A+ Certification

Front 1

What is LDAP?

Back 1

LDAP stands for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. It allows a system to remotely access directories using a network. Example: Windows uses LDAP when working with an Active Directory domain.

Front 2

What is SNMP?

Back 2

SNMP stands for Simple Network Management Protocol. Enables remote querying and configuration of network devices.

Front 3

What is SMB?

Back 3

SMB stands for Server Message Block. A network file and printer sharing protocol. Used most commonly by LAN file servers. Originated on Windows but is now widely supported.

Front 4

What is AFP?

Back 4

AFP stands for Apple Filing Protocol. A file transfer protocol used by Macintosh systems to share and back up files over a network.

Front 5

What is CIFS?

Back 5

CIFS stands for Common Internet File System. It is used to share files across a public or private network (including the Internet). It is an enhanced version of SMB.

Front 6

What is IMEI?

Back 6

IMEI stands for International Mobile Equipment Identity. It is a15-digit number that uniquely identifies the hardware of a mobile device.

Front 7

What is ICCID?

Back 7

ICCDI stands for Integrated Circuit Card IDentifier. It is used to uniquely identify a mobile device's SIM card.

Front 8

What is IMSI?

Back 8

IMSI stands for International Mobile Subscriber Identity. It is used to identify the user who a mobile device's SIM card belongs to.

Front 9

What is the difference between IMEI, ICCID, and IMSI?

Back 9

IMEI is the Equipment Identity, versus the IMSI being the Subscriber Identity. The ICCID is the Circuit Card ID and identifies the SIM card.

The IMEI is stored on the mobile device while the IMSI and ICCID are stored on the SIM card.

Front 10

What port is HTTP on?

Back 10

Port 80.

Front 11

What port is HTTPS on?

Back 11

Port 443.

Front 12

What port is FTP on and what protocol does it use?

Back 12

Ports 20 and 21 over TCP.

Front 13

What port is SFTP on?

Back 13

Port 22.

Hint 13

SFTP wraps an FTP transfer with an SSH tunnel.

Front 14

What port is IMAP on?

Back 14

Port 143.

Front 15

What port is POP3 on?

Back 15

Port 110.

Front 16

What port is SMTP on?

Back 16

Port 25.

Front 17

What port is Telnet on?

Back 17

Port 23.

Front 18

What port is SSH on?

Back 18

Port 22.

Front 19

What port is RDP on?

Back 19

Port 3389.

Front 20

What port is SIP on?

Back 20

Port 5060.

Front 21

What port is DNS on and what protocol does it use?

Back 21

Port 53 over UDP.

Front 22

What port is DHCP on and what protocol does it use?

Back 22

Ports 67 and 68, both over UDP.

Front 23

What port is LDAP on and what protocol does it use?

Back 23

Port 389 over TCP.

Front 24

What port is SNMP on and what protocol does it use?

Back 24

Port 161 over UDP.

Front 25

What port is SMB on and what protocol does it use?

Back 25

Port 445 over TCP, in addition to ports 137, 138, and 139 over UDP.

Front 26

What port is AFP on and what protocol does it use?

Back 26

Ports 548 and 427, both over TCP.

Front 27

What are the main components of a Laser Printer?

Back 27

1) Toner Cartridge - Contains the electrically-sensitive ink.

2) Imaging Drum - Holds a negatively-charged surface coating. Hit by the laser to selectively remove the negative charge in the shape of the image.

3) Erase Lamp - Removes all charge from the drum in order to reset it before being charged again.

4) Primary Corona/Charge Roller - Charges the drum so that it may have an image imprinted on it by the laser.

5) Laser - Imprints the image temporarily onto the drum.

6) Toner

7) Transfer Corona/Roller

8) Fuser Assembly - "Fuses" the toner ink into the paper after application.

9) Power Supply

10) Gear Assembly

11) System Board

12) Ozone Filter - Protects the system from corrosion by removing ozone (a by-product of the corona roller).

13) Sensors and Switches

Front 28

What is TWAIN?

Back 28

TWAIN stands for Technology Without An Interesting Name. It is, in part, the default driver for scanners.

Front 29

What are the seven steps of the laser printing process?

Back 29

1) Processing

2) Charging

3) Exposing

4) Developing

5) Transferring

6) Fusing

7) Cleaning

Front 30

Which power standard uses the P1 connector?

Back 30

The original ATX standard.

Hint 30

The P1 is a 20-pin motherboard connector.

Front 31

Which power standard introduced the P4 connector?

Back 31

The ATX12V 1.3 standard.

Hint 31

The P4 connector is used to supply extra 12V power to a system.

Front 32

What is the P4 power connector?

Back 32

The P4 is a 4-pin power connector used to supply additional 12V power to a motherboard beyond what the P1 can supply.

Front 33

What is the AUX power connector?

Back 33

The AUX power connector is a 6-pin connector used to supply extra 3.3V and 5V power to the motherboard. It is a flat connector with a clip.

Front 34

What is the purpose of having multiple rails in a power supply?

Back 34

Generally, extra 12V rails are added to provide for a larger power draw (more amps) than a single rail can provide.

Front 35

Which power standard introduced the 24-pin power connector?

Back 35

The EPS12V standard first introduced the 24-pin power connector for servers, and the ATX12V standard later incorporated it for desktop computers.

Front 36

What power supply wattage requires the use of at least two 12V rails?

Back 36

230W or higher, as required by the ATX12V 2.0 standard.

Front 37

What names does the 8-pin power connector go under?

Back 37

Any of: EPS12V, EATX12V, or ATX12V 2x4.

Front 38

What is the difference between an 8-pin power connector and an 8-pin PCIe power connector?

Back 38

The former is used to provide extra power to the motherboard, while the latter is used for power-hungry peripherals, such as video cards.

Front 39

What pin counts are available in PCIe power connectors?

Back 39

Both 6-pin and 8-pin connectors are available.

Front 40

What is Active PFC?

Back 40

Active PFC stands for Active Power Factor Correction. It is a feature of most computer power supplies which smooths out any harmful noise (known as harmonics) in the wall socket power.

Front 41

What two voltages does a Molex connector provide?

Back 41

5V on the red wire, and 12V on the yellow wire.

Front 42

How many pins does a SATA power connector have?

Back 42

15 pins.

Front 43

What are the 5 main subgroups of the Windows Registry and what purpose do they serve?

Back 43

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT - Stores the class object definitions for Windows class objects.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER - Stores the current user settings and customizations.

HKEY_USERS - Stores all user settings and customizations.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE - Stores non-user-specific device and program configuration info.

HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG - Defines which value present in a HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key (if multiple exist) is currently active.

Front 44

What data types can be stored in Windows Registry keys?

Back 44

Strings, Binary values, 32-bit DWORDs, and 64-bit QWORDs.

Front 45

What is the maximum length for a SATA cable?

Back 45

1 meter.

Front 46

What is the maximum length for an eSATA cable?

Back 46

2 meters.

Front 47

What is the maximum length for a PATA cable?

Back 47

18 inches.

Front 48

What are the raw cable throughput speeds, and maximum transfer speeds for SATA versions 1.0 through 3.2?

Back 48

The raw cable throughputs are advertised in Giga bits per second, while the transfer speeds are slightly lower after overhead from the encoding scheme and are listed in Mega Bytes per second.

SATA 1.0 has a throughput of 1.5 Gbps and a transfer speed of 150 MBps.

SATA 2.0 has a throughput of 3 Gbps and a transfer speed of 300 MBps.

SATA 3.0 has a throughput of 6 Gbps and a transfer speed of 600 MBps.

SATA 3.2 has a throughput of 16 Gbps and a transfer speed of 1969 MBps.

Front 49

What is the maximum number of devices supported by a USB host controller?

Back 49

Up to 127 devices are supported. There will almost never be enough physical ports to reach this limit.

Front 50

What dimensions are laptop ExpressCards available in?

Back 50

34 mm and 54 mm versions. Both are 75 mm long and 5 mm thick.

Front 51

What busses can laptop ExpressCards connect to on the motherboard? What maximum speeds are these rated for?

Back 51

They can connect through either the USB 2.0 bus at 480 Mbps, or the PCIe bus at 2.5 Gbps.

Front 52

What are the four most common Wi-Fi encryption standards?

Back 52

WEP - Wired Equivalent Privacy

WPA - Wi-Fi Protected Access

WPA2 - Wi-Fi Protected Access 2

WPS - Wi-Fi Protected Setup

Front 53

Which Wi-Fi encryption standard offers the strongest protection?

Back 53

WPA2 is the strongest encryption available and should always be used when possible.

Front 54

What are the 5 Wi-Fi standards?

Back 54

In order of introduction date:

802.11b

802.11a

802.11g

802.11n

802.11ac

A useful mnemonic for this is: BagNac

Front 55

Which 802.11 Wi-Fi standard(s) use the 5 GHz band?

Back 55

802.11a, 802.11n, and 802.11ac.

Front 56

Which 802.11 Wi-Fi standard(s) use the 2.4 GHz band?

Back 56

802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n.

Front 57

Which 802.11 Wi-Fi standard(s) use both the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands?

Back 57

802.11n and 802.11ac use both bands.

Front 58

How should a newly-installed serial port be configured?

Back 58

Eight data bits, no parity, one stop bit.

Front 59

What are the different motherboard form factors, in order of largest to smallest?

Back 59

AT (legacy)

ATX - 12 by 9.6 inches

microATX - 9.6 by 9.6 inches

FlexATX (discontinued) - 9 by 7.5 inches

Mini-ITX - 6.7 by 6.7 inches

Nano-ITX - 4.7 by 4.7 inches

Pico-ITX - 3.8 by 2.8 inches

Front 60

What is the purpose of a subnet mask?

Back 60

Any bits that are set in a subnet mask belong to the network, and any bits that are not set belong to the host (the computer).

Front 61

What defines each of the traditional lettered subnet classes? (Classes A through C)

Back 61

Class A has a subnet mask of 255.0.0.0 and a first octet between 1-126 (0 high bits set).

Class B has a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0 and a first octet between 128-191 (1 high bit set).

Class C has a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and a first octet between 192-223 (2 high bits set).

Class D has a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and a first octet between 224-239 (3 high bits set).

Class E has a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and a first octet between 240-254 (all 4 high bits set).

The higher the class, the more host addresses are available for use. Classes D and E are reserved for special use cases.

Front 62

What is CIDR?

Back 62

CIDR stands for Classless Inter-Domain Routing. It is the successor to traditional lettered subnet classes and allows for arbitrary quantity of 1's in a subnet mask. Subnets are classified according to the number of 1's in the subnet mask.

Example: A /20 is a subnet with a mask of 11111111.11111111.11110000.00000000.

Front 63

What connector(s) would you find on a coaxial cable used for internet access?

Back 63

Either a BNC or F-type connector.

Front 64

What is APIPA?

Back 64

APIPA stands for Automatic Private IP Addressing. It is used to assign a local IP address to a Windows machine when no DHCP server can be found. It is intended to allow Windows machines to communicate over an ad-hoc network.

Front 65

What is the boot sequence for a PC?

Back 65

1) Power good

2) CPU

3) POST

4) Boot loader

5) Operating system

Front 66

What is the difference between a network Hub and Switch?

Back 66

A hub broadcasts data to every other connected device, while a switch forwards data only to the correct device.

Front 67

What resolution does WUXGA support?

Back 67

1920x1200.

Front 68

What is the Windows shortcut to permanently delete a file or folder (bypassing the Recycle Bin)?

Back 68

Shift + Delete.

Front 69

What are the minimum hardware requirements for Windows 7?

Back 69

For 32-bit Windows 7:

- 1 GHz Processor

- 1 GB RAM

- 16 GB HD space

For 64-bit Windows 7:

- 1 GHz Processor

- 2 GB RAM

- 20 GB HD space

Front 70

What are the minimum hardware requirements for Windows Vista?

Back 70

- 800 MHz Processor

- 512 MB RAM

- 15 GB HD space

Front 71

What is UNC?

Back 71

UNC stands for Universal Naming Convention. It is used to reference resources on a network with the convention: \\server_name\resource_name

Front 72

What is the SYSPREP command-line utility?

Back 72

SYSPREP is used to prepare Windows system images for deployment to other machines.

Front 73

What is the difference between Remote Desktop and Remote Assistance?

Back 73

Remote Assistance requires an invitation by the user, while Remote Desktop does not.

Front 74

Which version of Windows introduced Windows Defender?

Back 74

Windows 7.

Front 75

How do you determine the DDR "rating" of a stick of RAM given the clock speed in MHz?

Back 75

Multiply the clock speed by 8. This is because 8 bytes of data are transferred during each clock cycle.

Front 76

What is the difference between an RJ-11 and RJ-45 connector?

Back 76

RJ-11 is used for phone lines, while RJ-45 is used for ethernet.

Front 77

What is the original data rate for a CD-ROM drive?

Back 77

150 KBps. Newer drives are rated in multiples of this speed for reading, writing, and re-writing.

Front 78

What does a yellow light mean on an NIC? What does a green light mean?

Back 78

Green generally means the NIC is properly connected.

Yellow generally means there are collisions on the network.

Front 79

What are the different Bluetooth classes? How much power does each class use, and how far does each class reach?

Back 79

Class 1 uses 100 mW and can reach up to 100 meters.

Class 2 uses 2.5 mW and can reach up to 10 meters.

Class 3 uses 1 mW and can reach up to 1 meter.

Front 80

What hardware component is required to use BitLocker?

Back 80

The system needs a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip on the motherboard.

Front 81

What are the minimum number of volumes required to use BitLocker?

Back 81

2 volumes. At a minimum, there must be an unencrypted volume used to decrypt the primary volume.

Front 82

What are the six steps of the A+ troubleshooting methodology?

Back 82

1) Identify the problem.

2) Establish a theory of probable cause.

3) Test the theory.

4) Establish a plan of action to resolve the problem.

5) Verify the solution works and implement any appropriate preventative measures.

6) Document findings, actions, and outcomes.

Front 83

How many pins does each version of full-sized DIMM DDR memory have?

Back 83

DDR1 - 184 pins.

DDR2 - 240 pins.

DDR3 - 240 pins.

DDR4 - 288 pins.

Front 84

What is the formula for calculating the transfer rate of a DDR memory module given a name such as DDR-200?

Back 84

The 200 in the name is how many MHz (or Megatransfers per second) the module is rated for. Because a module transfers 8 bytes at a time, you multiply that number by 8.

200 MHz * 8 bytes = 1600 MB/s. The module may also be named PC-1600.

Front 85

What are the maximum storage capacities for each of the three Secure Digital formats?

Back 85

SD: Up to 4 GB.

SDHC: Up to 32 GB.

SDXC: Up to 2 TB.

Front 86

How many pins does each version of Small Outline (SODIMM) DDR memory have?

Back 86

DDR - 200 pins.

DDR2 - 200 pins.

DDR3 - 204 pins.

DDR4 - 260 pins.

Front 87

What is the colored wire layout for the T568A standard?

Back 87

White/Green

Green

White/Orange

Blue

White/Blue

Orange

White/Brown

Brown

Front 88

What is the colored wire layout for the T568B standard?

Back 88

White/Orange

Orange

White/Green

Blue

White/Blue

Green

White/Brown

Brown

Front 89

What are the three Private IP Address ranges?

Back 89

10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255 or 10.0.0.0/8

172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255 or 172.16.0.0/12

192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255 or 192.168.0.0/16