Troubleshooting Apps – 4/20/2009

This morning’s class covered three chapters – chapters 5, 6 and 7.  Chapter 5 was how to configure and troubleshoot Internet Explorer 6.  We discussed that while IE6 is definitely obsolete, that there are still institutions out there clinging on to it.  That said, we initiated updates that would deliver to us IE8, and in a future class we’ll look into that — there’s lots of interesting features taht browser can do, so it should be neat to look at.

Secondly, we looked at installing and troubleshooting Microsoft Office.

Homework:

• Chapter 5 Review Questions
• Chapter 6 Review Questions
• Chapter 7 Review Questions

Fundamentals of Finance – 4/15/2009

Happy tax day!

Today’s class centered around chapter 2, detailing the financial markets and interest rates.  We talked about things such as public vs. private offerings, money vs. capital markets, spot vs. future markets, etc.  Next we looked into the determinants of interest rates.

Homework:

• Chapter 2: Review Questions

Implementing AD – 4/14/2009

Sites were the topic of our discussion today.  Sites serve as geographic barriers for Active Directory — without them, AD thinks that domain controllers are beside right beside each other and will replicate at frequent intervals — every 15 minutes by default.  This is bad if two domain controllers are located in different geographic areas where bandwidth might cost a premium.  Having sites lets us define to AD where different controllers are located and the how they are linked together (via site links).

Homework:

• Chapter 3 Review Questions

Implementing NI – 4/20/2009

Today we finished up last week’s epic-fail lab and went on and did Lab 2, also dealing with DHCP.  Due to time restraints, we did have to skip over some stuff, but I’d encourage you to perform these labs on your own and get a good grasp of the concepts.

Homework:

• Chapter 2 Review Questions

Troubleshooting OS – 4/13/2009

Tonight’s class focused on Windows XP installation as well as local users and groups.

The first activity we did was to use Windows XP to make an unattended installation disk and then proceeded to use that disk to install another copy of Windows XP with virtually no input from us.  I’ve done this well over a hundred times and it never ceases to amaze me that you can install Windows with virtually no user input.  My feeling this proves that I am a geek.

Secondly, we joined our new machine to a domain controller I’m running in class and proceeded running a lab that has us play with both local and domain users, and how different apps inside of Windows XP allow us to manipulate each of those user types.

Homework:

• Chapter 2: Review Questions
• Chapter 3: Review Questions
• Chapter 4: Review Questions

Server+ – 4/13/2009

For the second week of class, we did the second unit of the book!  It almost makes sense, doesn’t it?

Anyway, all sarcasm aside, the chapter we covered today looked at hard disks — the anatomy of them, the way we connect them to our computers and the way in which we can arrange them in order to get things accomplished.  Some things you may want to remember for next time:

• The internals of the hard drive.  Make sure that platters, heads, actuator arms, head crashes, sectors, slack, etc. are all familiar to you
• Know about IDE (ATA) connectors, the difference between PATA and SATA, and the six levels of ATA that I pointed out in class
• SCSI.  Know the various levels of SCSI, about host adaptors and the priority levels of the host IDs.  As Scott said, 7 is the highest, 8 is the lowest (7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8).

To help you prepare for the quiz, the Server+ certification and IT-life in general, please do the following …

Homework:

• Chapter Two Review Questions 1-20.

Troubleshooting Apps – 4/13/2009

Today we tackled chapters 3 and 4 of our text.  Fun was had by all.

Homework:

• Chapter 3 Review Questions
• Chapter 4 Review Questions

Fundamentals of Finance – 4/8/2009

In today’s class, we introduced ourselves to finanace and how it works in our world.  For best results in this class, please get a good financial calculator.  Here’s a good one: http://bit.ly/4hy7cR.

It’s obviously not required, but believe-you-me, it will REALLY make your life in this class much much easier.

Homework:

• Chapter 1: Review Questions 1-9

Implementing AD – 4/7/2009

OK, after a rough morning and a rough first 30 minutes of class (where I was MIA fighting printers and copiers and WinXP) we finally caught traction and learned a bit about Active Directory (AD).   Installing AD went pretlly flawlessly.  After pointing our servers towards the appropriate DNS servers, we made parent domains (domainxx.local) and then created child domains to exist underneath them (childxx.domainxx.local).

Homework:

• Chapter 1: Review Questions
• Chapter 2: Review Questions

Implementing NI – 4/7/2009

Ok, wow, what a cluster.

Today we started our conversation network infrastructure by covering DHCP.  I made the mistake of not having my own version of computers 1 and 2 to guide you through the labs, and so the first lab (which has the capacity of being slightly confusing, even with an instructor holding your hand) just went completely off-track.  Long story short, we’re already a chapter behind and will have to repeat the lab for this week next week.

Homework:

• Chapter 1 Review Questions