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The CompTIA 220-901 exam is one of two exams requires to obtain the CompTIA A+ (900 series). This exam will cover topics like networking, mobile devices and hardware and network troubleshooting.
You are a Network Technician for a large IT Support Company. A client has called in saying that they switched their SOHO network to a fiber connection at the recommendation of their ISP. They have stated that they have not seen a gain in internet performance and that their ISP says it is an issue on the customer's network. What should you do next?
You should ask questions to assist the customer in determining their network equipment. The most likely cause of the poor performance is that their network equipment (routers, switches, etc) or devices (wireless or wired NIC) do not support the faster speeds. The only way to solve this issue is to get more information from the customer.
A user reports that their printouts contain a shadow of the previous image. Which of the following is MOST likely the cause?
After a printer applies toner to paper the fuser assembly rolls over the paper and applies heat to fuse the toner to the paper. Occasionally, the toner can stick to the fuser assembly and will be applied to the next sheet of paper passed through the printer.
Laser printing is an electrostatic digital printing process. It produces high-quality text and graphics (and moderate-quality photographs) by repeatedly passing a laser beam back and forth over a negatively charged cylinder called a "drum" to define a differentially charged image. The drum then selectively collects electrically charged powdered ink (toner), and transfers the image to paper, which is then heated to permanently fuse the text, imagery, or both, to the paper. As with digital photocopiers, laser printers employ a xerographic printing process. Laser printing differs from traditional xerography as implemented in analog photocopiers in that in the latter, the image is formed by reflecting light off an existing document onto the exposed drum. Invented at Xerox PARC in the 1970s, laser printers were introduced for the office and then home markets in subsequent years by IBM, Canon, Xerox, Apple, Hewlett-Packard and many others. Over the decades, quality and speed have increased as prices have decreased, and the once cutting-edge printing devices are now ubiquitous.
Laser_printing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaYou have been assigned to configure a new enterprise wireless router for your employer's network. Which of the following settings should be changed first?
Networking equipment typically ships with a default password or no password at all. Changing the password should be step one, before any other configurations.
Where a device needs a username and/or password to log in, a default password is usually provided to access the device during its initial setup, or after resetting to factory defaults. Manufacturers of such equipment typically use a simple password, such as admin or password on all equipment they ship, expecting users to change the password during configuration. The default username and password are usually found in the instruction manual (common for all devices) or on the device itself. Default passwords are one of the major contributing factors to large-scale compromises of home routers. Leaving such a password on devices available to the public is a major security risk.Some devices (such as wireless routers) will have unique default router usernames and passwords printed on a sticker, which is more secure than a common default password. Some vendors will however derive the password from the device's MAC address using a known algorithm, in which case the password can also be easily reproduced by attackers.
Default_password - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaBNC (Bayonet Neill–Concelman) connectors are used with coaxial cables, found in broadband internet and cable TV. Molex is a connector used between power supplies and internal components like disk drives. SATA and PATA are used to transfer data between components like the motherboard and disk drives.
The BNC connector (initialism of "Bayonet Neill–Concelman") is a miniature quick connect/disconnect radio frequency connector used for coaxial cable. It is designed to maintain the same characteristic impedance of the cable, with 50 ohm and 75 ohm types being made. It is usually applied for video and radio frequency connections up to about 2 GHz and up to 500 volts. The connector has a twist to lock design with two lugs in the female portion of the connector engaging a slot in the shell of the male portion. The type was introduced on military radio equipment in the 1940s and has since become widely applied in radio systems, and is a common type of video connector. Similar radio-frequency connectors differ in dimensions and attachment features, and may allow for higher voltages, higher frequencies, or three-wire connections.
BNC_connector - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaWhile working for a IT Consulting firm, you have been tasked with setting up several SOHO wireless networks. Which of the following will ensure the security of confidential data?
Encrypting data before transmitting wirelessly is the best method to ensure data security.
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2), and Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 (WPA3) are the three security certification programs developed after 2000 by the Wi-Fi Alliance to secure wireless computer networks. The Alliance defined these in response to serious weaknesses researchers had found in the previous system, Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP).WPA (sometimes referred to as the TKIP standard) became available in 2003. The Wi-Fi Alliance intended it as an intermediate measure in anticipation of the availability of the more secure and complex WPA2, which became available in 2004 and is a common shorthand for the full IEEE 802.11i (or IEEE 802.11i-2004) standard. In January 2018, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced the release of WPA3, which has several security improvements over WPA2.As of 2023, most computers that connect to a wireless network have support for using WPA, WPA2, or WPA3.
Wi-Fi_Protected_Access - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaWhich of the following provides constant power to a motherboard, allowing it to retain configuration data for the BIOS?
BIOS configuration data is retained by using a small battery, called the CMOS battery, as a power source when the power supply is not on. The data is saved in the nonvolatile BIOS memory (also called CMOS RAM) and will be lost if the CMOS battery dies or is removed. If the data is lost the BIOS will revert to default settings.
Nonvolatile BIOS memory refers to a small memory on PC motherboards that is used to store BIOS settings. It is traditionally called CMOS RAM because it uses a volatile, low-power complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) SRAM (such as the Motorola MC146818 or similar) powered by a small "CMOS" battery when system and standby power is off. It is referred to as non-volatile memory or NVRAM because, after the system loses power, it does retain state by virtue of the CMOS battery. The typical NVRAM capacity is 256 bytes.The CMOS RAM and the real-time clock have been integrated as a part of the southbridge chipset and it may not be a standalone chip on modern motherboards. In turn, the southbridge have been integrated into a single Platform Controller Hub. Today's UEFI motherboards use NVRAM to store configuration data (NVRAM is a part of the UEFI flash ROM), but by many OEMs' design, the UEFI settings are still lost if the CMOS battery fails.
Nonvolatile_BIOS_memory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaYou are a desktop technician for a small office. You suspect that a user has opened their desktop PC case and made unauthorized changes to the device's hardware. Which of the following can be configured to identify this in the future?
Chassis Intrusion Detection is an option in for some desktop and BIOS systems that can detect when a computer's case has been opened.
A computer case, also known as a computer chassis, is the enclosure that contains most of the hardware of a personal computer. The components housed inside the case (such as the CPU, motherboard, memory, mass storage devices, power supply unit and various expansion cards) are referred as the internal hardware, while hardware outside the case (typically cable-linked or plug-and-play devices such as the display, speakers, keyboard, mouse and USB flash drives) are known as peripherals. Conventional computer cases are fully enclosed, with small holes (mostly in the back panel) that allow ventilation and cutout openings that provide access to plugs/sockets (back) and removable media drive bays (front). The structural frame (chassis) of a case is usually constructed from rigid metals such as steel (often SECC — steel, electrogalvanized, cold-rolled, coil) and aluminium alloy, with hardpoints and through holes for mounting internal hardware, case fans/coolers and for organizing cable management. The external case panels, at least one of which are removable, cover the chassis from the front, sides and top to shield the internal components from physical intrusion and dust collection, and are typically made from painted metallic and/or plastic material, while other materials such as mesh, tempered glass, acrylic, wood and even Lego bricks have appeared in many modern commercial or home-built cases. In recent years, open frame or open air cases that are only partly enclosed (with freer ventilation and thus theoretically better cooling) have become available in the premium gaming PC market.
Computer_case - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaYour employer is in the middle of a remodel and the IT Department is responsible for moving RJ-45 wall jacks to new locations. Which tool can be used verify connectivity of a RJ-45 port after it has been moved?
Loopback plugs are inexpensive tools used to create a loop in wiring. For networking, RJ-45 loopback plugs are great tools for quickly checking if data is being properly transmitted.
Loopback (also written loop-back) is the routing of electronic signals or digital data streams back to their source without intentional processing or modification. It is primarily a means of testing the communications infrastructure.
Loopback - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaDots per Inch (DPI) is the standard measurement used for printers. It refers to the amount of dots that are placed by the printer in a one inch space. This is similar to Pixels Per Inch (PPI), which is used to measure how many pixels are placed in an inch by a monitor or screen. Aspect/Contrast Ratios are used to compare height and width of paper, monitors, etc. For example 4x1 would be 4 height for every 1 width - this could be 400x100 or 800x200.
Dots per inch (DPI, or dpi) is a measure of spatial printing, video or image scanner dot density, in particular the number of individual dots that can be placed in a line within the span of 1 inch (2.54 cm). Similarly, dots per centimetre (d/cm or dpcm) refers to the number of individual dots that can be placed within a line of 1 centimetre (0.394 in).
Dots_per_inch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaPower over Ethernet (PoE) allows devices to use an ethernet connection as a power source, most commonly found in IP phones. The ethernet cable provides the power for the device to operate as well as network connectivity.
Power over Ethernet, or PoE, describes any of several standards or ad hoc systems that pass electric power along with data on twisted-pair Ethernet cabling. This allows a single cable to provide both a data connection and enough electricity to power devices such as wireless access points (WAPs), Internet Protocol (IP) cameras and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones. There are several common techniques for transmitting power over Ethernet cabling. Three of them have been standardized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standard IEEE 802.3 since 2003. These standards are known as alternative A, alternative B, and 4PPoE. Alternative A uses the same two of the four signal pairs that 10BASE-T and 100BASE-TX use for data in typical Cat 5 cabling. Alternative B separates the data and the power conductors, making troubleshooting easier. 4PPoE uses all four twisted pairs in parallel, increasing the achievable power. Alternative A transports power on the same wires as data for 10 and 100 Mbit/s Ethernet variants. This is similar to the phantom power technique commonly used for powering condenser microphones. Power is transmitted on the data conductors by applying a common voltage to each pair. Because twisted-pair Ethernet uses differential signaling, this does not interfere with data transmission. The common-mode voltage is easily extracted using the center tap of the standard Ethernet pulse transformer. For Gigabit Ethernet and faster, both alternatives A and B transport power on wire pairs also used for data since all four pairs are used for data transmission at
Power_over_Ethernet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaBoot Sequence refers to the order devices should be checked for an operating system by the BIOS. When the BIOS detects an OS, it will attempt to boot to that device.
Your supervisor has given you a replacement inked ribbon to install into a printer. What type of printer is this replacement for?
Dot Matrix and Daisy Wheel printers use a hammer mechanism to push an inked ribbon onto paper. This type of printer is known as an Impact Printer.
Impact printers create an image by using some mechanism to physically press an inked ribbon against the page, causing the ink to be deposited on the page in the shape desired These printers are typically loud, but remain in use today because of their unique ability to function with multipart forms Common examples of impact printers are dot matrix, daisy-wheel printers, and ball printers
Category:Impact_printers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaRaid 0 stripes data across multiple hard drives, which improves performance but provides no data recovery after a failure.
RAID (; "redundant array of inexpensive disks" or "redundant array of independent disks") is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical disk drive components into one or more logical units for the purposes of data redundancy, performance improvement, or both. This is in contrast to the previous concept of highly reliable mainframe disk drives referred to as "single large expensive disk" (SLED).Data is distributed across the drives in one of several ways, referred to as RAID levels, depending on the required level of redundancy and performance. The different schemes, or data distribution layouts, are named by the word "RAID" followed by a number, for example RAID 0 or RAID 1. Each scheme, or RAID level, provides a different balance among the key goals: reliability, availability, performance, and capacity. RAID levels greater than RAID 0 provide protection against unrecoverable sector read errors, as well as against failures of whole physical drives.
RAID - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaDon't let the wording confuse you! You are looking for the option that is NOT described as non-volatile. Non-volatile memory retains data without a power source. Flash memory (like in thumb drives), SSD hard drives and tape drives do not require a power source to retain data. Random Access Memory (RAM) is volatile and loses its data without a power source and is therefore not described as non-volatile.
Non-volatile memory (NVM) or non-volatile storage is a type of computer memory that can retain stored information even after power is removed. In contrast, volatile memory needs constant power in order to retain data. Non-volatile memory typically refers to storage in semiconductor memory chips, which store data in floating-gate memory cells consisting of floating-gate MOSFETs (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors), including flash memory storage such as NAND flash and solid-state drives (SSD). Other examples of non-volatile memory include read-only memory (ROM), EPROM (erasable programmable ROM) and EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable ROM), ferroelectric RAM, most types of computer data storage devices (e.g. disk storage, hard disk drives, optical discs, floppy disks, and magnetic tape), and early computer storage methods such as punched tape and cards.
Non-volatile_memory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaYou are a technician in a computer repair shop. A customer has brought in an old (broken) laptop and has asked you to extract the data for use on a new computer. Assuming the hard drive is fully functioning, which of the following methods would most easily allow this?
Removing the hard drive from the laptop and using a USB hard drive enclosure would be the easiest solution. The customer can then easily extract the data and use the hard drive as an external USB drive when needed.
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk, is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnetic material. The platters are paired with magnetic heads, usually arranged on a moving actuator arm, which read and write data to the platter surfaces. Data is accessed in a random-access manner, meaning that individual blocks of data can be stored and retrieved in any order. HDDs are a type of non-volatile storage, retaining stored data when powered off. Modern HDDs are typically in the form of a small rectangular box. Introduced by IBM in 1956, HDDs were the dominant secondary storage device for general-purpose computers beginning in the early 1960s. HDDs maintained this position into the modern era of servers and personal computers, though personal computing devices produced in large volume, like mobile phones and tablets, rely on flash memory storage devices. More than 224 companies have produced HDDs historically, though after extensive industry consolidation most units are manufactured by Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital. HDDs dominate the volume of storage produced (exabytes per year) for servers. Though production is growing slowly (by exabytes shipped), sales revenues and unit shipments are declining because solid-state drives (SSDs) have higher data-transfer rates, higher areal storage density, somewhat better reliability, and much lower latency and access times.The revenues for SSDs, most of which use NAND flash memory, slightly exceeded those for HDDs in 2018. Flash storage
Hard_disk_drive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaWhich of the following ports belongs to a standard protocol used to query data from an Active Directory server?
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an open-standard protocol used to query directory based databases such as Active Directory. LDAP uses TCP 389 by default.
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP ) is an open, vendor-neutral, industry standard application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. Directory services play an important role in developing intranet and Internet applications by allowing the sharing of information about users, systems, networks, services, and applications throughout the network. As examples, directory services may provide any organized set of records, often with a hierarchical structure, such as a corporate email directory. Similarly, a telephone directory is a list of subscribers with an address and a phone number. LDAP is specified in a series of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Standard Track publications called Request for Comments (RFCs), using the description language ASN.1. The latest specification is Version 3, published as RFC 4511 (a road map to the technical specifications is provided by RFC4510). A common use of LDAP is to provide a central place to store usernames and passwords. This allows many different applications and services to connect to the LDAP server to validate users.LDAP is based on a simpler subset of the standards contained within the X.500 standard. Because of this relationship, LDAP is sometimes called X.500-lite.
Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaA customer is complaining that their laptop often restarts with no warning, most often when they are playing video games or have several programs running at once. What is most likely the issue?
Any computer can overheat, but laptops are compact and can easily overheat when the processor is stressed for long periods of time. Typically when a computer becomes too hot it will simply shut off without warning to prevent any physical damage to the computer.
Overheating is a phenomenon of rising temperatures in an electrical circuit. Overheating causes damage to the circuit components and can cause fire, explosion, and injury. Damage caused by overheating is usually irreversible; the only way to repair it is to replace some components.
Overheating_(electricity) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaTrue - failure of a single disk in RAID 1 will NOT result in permanent data loss. Redundant Array of Independent Disks 1 (RAID) uses disk mirroring to ensure every piece of data can also be found on another hard drive. This means if a single disk fails, another disk will still have the necessary data.
RAID (; "redundant array of inexpensive disks" or "redundant array of independent disks") is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical disk drive components into one or more logical units for the purposes of data redundancy, performance improvement, or both. This is in contrast to the previous concept of highly reliable mainframe disk drives referred to as "single large expensive disk" (SLED).Data is distributed across the drives in one of several ways, referred to as RAID levels, depending on the required level of redundancy and performance. The different schemes, or data distribution layouts, are named by the word "RAID" followed by a number, for example RAID 0 or RAID 1. Each scheme, or RAID level, provides a different balance among the key goals: reliability, availability, performance, and capacity. RAID levels greater than RAID 0 provide protection against unrecoverable sector read errors, as well as against failures of whole physical drives.
RAID - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaA customer is not able to connect to any websites. Which of the following commands should a technician run FIRST to identify the issue?
The IPCONFIG command will return a computer's network information such as IP Addresses. Using this tool you can determine if the computer has a proper IP Address.
ipconfig (standing for "Internet Protocol configuration") is a console application program of some computer operating systems that displays all current TCP/IP network configuration values and refreshes Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Domain Name System (DNS) settings.
Ipconfig - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaQuality of Service is a networking technique where certain types of traffic are given higher priority than less important traffic. Just like emergency vehicles are given priority on roads, business critical traffic is given higher priority than non-critical traffic.
Quality of service (QoS) is the description or measurement of the overall performance of a service, such as a telephony or computer network, or a cloud computing service, particularly the performance seen by the users of the network. To quantitatively measure quality of service, several related aspects of the network service are often considered, such as packet loss, bit rate, throughput, transmission delay, availability, jitter, etc. In the field of computer networking and other packet-switched telecommunication networks, quality of service refers to traffic prioritization and resource reservation control mechanisms rather than the achieved service quality. Quality of service is the ability to provide different priorities to different applications, users, or data flows, or to guarantee a certain level of performance to a data flow. Quality of service is particularly important for the transport of traffic with special requirements. In particular, developers have introduced Voice over IP technology to allow computer networks to become as useful as telephone networks for audio conversations, as well as supporting new applications with even stricter network performance requirements.
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