Certification Prep – The 20 Minute Workout

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...

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 devi...

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....

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...