware, software, or network protocols that are not commonly used today. A system with only 1GB RAM might be underpowered, but that in and of itself does not make it a legacy system.
  18. D. Each instance of the OS you are running requires its own security software.
  19. B. IDS devices are passive. They will detect, log, and perhaps send an alert, but that’s it. An IPS can take active steps to shut down an attack if it detects one. Both devices will monitor internal network traffic as well as incoming traffic.
  20. A. A Type 2 hypervisor sits on top of an existing OS, meaning that OSs installed in VMs will compete for resources with the host OS. The amount of resources available to a guest OS can be configured. Virtual OSs can get on the physical network if configured properly.

Chapter 21: Mobile Operating Systems and Connectivity

  1. C. The operating system installed is independent of the mobile device’s ability to make cellular calls. Both Android and iOS devices are potentially capable of making them.
  2. C. To develop an app, you need a software development kit (SDK). The app package will have an .apk filename extension when it’s developed.
  3. A. Three gyroscopes are used to detect roll, pitch, and yaw. The problem is with the gyroscope that detects yaw. The accelerometer would be suspect if the iPhone were not detecting flat movement to the side or forward and backward. The magnetometer can only help with compass headings, and the GPS helps with geographical positioning.
  4. B. Resistive touchscreens require pressure to actuate them, while capacitive ones do not and instead can be actuated by the fleshy part of the human finger. Body oils, moisture, and dirt are not as detrimental to the effectiveness of resistive screens as they are to capacitive screens.
  5. A, E. SMS is the most widely supported text-messaging service across all platforms and service providers. MMS is another text messaging technology.
  6. D. Phone calls will always be sent out over the cellular network by default. In situations like that, data transfers may still be using a Wi-Fi connection. Whenever you have a reliable Wi-Fi signal available, which you do not pay for “as you go,” you should feel free to disable your cellular access to data networking. The wireless network is often faster and does not cost you anything to use. If data networking works better when you leave the cellular network available as a fallback, you can choose to disable it only for certain large downloads or disable it completely until the download is complete. Unless you are particularly sensitive to the situation or know that data is going out over your cell access, you might not need to disable the cellular data-networking feature.
  7. C. The range of Bluetooth connections is considered short compared to Wi-Fi connections. Bluetooth is a fully standardized protocol that supports file transfers using FTP. Rebooting, or even restarting, paired devices is not a requirement for Bluetooth connection.
  8. A. SMTP sends mail to the server at TCP port 25. POP3 uses port 110. IMAP4 uses 143, and POP3 uses port 995 securely over SSL or TLS.
  9. B. SMTP with TLS uses port 587 by default. With SSL, SMTP uses port 465. IMAP4 with SSL/TLS uses port 993, while POP3 with SSL/TLS uses port 995.
  10. B. When Wi-Fi calling is enabled, calls will seamlessly switch from cellular to Wi-Fi if you are within range of a Wi-Fi network of which you are a member.
  11. D. The technology that allows a phone to pass near a receiver to make an electronic payment is near field communication (NFC).
  12. B,C. You can create virtual private network (VPN) connections on a mobile device using Wi-Fi or cellular network connections.
  13. C. Each mobile phone has a separate processor that manages wireless communications, also known as radio communications or baseband communications. There is a baseband OS that manages this, and it works with the primary OS on the phone.
  14. A, B. The two real-time OSs (RTOSs) that mobile phones have are the baseband OS and the SIM OS.
  15. D. S/MIME is the public key encryption standard used for encrypting and decrypting email.
  16. B, D, F. The items most often able to be synchronized are contacts, apps, email, photos, music, and videos.
  17. B. iTunes will run on a computer with 512MB of RAM. 1GB is not required unless you want to play 720p high-definition videos.
  18. B. Mail access uses standard secure or insecure TCP ports, not UDP ports. Exchange access to such mail services is not unheard of, but it is exceedingly rare. Mobile devices tend to have email clients built in.
  19. A, B, C, D. Airplane mode disables all radio communications, including cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC. It does not affect the opening of any other apps or the lock screen.
  20. C. 4G Verizon devices functioning as mobile hotspots can support up to 10 concurrent connections. 3G devices can support only five.

Chapter 22: Troubleshooting Theory, OSs, and Security

  1. D. Windows Update automatically (by default) finds, downloads, and installs service packs and other Windows updates. None of the other options are real utilities.
  2. B. Safe Mode loads only basic drivers, such as a standard VGA video driver and the keyboard and mouse.
  3. B. Windows uses the Windows Boot Configuration Data (BCD) file instead of the BOOT.INI file. This can be rebuilt with the /REBUILDBCD option.
  4. B. The first step is to identify the problem. Once you have done that, you should (in order) establish a theory of probable cause, test the theory, establish a plan of action to resolve the problem, verify full system functionality, and document your findings.
  5. B. The System Restore tool is used to create restore points. Backup creates backups of your hard drive. You can use Backup to create copies of your configuration (like a restore point) along with other data, but to create a restore point specifically, use System Restore. There are no Restore Point or Emergency Repair tools.
  6. A. Only Windows XP uses the BOOT.INI file. Newer versions of Windows use the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) file.
  7. C. Check the sleep settings for hibernation, and disable those first to see if that makes a difference. If it does not, then you can begin disabling drivers and making other changes.
  8. A. Windows can use restore points to roll back the system configuration to a previous state. None of the other options exist.
  9. B. Pop-up blockers are used to prevent both pop-ups and pop-unders from appearing. While older browsers did not incorporate an option to block pop-ups, most new browsers, including the latest versions of Internet Explorer, now have that capability built in.
  10. A. It’s critical to keep your antivirus software up-to-date, so you should update your definitions at least once per week.
  11. C. Disk Defragmenter will analyze the hard drive to determine how fragmented it is, and it will allow you to defragment it. There is no Disk Analyzer tool. Disk Cleanup can help you free up space by deleting unneeded files. Check Disk (CHKDSK) can help you find problems on the hard drive, but it does not look for fragmentation.
  12. A. Windows Update downloads patches for the Windows operating system and other Microsoft products.
  13. A. Windows Defender is an anti-malware program. It checks for harmful, or unwanted, software installed on the machine.
  14. A. The REGSVR32 tool (REGSVR32.EXE) allows you to register and unregister modules and controls for troubleshooting purposes.
  15. A, B, C, D. Establishing security policies and procedures, updating your operating systems, updating your applications, and updating your network devices are all good measures to take to help eliminate potential security problems.
  16. A. Some viruses won’t damage a system in an attempt to spread into all of the other systems in a network. These viruses use that system as the carrier of the virus.
  17. B. Disk Cleanup can help you free up space by deleting unneeded files. Disk Defragmenter will analyze the hard drive to determine how fragmented it is, and it will allow you to defragment it. There is no Disk Analyzer tool. Check Disk (CHKDSK) can help you find problems on the hard drive, but it does not delete files.
  18. D. SFC automatically verifies system files after a reboot to see if they were changed to unprotected copies.
  19. B. To open System Restore, click Start ➢ All Programs ➢ Accessories ➢ System Tools ➢ System Restore.
  20. A. The figure shows REGEDIT, but the name of the utility has been purposely obscured.

Chapter 23: Understanding Operational Procedures

  1. D. When a computer is experiencing random reboots and phantom problems that disappear after reboot, you should open the cover, clean everything (if it’s dirty), and reseat all of the cards and chips. Some components could have gunk on them that carries an electrical charge or could have experienced “chip creep,” where they slowly work themselves out of their sockets.
  2. C. A high-voltage probe is designed to release the electricity from high-voltage components, which are found in the back of CRT computer monitors. Wearing an antistatic wrist strap when working on a computer monitor can cause the stored-up electric current to be released through your body, which could result in serious injury or death!
  3. B. The Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) contains information about chemical properties, including what to do if an accident occurs.
  4. D. Companies are not legally required to provide MSDSs to consumers. However, most will do so if you ask for them. The best place to look is the manufacturer’s website.
  5. A, B. Accidents and near-accidents should always be reported. Dirt isn’t usually a safety issue. Rain could be, but hopefully it wouldn’t affect the inside of your building.
  6. B. Most people can feel an electric shock at about 3,000 volts. However, computer equipment can be damaged with as little as 300 volts.
  7. A, B. Antistatic wrist straps, bags (for parts), and floor mats can all help reduce the risk of ESD. There are no antistatic hair nets (but if you have long hair, it’s best to tie it back so that it doesn’t come in contact with computer parts). Shuffling your feet on the floor will actually increase the risk of ESD.
  8. B, D. Private-sector employers are required by OSHA to maintain a safe work environment. This includes maintaining tools and equipment, keeping records of accidents, and displaying a safety information poster.
  9. A. Before installing new commercial software, ensure that the proper licenses are in place. An enterprise license is most likely appropriate in a situation like this, but you need to make sure that the parameters of your enterprise license agreement allow for the installation of this many new computers.
  10. C, D. You should always lift with your legs, not your back. This means bending at the knees and not the waist. Monitors should be carried with the glass face toward your body. Using carts for heavy objects is a good idea, as is ensuring that your path is free of safety hazards, such as trip hazards.
  11. C. Alkaline batteries should always be recycled. Throwing them in the trash means that they’ll end up in a landfill, where they can contaminate the environment. Burning batteries is always a bad idea because they will explode.
  12. B, D. If you encounter prohibited material, you should confiscate and preserve the material and report it through the correct channels. Confronting the issue directly with the user before you have established a proper case could cause problems.
  13. C. You should page the user and let them know that they need to verify access. You also should tell them that you saw the sticky note and highly recommend that they change their password and not write it down. Logging in to the system using the information you found would be violating the privacy of that user and should not be done. Further, logging in with someone else’s information makes you a potential scapegoat for any data that is corrupted or missing until the user changes the password.
  14. C. While calling and sending email are both solutions to this situation, calling the customer provides an immediate means of communication. Inform the customer of the situation, and offer to be out there at your first opportunity, which will hopefully be first thing in the morning.
  15. D. While there is no perfect solution to problems of this type, the best solution is to find someone else who can mediate and help you understand the problem.
  16. C. Physical abuse violates respect and should be avoided at all costs. You should try to calm the user down. If you cannot do this, you should leave the site immediately and not return until it is safe to do so. You may also want to report the incident to your management so that they’re aware of the situation.
  17. B. The customer is expressing a concern that she was not shown respect by a technician from your company. You should apologize and make your manager aware of the situation. Unless you are a supervisor, which is not implied in the question, you should not personally talk to the technician about the issue.
  18. D. You should always act with confidence and in a manner similar to how you would want to be treated if you were in the customer’s situation—ignoring, downplaying, and joking about the vice president’s obvious concerns are very poor choices.
  19. C. The best solution is to meet the customer’s needs and solve his problem. If that means that you have to summon additional help or resources, you should do so.
  20. B, C. You should leave a note for the user explaining what you did and include your contact information. You should also notify your manager and the user’s manager that you have completed your task.
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