Certification Prep – The 20 Minute Workout

QUESTION – What is a router’s primary function on a network? (Choose all that apply – choose only the best answers). A.   Create the boundary of a Broadcast domain B.   Create the boundary of a Collision domain C.   Creates a network segment where it is the default gateway D.   Creates a network segment where it is the central network device on that segment E.   Responsible for Packet Switching on the network F.   Responsible for Path Selection on a network Answer and Explanation. The best answers for this question are A, C, E and F Choice A - Create the boundary of a Broadcast domain, is correct because routers are mainly responsible for creating the logical network division that we call a broadcast domain. For more information please see the Wikipedia article titled “ Broadcast Domain ”. Choice C - Creates a network segment where it is the default gateway, is a correct answer because routers are generally the default gateways for a network segment. For more inform

In my post from yesterday I had mentioned that I am going to be studying to take my Cisco CCNA 640-802 exam. I have a couple of text books I am going to be reviewing for research and study, I also have access to a couple of CCNA video training suites that I will be using.  One of the titles I am going to be reviewing is Train Signal’s Cisco CCNA Training . I am going to be doing this training on my train ride to work so it is nice to have it available to view offline and when I am not connected to the internet. I’ll give you a quick overview of the product now and some more of a detailed review once I’ve had the chance to review most of it. So according to the marking material on the Train Signal’s Cisco CCNA Training page – “In 3 Days or Less, You'll Learn How To Install, Operate, and Troubleshoot a Small to Medium Enterprise Branch Network... And Have the Knowledge to Pass the Cisco CCNA 640-802 Exam... Guaranteed!” The immediate additional information there also inc

QUESTION – What are the three core principles of information security? A. Confidentiality B. Non-repudiation C. Authenticity D. Availability E. Integrity F. Identity G. Risk management Check back tomorrow for the answer and explanation of today’s question.

QUESTION – What is a router’s primary function on a network? (Choose all that apply – choose only the best answers). A.   Create the boundary of a Broadcast domain B.   Create the boundary of a Collision domain C.   Creates a network segment where it is the default gateway D.   Creates a network segment where it is the central network device E.   Responsible for Packet Switching on the network F.   Responsible for Path Selection on a network Check back tomorrow for the answer and explanation of today’s question.

Hi Gang. I’ll have a little more to write about some of the additional changes you’re going to be seeing in the site but briefly, one of the ways I have personally found that it is easiest for me to learn something new or to brush up on something I am out of practice on is to research the information and write articles on the theory of a topic. This is just one piece of training that works for me. I still need to do the hands-on practical part and in some cases, especially for new and emerging technologies, take instructional courses. As such and as part of my studying for my CCNA 640-802 exam, I’ll be publishing Question of the Day questions on this site. They’ll be as much a review for you the reader and they will be for me the blogger. You can expect to see these questions starting tomorrow. I will be intermixing them with the other QOTD for the CompTIA and Windows 7 topics. On the topic of instructional courses, these come in many “flavors.” Computer based training, online in

The Microsoft Certification team recently announced a new set of exam retirements that are planned for this upcoming March 2011. The review process for exams is an ongoing one and as new exams are introduced the older exams are either revised or discontinued. Below is a list of exams retiring on March 31, 2011 as listed on the Microsoft Learning website . Exams retiring on March 31, 2011 Implementing and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003    Exam 70-284 Designing a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Organization Exam 70-285 TS: Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server 2006, Configuring  Exam 70-351 TS: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0, Implementing and Managing    Exam 70-500 TS: Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server Exam 70-510 TS: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 – Application Development Exam 70-540

QUESTION – You are the network administrator for your company. There is a problem with clients connecting to your news server and you believe it is an issue with the way the protocol has been configured. Which protocol would you need to check to verify the settings? A.   NTP B.   NNTP C.   SNMP D.   SMTP E.   TCP/IP    Answer and Explanation. B is the correct answer – NNTP is the Network News Transfer Protocol and it is the primary protocol that is used to connect news servers to networks and allows clients to access them. For additional information please see the Wikipedia article titled “Network News Transfer Protocol” Choice “A” is the Network Time Protocol which is used to keep time on computer systems synchronized. For additional information please see the Wikipedia article titled “ Network Time Protocol .” Choice “C” is the Simple Network Management Protocol which is used for managing devices on TCP/IP networks. For additional information please s

Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7 and for Windows Server 2008 R2 is now available. SP1 for Windows 7 and for Windows Server 2008 R2 is a recommended collection of updates and improvements to Windows that are combined into a single installable update. The Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 update also provides a comprehensive set of innovations for enterprise-class virtualization. This includes new virtualization capabilities with Dynamic Memory and Microsoft RemoteFX. Consumer end-users can find general information about Windows 7 SP1 at the Service Pack Center Website Windows 7 Service Pack 1 can be downloaded directly from the Microsoft website Windows 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 can be downloaded directly from the Microsoft website Documentation for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 is available via KB976932 Additional details regarding Windows 7 Service Pack 1 are available on the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 page Additional details regarding Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1

For Exam 70-680 TS: Windows 7, Configuring you’ll need to make sure you have a good, solid understanding of all of the skills measured. This will need to be a combination of academic knowledge of the subject matter and real world experience. The first domain is “Perform a clean installation” and the first set of knowledge to have is “Identifying hardware requirements.” In Exam 70-680 TS: Windows 7, Configuring - Perform a clean installation - Identifying hardware requirements (PART 1) we reviewed some of these requirements and we’ll continue with some additional ones with this installment including reviewing some of the details of each of the different editions of Windows 7 Each of the different editions of Windows 7 supports different features and you’ll need to have at least cursory knowledge of this topic for the exam. This will allow you to pick the specific edition of Windows 7 that you need for an installation for a given scenario. Windows 7 Starter Edition Windows

QUESTION – You are the network administrator for your company. There is a problem with clients connecting to your news server and you believe it is an issue with the way the protocol has been configured. Which protocol would you need to check to verify the settings? A.   NTP B.   NNTP C.   SNMP D.   SMTP E.   TCP/IP   Check back tomorrow for the answer and explanation of today’s question.

QUESTION – Which of the following are examples of a male serial connection? (Choose all that apply). A.    B.     C.     D.    E.    F.    G.      Answer and Explanation: The correct answers for this question are choices A and C. “A” represents a D-sub 9 Connector which is commonly used in serial ports (RS-232). See D-sub 9 Connector Pinout for additional information. “C” represents a D-sub 25 Connector which is also used in serial ports (RS-232). See RS232 serial cables pinout for additional information “B” represents a parallel port input also known as a printer port or Centronics port. The IEEE 1284 standard defines the bi-directional version of the port, which allows the transmission and reception of data bits at the same time. For more information please see the Wikipedia post “parallel port” “D” in the D-sub 9 female connector. Please see “D-sub 9 Connector” for more information. “E” is the Super Video Graphics Array (SVGA) female input that

So training and certification are always the double edged sword for both the employer and the employee. Let's start with the employer. So as an employer, you want to keep your technical folks as up to speed as possible. As technologies change you want your team to keep pace. To do that you have to arrange for formalized training or just hope they are going to learn it on their own. It is almost always better to at least allow for the team leads to get the formal training and pass down the information on the job to the junior staff. You do need to include some of the junior staff as well so that they feel like they are getting some direct benefit from the classes as well. Some of the issues that come with training are the cost of the training itself, who gets to go (as often not everyone can go and not everyone is of the skill level to get the most out of the training), how to arrange the coverage at work (time off) for those attending the class and so on. All of this is perpetual t

As part of your effort to take the 70-680 Exam for Windows 7 you’ll need to make sure you have a good, solid understanding of all of the skills measured. This will need to be a combination of academic knowledge of the subject matter and real world experience. The exam itself is intended for technicians and desktop administrators that have at least one year of experience working with the most recent desktop operating system (Vista). You will also need to have about one year of experience implementing and administering systems in a networked environment. The first domain is “Perform a clean installation” and the first set of knowledge to have is “Identifying hardware requirements.” What this means is that you need to understand the base, primary system requirements for Windows 7 which are: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit) 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or

QUESTION - You are a desktop engineer for your company which is configured as a single Active Directory domain running Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controllers. Desktop systems in use include Windows XP running service pack 3 and Windows Vista. You have been working on a service request to install Windows 7 Professional on a workstation in a dual boot configuration with Windows Vista Business edition. You have completed the Windows 7 installation but you want Windows Vista to be booted by default. What should you do? (Choose the best, single answer). A. Use the Bcdedit.exe command line tool to specify the /default parameter. B. Use the Bootcfg.exe command line tool to specify the /default parameter. C. Use the Bootcfg.exe command line tool to specify the /Addsw parameter. D. Edit the boot.ini file in the root of the Windows 7 partition so that Windows Vista is booted by default. E. Edit the boot.ini file in the root of the C:\ partition so that Windows Vista is booted by default. F.

QUESTION – Which of the following are examples of a male serial connection? (Choose all that apply).   A.      B.       C.       D.          E.      F.      G.        Check back tomorrow for the answer and explanation of today’s question.

QUESTION - You are a desktop engineer for your company which is configured as a single Active Directory domain running Windows Server 2008 R2 domain controllers. Desktop systems in use include Windows XP running service pack 3 and Windows Vista. You have been working on a service request to install Windows 7 Professional on a workstation in a dual boot configuration with Windows Vista Business edition. You have completed the Windows 7 installation but you want Windows Vista to be booted by default. What should you do? (Choose the best, single answer). A. Use the Bcdedit.exe command line tool to specify the /default parameter. B. Use the Bootcfg.exe command line tool to specify the /default parameter. C. Use the Bootcfg.exe command line tool to specify the /Addsw parameter. D. Edit the boot.ini file in the root of the Windows 7 partition so that Windows Vista is booted by default. E. Edit the boot.ini file in the root of the C:\ partition so that Windows Vista is boot

http://www.professormesser.com/ is a website I recently came across that provides quality technology information and training, including specialized training courses for CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+, Microsoft Windows 7 and Nmap. While there is some charge for some of the content (in the “paid for” section) there is an abundance on the site that is made available for zero cost. There is training for CompTIA A+ as well as Network+ and there is the “ Professor Messer’s Free Microsoft 70-680 Certification Training ” that as of mid February boasts “ 32 Videos (and counting!) – Total Running Time: 10 hours, 8 minutes” worth of free content. I am going to be reviewing some of the free training and I will give a review of some of what I see but I can tell you, from what I’ve seen so far it is an awesome resource to put in your personal training arsenal. Some of the videos fall right into line with some of my original written 70-680 posts; as I reboot the site and refine some of that content

As part of putting the site back online and going back to the originally planned posting schedule, The Certification Question of the Day is going to be making its return. I did this in the past for the CompTIA A+ Exam certification questions and because of the number of request for it, I am going to be returning them as well as questions for the CCNA certification exam, the Network+ certification exam, the Windows 7 70-680 exam and the Security+ exam. If there are other exams that you might be interested in seeing QOFD for please let me know. As I did prior, I will put “QOTD” in the category field for easier searching here on the site as well as the certification it applies to (e.g. “CompTIA A+” or “70-680” – etc.) A day after a post, I will repost the question with the accompanying answer. Thanks again for all the input – keep it coming.