Hardware IV

William would like to use full-disk encryption on his laptop. He is worried about slow performance, though, so he has requested that the laptop have an onboard hardware-based cryptographic processor. Based on this requirement, what should William ensure the laptop contains?

• AES

• TPM

• PAM

• FDE

Answer explanation

This question is asking if you know what each acronym means. Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is a hardware-based cryptographic processing component that is a part of the motherboard. A Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) is a device that looks like a USB thumb drive and is used as a software key in cryptography. Full Disk Encryption (FDE) can be hardware or software-based. Therefore, it isn’t the right answer. The Advanced Encryption System (AES) is a cryptographic algorithm. Therefore, it isn’t a hardware solution.

You just installed an SSD into a laptop to increase the storage speed of the device. Which of the following should you configure to increase the lifespan of the newly installed SSD?

• Disable regularly scheduled defragmentation of the SSD

• Enable the power-saving mode of the SSD

• Disable memory caching on the SSD

• Enable the paging file within the operating system

Answer explanation

An SSD (Solid-State Drive) is limited in the total number of write functions that can occur over its lifespan. Due to the immediate ability of an SSD to locate data on the drive (since there is no spinning platter that must be moved to reach the right area to retrieve the data like a regular magnetic hard drive), there is no need to defragment an SSD. When you defrag a hard drive, especially an SSD, it will cause tons of small write accesses, reducing the hard drive's lifespan. And since data is not being read sequentially, it doesn't matter if the file is stored in a hundred different places; the performance will remain the same. Therefore, you should disable any regularly scheduled defragmentation tasks when using an SSD to extend its lifespan.

John is setting up 100 Windows 10 computers for a new corporate office. He wants to ensure that unauthorized applications are prevented from being installed during the bootup process. What feature should he ensure is enabled?

• Secure Boot

• BIOS password required

• Full disk encryption

• RAM integrity checking

Answer explanation

The purpose of Secure Boot is to prevent malicious and unauthorized apps from loading into the operating system (OS) during the startup process. Secure Boot is enabled by default in Windows 10. When the PC starts, the firmware checks the signature of each piece of boot software, including UEFI firmware drivers (also known as Option ROMs), EFI applications, and the operating system. If the signatures are valid, the PC boots and the firmware gives control to the operating system. The OEM can use instructions from the firmware manufacturer to create Secure boot keys and to store them in the PC firmware. When you add UEFI drivers, you'll also need to make sure these are signed and included in the Secure Boot database. Full disk encryption is used to encrypt the user and system data stored in the device’s internal storage. RAM integrity checking is conducted by default on most systems during the initial boot process but it doesn't check the contents of the memory for malware. The BIOS password would prevent the system from booting up without the correct password being entered, but this would not prevent unauthorized applications from being installed during the bootup process.

Which of the following printer configuration settings controls the size of the paper used for the print job?

• Duplex

• Quality

• Tray

• Orientation

Answer explanation

The tray setting is used to define what type of paper is being used by a printer. The tray setting is commonly set to auto, letter in the United States, or A4 in Europe. The quality setting is used to define the overall output characteristics of the print job. If the best setting is used, the printer will use more ink/toner in producing the image and printer more slowly. If the Fast, Draft, or Low settings are used, the printer will use less ink/toner and print more quickly. Page orientation is how a rectangular page is oriented for normal viewing. The two most common types of orientation are portrait and landscape. Duplex printing is a feature of some computer printers, multi-function printers (MFPs), and copy machines that allow the printing of a sheet of paper on both sides automatically. Without this capability, print devices can only print on a single side of the paper, sometimes called single-sided printing or simplex printing. With duplex printing, information is printed on the front side of a piece of paper, and then the paper is automatically fed back through the printer to print the information on the backside of the paper.

A user wants to print a large job on both the front and back sides of the paper. Which of the following settings should the technician advise the user to change in the printer settings?

• Orientation

• Collate

• Transparency

• Duplex

Answer explanation

Duplex printing is a feature of some computer printers, multi-function printers (MFPs), and copy machines that allow the printing of a sheet of paper on both sides automatically. Without this capability, print devices can only print on a single side of the paper, sometimes called single-sided printing or simplex printing. With duplex printing, information is printed on the front side of a piece of paper, and then the paper is automatically fed back through the printer to print the information on the backside of the paper. Page orientation is how a rectangular page is oriented for normal viewing. The two most common types of orientation are portrait (taller rather than wider) and landscape (wider rather than taller). The collate setting allows the gathering and arranging of individual sheets or other printed components into a pre-determined sequence. Collating creates consistent, logical sets from multiple parts, such as printing a series of pages in a report like pages 1, 2, 3 before printing the second copy. This makes it easier to staple and distribute to people after coming out of the printer. The term transparency was made up as a distractor for this question.

Which option would you MOST likely use to configure PXE to set up remote imaging on a computer during a deployment?

• Power management configuration

• BIOS boot option

• Windows boot menu

• Secure boot configuration

Answer explanation

To configure a computer to utilize the PXE boot option, you need to configure it under the BIOS boot option. The Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) is an industry-standard client/server interface that allows networked computers that are not yet loaded with an operating system to be configured and booted remotely by an administrator. Secure boot is a security system offered by UEFI that is designed to prevent a computer from being hijacked by malware. Power management allows Windows to reduce or turn off the power supplied to hardware components to save energy.

A computer technician is configuring a NAS for a company to store their corporate data. The technician has installed two 1 TB hard drives operating at 7200 RPM in a RAID 1 configuration. How much usable storage space is contained in the NAS?

• 2 TB

• 1 TB

• 0.5 TB

• 1.5 TB

Answer explanation

A RAID 1 provides mirroring (redundancy) but not disk striping with a minimum of two disks. Since the NAS is using a RAID 1 configuration, it is a mirrored array. Both 1 TB HDDs are installed, but a full copy of the data must be contained on each drive. Therefore, there is still only 1 TB of usable storage capacity in the NAS.

You have been asked to install a network cable inside a conduit placed underground and connected to two buildings located about 1 KM apart. Which of the following cable types should you choose?

• Plenum

• Shielded

• Fiber

• Coaxial

Answer explanation

A fiber optic cable is a network cable that contains strands of glass fibers inside an insulated casing. They're designed for long-distance, high-performance data networking, and telecommunications. If you are dealing with connecting two networks over a long distance (over a few hundred meters), you should use a fiber optic cable. Shielded and plenum copper cables can only cover a distance of approximately 100 meters in length. Coaxial cables can cover a maximum distance of 200 to 500 meters in length.

The accounting department has been relocated to a new area of the building, which is more than 70 meters away from the closest IDF. To comply with an SLA that requires that 10Gb speeds be provided, what type of media should be installed?

• CAT 5e

• CAT 6a

• 802.11n

• 802.11ac

Answer explanation

Cat6a is the only one listed that can meet 10 Gbps. CAT5e and 802.11 ac support speeds up to 1 Gbps. 802.11n supports speeds of up to 600 Mbps.

You are attempting to build a new gaming workstation and have just finished installing the motherboard and the processor. You are about to begin installing two memory modules, and notice 4 DIMM sockets on the motherboard labeled 0, 1, 2, and 3. Two of these are colored red, and two are colored blue. Which of the following should you do FIRST?

• Install 2 DDR4 memory modules into slots 2 and 3

• Install 2 DDR4 memory modules into the blue slots

• Install 2 DDR4 memory modules into the red slots

• Consult the motherboard's manual

• Install 2 DDR4 memory modules into slots 0 and 1

Answer explanation

You should consult the motherboard's manual and documentation to determine the best method of installing the memory into the system. The system may support both single-channel and dual-channel memory configurations, depending on how the memory is installed. Based on your specific customer needs, you may wish to install them as single or dual-channel (which may require installing the memory in certain slots). Single-channel memory is any memory using one 64-bit bus between the CPU and the RAM. Dual-channel memory is a memory controller with two primary pathways through the bus to the CPU to transfer 128-bits of data in each transaction.