Today we finished Chapter 5, talking about consumer behavior. Next week, we’ll be covering taking the midterm exam. Make sure you’re ready!!
Homework:
This has nothing to do with the study of computer networking, but it’s completely cool nonetheless.
It’s about the research and gains made in the technology that allows people to control computers/objects with simply their thoughts. Check it out:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4564186n
Here’s some video footage taken at the PDC showing off the new taskbar that’s slated for Windows 7. Personally, I think it’s pretty slick. Unfortunately, I haven’t used this “pre-beta” of Windows 7, but I still have a feeling that it will be what Vista was supposed to be.
Just to celebrate the naming of our new king president, we had a nice little midterm exam, which served as basically a final exam for the Implementing Network Infrastructure class. I was very happy with the results — so good that a curve wasn’t necessary, but I gave one anyway! Nice work guys, you are doing better than some previous groups I’ve had, for sure.
After the test, we moved on to the Implementing Active Directory class and discussed, well, Active Directory. We spent some time first describing AD and some of the important aspects of it. Next, we set up our computers servers to operate as a domain and a child domain inside a single forest.
Next week, we’ll look at Chapter 3, 4 and 5.
Homework:
Honestly, it was kind of a big day today.
We started out by taking our midterm exam, which unfortunately was a bit more of a bloodbath than I would have liked. Hopefully, this exam gets you used to the types of questions, etc. that Microsoft looks for on their certification exams.
After the test, we went over Chapter 7 — troubleshooting various hardware devices. We first looked at troubleshooting display devices (Windows can support up to 10 monitors!). We looked at various things to consider when helping people out with their monitors, including everything from making sure it’s plugged in, to checking refresh rates on CRT monitors, etc. Next, we looked at I/O devices such as mice, keyboards, etc. Common sense applies here as well — make sure it’s plugged in, that drivers are up to date and correct and that the device hasn’t simply failed (in that case, just buy a new one, tight-wad!)
We ended the day talking about ACPI, the current power management mechanism that Windows supports. Assuming you have hardware made in the last 10 years, you are used to dealing with ACPI — it’s what allows you to turn your computer completely off via the Shut Down command and not be presented with the “It’s Now Safe to Turn Off Your PC” message.
It also allows fun features such as Standby and Hibernation. Make sure you know the difference between the two: standby turns off power to all parts of the computer except RAM. Coming back from a Standby state is nearly instantaneous, however the power it takes to keep your RAM alive does take a toll on any batteries you might be using (think notebook computers). If I were to put a notebook in standby tonight, for example, its battery would most likely be completely dead the next day. Hibernation, on the other hand, takes the contents from RAM and writes them to a file on the HDD, then powers off the computer. When you go to turn on your computer, the RAM contents are redeposited back into RAM and your computer session continues on. For what little you pay in extra “comeback” time, you make up for in not losing your battery life.
Homework:
Today we talked about various network operating systems that are out there and that you should know about for the Network+ exam. Instead of simply reiterating what’s in the book, I decided instead to give you a historical perspective of the four main NOSs that we use today and how they’ve all related to (and in some cases, destroyed) one another.
Homework:
We began chapter 5 today by discussing consumer behavior — basically, what makes our end consumers tick. We looked at a good number of different things, such as our place in the life cycle, our income levels, education, occupation, lifestyle, etc.
Next week, we’ll finish the Chapter 5 discussion and then have a midterm exam the week after.
Homework:
Today we played catchup by completing chapters 8 and 9 in our 70-291 book. The topics on hand were routing and remote access and general maintenance of the Windows Server 2003 OS. The 70-291 exam has a surprising number of questions dealing with the fact that you can, in fact, turn your Server 2003 OS into a router. Why one would want to do this in the real world is a little beyond me, but hey! You can do it. You can also set up your OS to act as an “access point” for remote users and so we spent a little time discussing and creating VPNs.
Next week, be prepared for the midterm exam, which will cover all 9 chapters of the 70-291. (I guess it’s more like a final, isn’t it?)
Homework:
Today’s troubleshooting class involved chapters 5 and 6, dealing with file/folder access and hardware installation, respectively. We briefly got into sharing permissions and NTFS permissions and discussed how they are similar, and how they are different. Know that if you have a sharing permission and an NTFS permission that are in conflict, Windows goes along with the one that is the most restrictive.
Whenever we get into permission discussions, it’s also important to differentiate between Allow permissions and Deny permissions. Allow will, obviously, allow a user to access something, and Deny will prevent them from access it. Removing the check from the Allow box will also prevent a user from accessing that something. So what gives?
Deny is supremely … mean? … in how it works. Any one Deny trumps an infinite amount of Allows you could assign someone — it’s very powerful and should be used with caution. For example, if I’m a member of 100 different user groups and 99 of them are allowed to Write in a given folder, I would be able to write in that folder. If the 100th group simply has the Allow Write permission removed, I’d still be able to write — the other 99 groups give me that permission. However, if the 100th group assigned the Deny Write permission — then I’m up a creek. Despite all 99 other groups saying that it’s ok for my user account to be able to write to a certain folder, that one Deny rules the day.
Moral of the story: don’t use Deny unless there is a compelling reason to do so. (Think interns).
Midterm exam next week over chapters 1 – 6!!!
Homework:
