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CompTIA A+ 220-801 and 220-802 Exam Cram, 6th Edition

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CompTIA A+ 220-801 and 220-802 Exam Cram, 6th Edition

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  • Copyright 2013
  • Dimensions: 6" x 9"
  • Edition: 6th
  • eBook (Watermarked)
  • ISBN-10: 0-13-304822-5
  • ISBN-13: 978-0-13-304822-3

Prepare for CompTIA A+ 220-801 and 220-802 exam success with this CompTIA Exam Cram from Pearson IT Certification, a leader in IT Certification learning and a CompTIA Approved Platinum Partner.

This is the eBook version of the print title. Note that the eBook does not provide access to the practice test software that accompanies the print book. Access to the digital edition of the Cram Sheet is available through product registration at Pearson IT Certification; or see instructions in back pages of your eBook.


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CompTIA® A+ 220-801 and 220-802 Exam Cram, Sixth Edition is the perfect study guide to help you pass CompTIA’s A+ 220-801 and 220-802 exam. It provides coverage and practice questions for every exam topic, including substantial new coverage of Windows 7, new PC hardware, tablets, smartphones, and professional-level networking and security. The book presents you with an organized test preparation routine through the use of proven series elements and techniques. Exam topic lists make referencing easy. Exam Alerts, Sidebars, and Notes interspersed throughout the text keep you focused on what you need to know. Cram Quizzes help you assess your knowledge, and the Cram Sheet tear card is the perfect last minute review.

Covers the critical information you’ll need to know to score higher on your CompTIA A+ 220-801 and 220-802 exams!

  • Deploy and administer desktops and notebooks running Windows 7, Vista, or XP
  • Understand, install, and troubleshoot motherboards, processors, and memory
  • Test and troubleshoot power-related problems
  • Use all forms of storage, including new Blu-ray and Solid State (SSD) devices
  • Work effectively with mobile devices, including tablets and smartphones
  • Install, configure, and troubleshoot both visible and internal laptop components
  • Configure Windows components and applications, use Windows administrative tools, and optimize Windows systems
  • Repair damaged Windows environments and boot errors
  • Work with audio and video subsystems, I/O devices, and the newest peripherals
  • Install and manage both local and network printers
  • Configure IPv4 and understand TCP/IP protocols and IPv6 changes
  • Install and configure SOHO wired/wireless networks and troubleshoot connectivity
  • Implement secure authentication, prevent malware attacks, and protect data

David L. Prowse is an author, computer network specialist, and technical trainer. Over the past several years he has authored several titles for Pearson Education, including the well-received CompTIA A+ Exam Cram and CompTIA Security+ Cert Guide. As a consultant, he installs and secures the latest in computer and networking technology. He runs the website www.davidlprowse.com, where he gladly answers questions from students and readers.

Sample Content

Table of Contents

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Target Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

About the CompTIA A+ 220-801 and 220-802 Exams. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

About This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

    Chapter Format and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

    Additional Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

    The Hands-On Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

    Goals for This Book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Exam Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

The Six-Step A+ Troubleshooting Process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

    Step 1: Identify the Problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

    Step 2: Establish a Theory of Probable Cause (Question the Obvious) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

    Step 3: Test the Theory to Determine Cause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

    Step 4: Establish a Plan of Action to Resolve the Problem and Implement the Solution. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 12

    Step 5: Verify Full System Functionality and if Applicable Implement Preventative Measures . . . . .. . . . . 12

    Step 6: Document Findings, Actions, and Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . 13

    Cram Quiz Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Troubleshooting Examples and PC Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

    Troubleshooting Example 1: Display Issue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

    Troubleshooting Example 2: Power Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

    PC Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

    Some More Troubleshooting Tidbits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

CHAPTER 2: Motherboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Motherboard Components and Form Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

    Motherboard Components. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

    Form Factors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

The BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

    BIOS, CMOS, and the Lithium Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

    The POST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

    Accessing and Configuring the BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

    Flashing the BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Installing and Troubleshooting Motherboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

    Installing Motherboards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

    Troubleshooting Motherboards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

CHAPTER 3: The CPU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

CPU 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

    CPU Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

    Cooling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Installing and Troubleshooting CPUs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

    Installing CPUs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

    Troubleshooting CPUs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

CHAPTER 4: RAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

RAM Basics and Types of RAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

    RAM Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

    Types of RAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

    RAM Technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Installing and Troubleshooting DRAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

    Installing DRAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

    Troubleshooting DRAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

CHAPTER 5: Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Understanding and Testing Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

    Testing an AC Outlet with a Receptacle Tester . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

    Testing an AC Outlet with a Multimeter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Power Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

    Power Strips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

    Surge Protectors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

    Uninterruptible Power Supplies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Power Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

    Planning Which Power Supply to Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

    Installing the Power Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

    Troubleshooting Power Supply Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

    Heating and Cooling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

CHAPTER 6: Storage Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Magnetic Storage Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

    Hard Disk Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

    Floppy Disk Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

    Tape Drives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Optical Storage Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

    Compact Disc (CD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

    Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

    Blu-ray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Solid-State Storage Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

    Solid-State Drives. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

    USB Flash Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

    Secure Digital Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

    CompactFlash Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

CHAPTER 7: Laptops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Installing, Configuring, and Troubleshooting Visible Laptop Components . . . . . . . . . . 180

    Laptop 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

    Input Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

    Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

    Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

    Optical Discs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

    Fans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

    Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

    Expansion Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

    Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Installing, Configuring, and Troubleshooting Internal Laptop Components . . .  . . . . 205

    Hard Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

    Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

    System Board and CPU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

CHAPTER 8: Installing and Upgrading Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Installing and Upgrading to Windows 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

    Windows 7 Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

    Windows 7 Minimum Requirements and Compatibility . . . . . . . 215

    Windows 7 Installation Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

    Installing Windows 7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

    Upgrading to Windows 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

    Verifying and Troubleshooting Windows 7 Installations . . . . . . . 223

Installing and Upgrading to Windows Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

    Windows Vista Versions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

    Windows Vista Minimum Requirements and Compatibility. . . . . 230

    Windows Vista Installation Methods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

    Upgrading to Windows Vista . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

    Verifying and Troubleshooting Windows Vista Installations . . . . 231

Installing and Upgrading to Windows XP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

    Windows XP Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

    Windows XP Minimum Requirements and Compatibility. . . . . . 237

    Verifying and Troubleshooting Windows XP Installations. . . . . . 238

CHAPTER 9: Configuring Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . 241

Windows User Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

    Windows Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

    Windows Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

    Administrative Tools and the MMC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

System Tools and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

    Managing Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

    Operating System Optimization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

    User Migrations and Customizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

    Advanced System Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Files, File Systems, and Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

    Working with Files and File Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

    Managing Disks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

CHAPTER 10: Maintaining Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Updating Windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

    Service Packs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

    Windows Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Maintaining Hard Disks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

    Hard Disk Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

    Backups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

    Using Windows XP’s NTBackup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

    Creating Restore Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

    Shadow Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

CHAPTER 11: Troubleshooting Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Repair Environments and Boot Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

    Windows Repair Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

    Boot Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Windows Tools and Errors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

    Troubleshooting Within Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

    Stop Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

    Improper and Spontaneous Shutdowns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

    Additional Windows Errors and Error Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . 340

    Restoring Windows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Command-Line Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

    Windows Command Prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

    Recovery Command Prompt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

CHAPTER 12: Video and Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

The Video Subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

    Video Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

    Video Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

    Video Settings and Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

The Audio Subsystem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

    Sound Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

    Installing a Sound Card and Speakers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

    Audio Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

CHAPTER 13: Peripherals and Custom Computing . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . 387

Input/Output, Input Devices, and Peripherals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

    I/O Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

    Input Devices and Peripherals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Custom PC Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

    Audio/Video Editing Workstation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

    CAD/CAM Workstation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

    Virtualization Workstation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

    Thin and Thick Clients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

    Home Server PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

    Home Theater PC (HTPC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403

    Gaming PC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

CHAPTER 14: Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407

Printer Types and Technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

    Types of Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

    Local Versus Network Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Installing, Configuring, and Troubleshooting Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

    Printer Installation and Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

    Configuring Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

    Troubleshooting Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422

CHAPTER 15: Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Types of Networks and Network Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

    Network Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

    Network Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

    Network Topologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

Cables, Connectors, and Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

    Cable Types and Connectors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

    Cabling Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

TCP/IP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

    Configuring IPv4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

    IPv4 Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

    Configuring IPv6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

    TCP/IP Protocols and Their Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454

SOHO Windows Networking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

    Internet Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

    Router Setup and Wireless . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

    Windows Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

Troubleshooting Networks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

    Command-Line Interface Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

    Troubleshooting Common Symptoms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490

CHAPTER 16: Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . 497

Security Threats and Prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

    Malicious Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

    Preventing and Troubleshooting Malicious Software . . . . . . . . . 499

    Unauthorized Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506

    Social Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509

    Hard Drive Recycling and Disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510

Windows Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514

    User Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514

    File Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520

    Encryption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

    Windows Firewall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

SOHO Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

    Changing Default Passwords. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

    Changing and Disabling the SSID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

    Configuring Wireless Encryption. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532

    Enabling MAC Filtering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

    Disabling WPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

    Assigning Static IP Addresses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

    Disabling Physical Ports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

    Final Word on SOHO Routers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

CHAPTER 17: Mobile Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

Mobile Hardware and Operating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540

    Mobile Hardware Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540

    Hardware Differences Between Tablets and Laptops . . . . . . . . . 541

    Mobile Operating Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

    Obtaining Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

    Screen Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

    GPS and Geotracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

Mobile Networking and Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

    GSM Cellular Connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

    Wi-Fi Network Connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

    Wi-Fi Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554

    Bluetooth Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 556

    Bluetooth Troubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

    E-Mail Configurations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

    Troubleshooting E-mail Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562

    Synchronizing an Android Device to a PC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 562

    Synchronizing an iPad2 to a PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564

    Synchronizing Other Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 566

Mobile Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569

    Stolen and Lost Devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569

    Compromised and Damaged Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572

    Stopping Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575

    Initiating Resets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577

CHAPTER 18: Safety, Procedures, and Professionalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581

Safety. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582

    Electrical Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 582

    Electrical Fire Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583

    ESD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584

    Physical Safety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587

Procedures and Environmental Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590

    Temperature, Humidity, and Air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590

    EMI and RFI. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591

    MSDS and Disposal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591

    Incident Response and Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593

Professionalism and Communication Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596

CHAPTER 19: Taking the Real Exams. . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . 601

Getting Ready and the Exam Preparation Checklist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602

Tips for Taking the Real Exam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604

    General Practices for Taking Exams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605

    Smart Methods for Difficult Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607

    Wrapping Up the Exam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608

Beyond the CompTIA A+ Certification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608

Practice Exam 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 611

    Answers at a Glance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 630

    Answers with Explanations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631

Practice Exam 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651

    Answers at a Glance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 672

    Answers with Explanations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 673

Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 697

Updates

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Pearson Education, Inc., 221 River Street, Hoboken, New Jersey 07030, (Pearson) presents this site to provide information about Pearson IT Certification products and services that can be purchased through this site.

This privacy notice provides an overview of our commitment to privacy and describes how we collect, protect, use and share personal information collected through this site. Please note that other Pearson websites and online products and services have their own separate privacy policies.

Collection and Use of Information


To conduct business and deliver products and services, Pearson collects and uses personal information in several ways in connection with this site, including:

Questions and Inquiries

For inquiries and questions, we collect the inquiry or question, together with name, contact details (email address, phone number and mailing address) and any other additional information voluntarily submitted to us through a Contact Us form or an email. We use this information to address the inquiry and respond to the question.

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Occasionally, we may sponsor a contest or drawing. Participation is optional. Pearson collects name, contact information and other information specified on the entry form for the contest or drawing to conduct the contest or drawing. Pearson may collect additional personal information from the winners of a contest or drawing in order to award the prize and for tax reporting purposes, as required by law.

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On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we might send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account information. However, these communications are not promotional in nature.

Customer Service

We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regard to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone in accordance with the users' wishes when a user submits their information through our Contact Us form.

Other Collection and Use of Information


Application and System Logs

Pearson automatically collects log data to help ensure the delivery, availability and security of this site. Log data may include technical information about how a user or visitor connected to this site, such as browser type, type of computer/device, operating system, internet service provider and IP address. We use this information for support purposes and to monitor the health of the site, identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents and appropriately scale computing resources.

Web Analytics

Pearson may use third party web trend analytical services, including Google Analytics, to collect visitor information, such as IP addresses, browser types, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on a particular site. While these analytical services collect and report information on an anonymous basis, they may use cookies to gather web trend information. The information gathered may enable Pearson (but not the third party web trend services) to link information with application and system log data. Pearson uses this information for system administration and to identify problems, improve service, detect unauthorized access and fraudulent activity, prevent and respond to security incidents, appropriately scale computing resources and otherwise support and deliver this site and its services.

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This site uses cookies and similar technologies to personalize content, measure traffic patterns, control security, track use and access of information on this site, and provide interest-based messages and advertising. Users can manage and block the use of cookies through their browser. Disabling or blocking certain cookies may limit the functionality of this site.

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This site currently does not respond to Do Not Track signals.

Security


Pearson uses appropriate physical, administrative and technical security measures to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use and disclosure.

Children


This site is not directed to children under the age of 13.

Marketing


Pearson may send or direct marketing communications to users, provided that

  • Pearson will not use personal information collected or processed as a K-12 school service provider for the purpose of directed or targeted advertising.
  • Such marketing is consistent with applicable law and Pearson's legal obligations.
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Pearson may provide personal information to a third party service provider on a restricted basis to provide marketing solely on behalf of Pearson or an affiliate or customer for whom Pearson is a service provider. Marketing preferences may be changed at any time.

Correcting/Updating Personal Information


If a user's personally identifiable information changes (such as your postal address or email address), we provide a way to correct or update that user's personal data provided to us. This can be done on the Account page. If a user no longer desires our service and desires to delete his or her account, please contact us at customer-service@informit.com and we will process the deletion of a user's account.

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Sale of Personal Information


Pearson does not rent or sell personal information in exchange for any payment of money.

While Pearson does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personal information to NevadaDesignatedRequest@pearson.com.

Supplemental Privacy Statement for California Residents


California residents should read our Supplemental privacy statement for California residents in conjunction with this Privacy Notice. The Supplemental privacy statement for California residents explains Pearson's commitment to comply with California law and applies to personal information of California residents collected in connection with this site and the Services.

Sharing and Disclosure


Pearson may disclose personal information, as follows:

  • As required by law.
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  • In response to a subpoena, court order or legal process, to the extent permitted or required by law
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  • To investigate or address actual or suspected fraud or other illegal activities
  • To exercise its legal rights, including enforcement of the Terms of Use for this site or another contract
  • To affiliated Pearson companies and other companies and organizations who perform work for Pearson and are obligated to protect the privacy of personal information consistent with this Privacy Notice
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Links


This web site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every web site that collects Personal Information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this web site.

Requests and Contact


Please contact us about this Privacy Notice or if you have any requests or questions relating to the privacy of your personal information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice


We may revise this Privacy Notice through an updated posting. We will identify the effective date of the revision in the posting. Often, updates are made to provide greater clarity or to comply with changes in regulatory requirements. If the updates involve material changes to the collection, protection, use or disclosure of Personal Information, Pearson will provide notice of the change through a conspicuous notice on this site or other appropriate way. Continued use of the site after the effective date of a posted revision evidences acceptance. Please contact us if you have questions or concerns about the Privacy Notice or any objection to any revisions.

Last Update: November 17, 2020