cover.eps

Title page image

CompTIA Certification

It Pays to Get Certified

image In a digital world, digital literacy is an essential survival skill. Certification proves you have the knowledge and skill to solve business problems in virtually any business environment. Certifications are highly-valued credentials that qualify you for jobs, increased compensation, and promotion.

image

Certification Advances Your Career

image The CompTIA A+ credential provides foundation-level knowledge and skills necessary for a career in PC repair and support.

Starting salary: CompTIA A+ Certified individuals can earn as much as $65,000 per year.

Career pathway: CompTIA A+ is a building block for other CompTIA certifications such as Network+, Security+, and vendor-specific technologies.

More than 850,000 individuals worldwide are CompTIA A+ Certified.

Mandated/recommended by organizations worldwide such as Cisco and HP and Ricoh, the U.S. State Department, and U.S. government contractors such as EDS, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman.

Some of the primary benefits individuals report from becoming A+ Certified are:

  • More efficient troubleshooting
  • Improved career advancement
  • More insightful problem solving

CompTIA Career Pathway

CompTIA offers a number of credentials that form a foundation for your career in technology and allow you to pursue specific areas of concentration. Depending on the path you choose to take, CompTIA certifications help you build upon your skills and knowledge, supporting learning throughout your entire career.

image

Steps to Certification

Steps to Getting Certified and Staying Certified

Review Exam Objectives

Review the certification objectives, located at https://certification.comptia.org/training/exam-objectives, to make sure you know what is covered in the exam.

Practice for the Exam

After you have studied for the certification, take a free assessment and sample test to get an idea what type of questions might be on the exam at http://www.comptia.org/certifications/testprep/practicetests.aspx.

Purchase an Exam Voucher

Purchase your exam voucher on the CompTIA Marketplace, which is located at http://www.comptiastore.com.

Take the Test!

Select a certification exam provider and schedule a time to take your exam. You can find exam providers at the following link: https://certification.comptia.org/testing/test-locations.

Join the Professional Community

Join the CompTIA IT communities at https://www.comptia.org/communities. The free IT online communities provide valuable content to students and professionals.

  • Career IT job resources
    • Where to start in IT
    • Career assessments
    • Salary trends
    • U.S. job board
  • Forums on networking, security, computing, and cutting edge technologies
  • Access to blogs written by industry experts
  • Current information on cutting edge technologies
  • Access to various industry resource links and articles related to IT and IT careers

Content Seal of Quality

image This courseware bears the seal of CompTIA Approved Quality Content. This seal signifies this content covers 100% of the exam objectives and implements important structural design principles. CompTIA recommends multiple learning tools to help increase coverage of the learning objectives.

Why CompTIA?

Global Recognition: CompTIA is recognized globally as the leading IT non-profit trade association and has enormous credibility. Plus, CompTIA’s certifications are vendor-neutral and offer proof of foundational knowledge that translates across technologies.

Valued by Hiring Managers: Hiring managers value CompTIA certification because it is vendor and technology independent validation of your technical skills.

Recommended or Required by Government and Businesses: Many government organizations and corporations either recommend or require technical staff to be CompTIA certified (for example, Dell, Sharp, Ricoh, the U.S. Department of Defense, and many more).

Three CompTIA Certifications ranked in the top 10: In a study by DICE of 17,000 technology professionals, certifications helped command higher salaries at all experience levels.

How to Obtain More Information

Visit CompTIA online: www.comptia.org to learn more about getting CompTIA certified.

Contact CompTIA: Call 866-835-8020 ext. 5 or email questions@comptia.org.

CompTIA® A+® Certification All-In-One For Dummies®

To view this book's Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “A+ Certification All-In-One For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.

Introduction

The CompTIA A+ Certified Professional Certification is a well-recognized certification, and having this certification will serve as a basic foundation for a number of other certifications that you might pursue. The A+ Exams test your knowledge of hardware and software used in today’s computer world, and the certification is one of the most popular certifications that IT professionals attain to prove their hardware and software knowledge.

About This Book

CompTIA A+ Certification All-In-One For Dummies, 4th Edition is designed to be a hands-on, practical guide to help you pass the A+ Certification Exams. This book is written in a way that helps you understand complex technical content and prepares you to apply that knowledge to real-world scenarios.

I understand the value of a book that covers the points needed to pass the A+ Exams, but I also understand the value of ensuring that the information helps you perform IT-related tasks when you are on the job. That is what this book offers you — key points to pass the exams combined with practical information to help you in the real world, which means that this book can be used in more than one way:

Conventions Used in This Book

Each chapter in this book has different elements that help you prepare to pass the A+ Exams. Each chapter holds the following features:

  • Icons: Look for the icons used in each chapter to draw your attention to information needed for the A+ Exams or in the real world. For more details on the icons I use, check out the later section, “Icons Used in This Book.”
  • Getting an A+: Found at the end of each chapter, the “Getting an A+” summary covers key points you should remember for the exams.
  • Prep Test: Following each chapter’s “Getting an A+” section, you can find example questions to help review the chapter content and prepare you for the A+ Exams. Be sure to do the review questions with each chapter! Then, after you complete the book, check out the practice exams that accompany this book on the www.dummies.com website. These practice exams are designed to function like the real exams, with the same level of difficulty. (See the section, “Online Test Bank,” later in this Introduction for more information about how to access these practice exams.)

Foolish Assumptions

I make a few assumptions about you as a reader and have written this book with these assumptions in mind:

How This Book Is Organized

Like all All-In-One For Dummies books, chapters are organized into minibooks. The chapters in each minibook are related by a specific theme or topic. For example, Book 9 — “Securing Systems” — contains all security-related content needed to pass the A+ Exams.

Pre-Assessment

Before you dive into the minibooks, you’ll find a set of pre-assessment questions to test your initial knowledge of the areas covered by the A+ Exams. Take time to review each question to see where you stand, and then verify your work with the answers that follow. Use the chapter reference given to learn more about the topic related to the question.

Book 1: Setting the A+ Groundwork

In this minibook, you discover what A+ Certification is all about and what you will be tested on when taking the A+ Exams. You also find out some basic safety guidelines and general “soft skills,” such as how to communicate with customers.

Book 2: Inside the Box

In Book 2, you find out about the inside of a computer and what makes it tick. You venture into the innards of your computer, such as motherboards, memory, and processors, and also see how to install and upgrade these components.

Book 3: Outside the Box

Book 3 discusses topics related to what goes on outside the computer. You find out about the different ports on the back of the computer and how to install devices, such as video cards, sound cards, and network cards that give you output (think sound and video).

Book 4: Maintenance and Troubleshooting

The maintenance and troubleshooting minibook discusses how you care for the computer to prevent problems or hardware failure. This minibook also discusses how to troubleshoot different hardware components and how to diagnose the problem.

Book 5: Operating System Basics

Book 5 is a special minibook because it makes the transition from hardware topics to operating system topics. In this minibook, you find out the purpose of an operating system and which major files an OS needs in order to run. You also discover how to install and upgrade Windows.

Book 6: Managing the Operating System

In this minibook, I discuss and demonstrate in a hands-on way how to manage aspects of the Windows operating systems. You find out how to load drivers and how to install and support applications and start using a number of troubleshooting tools available within Windows.

Book 7: Recovering Systems

In this minibook, you discover which core files are needed to start up a Windows computer and how to fix computers that fail to boot up. You also find topics related to system recovery, such as how to back up the system and perform a restore operation.

Book 8: Networking

The A+ Exams test your knowledge of basic networking concepts and ensure that you know how to network two computers. This minibook gives you the networking background you need to pass the A+ Exams. You discover the basics of networking technologies and figure out how to troubleshoot systems on a TCP/IP network.

Book 9: Securing Systems

This final minibook covers topics related to securing your environment. In this minibook, I cover fundamental terms related to network security and also how to perform such tasks as creating user accounts, setting permissions, performing virus scans, and updating Windows.

Appendix

The Appendix includes an exam objective mapping table that lets you know where in the book each of the exam objectives are covered. This is very useful when you are preparing for the A+ Exams to make sure you know each point in the objectives.

Icons Used in This Book

I use a number of icons in this book to draw your attention to pieces of useful information.

fortheexam This icon gives you a heads-up on information you should absolutely know for the A+ Certification Exams.

tip Information that would be helpful to you in the real world is indicated with a Tip icon. Expect to find shortcuts and timesavers here.

remember This icon is used to flag information that may be useful to remember on the job.

warning Information that could cause problems to you or to the computer is indicated with a Warning icon. If you see a Warning icon, make sure you read it. The computer you save may be your own.

technicalstuff Detailed information that is not needed for the A+ Exams or that is a step above the knowledge you absolutely need to know for the exams is indicated with a Technical Stuff icon.

ontheweb This icon lets you know when you can find accompanying information or supporting documents on the companion website for this book at www.dummies.com/go/aplusaio. For example, there are a number of lab exercises written for the book — when a topic has a related lab, it is indicated with this icon. See the following section, “Beyond the Book,” for more information about the companion website.

Beyond the Book

In addition to what you’re reading right now, this book comes with several additional online components that you can use to enhance your knowledge.

Companion website

The companion website for this book is located at www.dummies.com/go/aplusaio. Here you can find a bonus chapter I’ve written on scripting. While scripting isn’t part of the A+ Exams, it’s an important tool for the efficient technician.

The lab exercises for the chapters are located here as well. Labs offer the opportunity to get your hands dirty with a particular topic with real-world experience performing specific tasks.

Online test bank

Comprehensive, realistic practice exams are available for free online to help you test your knowledge of the A+ Certification objectives. To gain access to the online practice exams, all you have to do is register. Just follow these simple steps:

  1. Find your PIN access code:
    • Print-book users: If you purchased a print copy of this book, turn to the inside front cover of the book to find your access code.
    • Ebook users: If you purchased this book as an e-book, you can get your access code by registering your ebook at www.dummies.com/go/getaccess. Go to this website, find your book and click it, and answer the security questions to verify your purchase. You’ll receive an email with your access code.
  2. Go to Dummies.com and click Activate Now.
  3. Find your product (A+ Certification All-In-One For Dummies) and then follow the on-screen prompts to activate your PIN.

Now you’re ready to go! You can come back to the program as often as you want — simply log on with the username and password you created during your initial login. No need to enter the access code a second time.

For Technical Support, please visit https://hub.wiley.com/community/support/dummies or call Wiley at 1-800-762-2974 (US), +1-317-572-3994 (international).

Cheat Sheet

A free access-anywhere Cheat Sheet that gives you pointers on some of the major Windows concepts such as boot files, recovery tools, RAID types, and troubleshooting utilities. You will also find information on hardware specs for bus architectures, USB, FireWire, and POST messages. To get this Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “A+ Certification All-In-One For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.

Where to Go from Here

The CompTIA A+ Certification is the most popular certification for individuals new to the IT industry and the certification world. After you pass the A+ Exams, you might want to continue your certification path by studying for the following certifications from CompTIA:

  • Network+: A vendor-neutral certification that ensures the candidate understands networking technologies.
  • Security+: After passing the Network+ certification, you may want to continue on the network topic with a certification that proves your network security knowledge.

Pre-Assessment

The following questions are designed to areas of the CompTIA A+ Certified Professional exams that you may need to focus on when reading through this book. Take time to review each question and come up with the best answer for each question. Be sure to verify your work with the pre-assessment answers that follow, and use the chapter reference given to learn more about the topic related to the question.

Questions

1. Which of the following drive types can benefit from periodic disk defragmentation?

(A) HDD

(B) DVD-RW

(C) CompactFlash

(D) SSD

2. You're assisting a customer in an upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1. Which upgrade method would you recommend if the user states that the computer has been infected by malware in the near past?

(A) Unattended installation

(B) Clean install

(C) Repair installation

(D) System reset

3. The appearance of a proprietary crash screen is likely an indicator of:

(A) Improperly disconnected USB drive

(B) Corrupted Windows Update

(C) Hardware incompatibility

(D) Missing GRUB loader

4. Which of the following Windows 8.1 features restores the entire system to its state at a previous point in time?

(A) Windows RE

(B) System Restore

(C) System Refresh

(D) System Image Recovery

5. Which of the following devices should you use if you need to share one keyboard and mouse with multiple computers?

(A) KVM

(B) Port replicator

(C) Set-top box

(D) Riser card

6. You plan to secure a network printer for a customer by implementing the WPA encryption protocol. Which connectivity method for the printer should you use?

(A) Bluetooth

(B) 802.11

(C) Infrared

(D) USB 3.0

7. You're helping a customer who needs a second wired Ethernet interface on her laptop computer. Which of the following is the recommended option?

(A) Install a PCI Ethernet card

(B) Use a USB to RJ-11 dongle

(C) Use a USB-to-RJ-45 dongle

(D) Disable the on-board WiFi adapter

8. Which of the following file systems is common on Linux systems?

(A) HFS

(B) FAT32

(C) NTFS

(D) EXT3

9. A customer has dropped off a system to have the processor upgraded. Which of the following features of CPU sockets make replacement of the CPU easier?

(A) XD-bit

(B) Virtualization

(C) Cores

(D) ZIF

10. You are a service technician for an accounting firm and need to upgrade the RAM on a high-end desktop workstation. You grab an 8GB SODIMM module from inventory and are having trouble installing it. Which of the following represents the reason for the installation problem?

(A) The workstation only takes 4GB modules

(B) The module is not compatible

(C) High-end workstations use flash memory

(D) High-end workstations use solid state memory

11. You are installing a new motherboard for a workstation within your office. When connecting the power to the motherboard, you notice a 6-pin power connector. What component does this typically supply power to?

(A) Graphics card

(B) CPU

(C) SATA drives

(D) EIDE drives

12. You are configuring the security for a customer’s wireless network. Which of the following identifies the least secure wireless encryption protocol?

(A) WPA

(B) WPA2

(C) WEP

(D) TKIP

13. You are configuring a small LAN for one of your customers. You would like to implement NAT. Which of the following devices would you use?

(A) Hub

(B) Switch

(C) Modem

(D) Router

14. You are configuring the security on a folder that resides on an NTFS volume and has been shared as Data. The NTFS permissions give Bob the modify permission to the folder, but the folder has been shared giving Bob the read permission. What are Bob’s effective permissions when he connects to the shared folder?

(A) Full control

(B) Read

(C) Modify

(D) No permission

15. You have installed virtualization software on the computer and are trying to create a virtual machine but you continue to receive an error. What is most likely the cause?

(A) Disable cache memory in the BIOS

(B) Enable XD-bit in the BIOS

(C) Change the boot order in the BIOS

(D) Enable virtualization in the BIOS

16. You have been noticing that your server has been performing slowly over the last few days and now all of a sudden no one can make a connection to the server. Looking at server log files you have determined that the server was under attack. What type of attack likely occurred?

(A) DoS

(B) MTM

(C) Dumpster dive

(D) Dictionary

17. You are troubleshooting Bob’s workstations to determine why he cannot get access to the Internet. You use the ipconfig command and get the following output. What is likely the cause?

PS C:\> ipconfig /all

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : dcatt.ca
Description … … … . . : Qualcomm Atheros PCI-E Fast Ethernet
Physical Address… … … : 20-1A-06-34-2B-66
DHCP Enabled… … … . . : No
IPv4 Address… … … . . : 192.168.1.138
Subnet Mask … … … . . : 255.255.255.0
Default Gateway … … … : 192.168.2.1
DNS Servers … … … . . : 192.168.1.1

(A) There is no MAC address assigned to the system

(B) The DNS suffix is incorrect

(C) The default gateway address is incorrect

(D) The DNS server is incorrect

18. CompTIA has a six-step problem resolution process. What is the third step in the process?

(A) Identify the problem

(B) Test the theory to determine cause

(C) Establish a plan of action to resolve the problem and implement the solution

(D) Document findings, actions, and outcomes

19. You are working with a computer that is having a problem loading the user profile and the Windows Explorer interface. You have access to the command prompt window. What command will terminate the runaway process named RunAway.exe with a PID of 3375?

(A) Tasklist /Fl RunAway.exe

(B) Taskkill /FI RunAway

(C) Tasklist /PID 3375

(D) Taskkill /PID 3375

20. You are planning to move from your old office due to issues with power in the neighborhood. Within the neighborhood you are constantly being exposed to blackout, brownout, spikes, and voltage drops. Which device will protect you from all of these issues?

(A) Surge suppressor

(B) UPS

(C) Line conditioner

(D) Power tester

21. You have been called to a customer’s computer to help her deal with a recent problem she has developed when starting an application. You think it may be due to components that are loading automatically when Windows boots and loads. Which tool can you use to disable services or perform a selective startup of Windows?

(A) diskpart.exe

(B) chkdsk.exe

(C) msconfig.exe

(D) defrag.exe

22. While managing a group of workers servicing computers in your repair shop, you have received complaints from them that they are seeing a lot of incidents of static discharge. They are worried about the components that they are working with. What steps can you take to reduce the chance of static discharge or ESD?

(A) Increase the relative humidity

(B) Decrease the relative humidity

(C) Increase the temperature

(D) Decrease the temperature

23. A user has called you while you are working on the support desk. He has an issue with power management settings that are being pushed out to users via Active Directory Group Policy Objects (GPO). After adjusting the GPO to correct the issue, you would like to have the client computer process the GPO changes immediately. What tool will you use to process the GPO changes?

(A) attrib

(B) gpresult

(C) expand

(D) gpupdate

24. You are working with a member of your IT administration team to set permissions on a Linux server on your network. You need to change the permissions granted to a group of users who will be accessing a directory. What command will you be using to change the permissions?

(A) chmod

(B) chown

(C) grep

(D) iwconfig

25. Your local IT administrator has made changes to C:\boot.ini to change the loading process for his Windows 8.1 computer; but this does not seem to have had any effect on the boot process. What component controls the boot configuration and thereby the boot process on a Windows 8.1 computer?

(A) ntoskrnl.exe

(B) winload.exe

(C) ntdetect.com

(D) BCD

Answers

  1. A. The magnetic hard disk drive (HDD) definitely benefits from periodic disk defragmentation because its mechanical operation lends itself to fragmentation. See Book 2, Chapter 5.
  2. B. Personally, I wouldn't take a chance on an upgrade if the system is suspect. Instead, I recommend backing up the user state, performing a clean Windows 8.1 installation, and restoring the user state (which doesn't include program files) to the upgraded system. See Book 5, Chapter 3.
  3. C. Normally, the appearance of the “Blue Screen of Death” in Windows or the “Spinning Beach Ball of Death” (OS X) signifies a hardware incompatibility. For instance, you may have inadvertently installed the wrong RAM type in the system. See Book 7, Chapter 2.
  4. D. System Image Recovery involves creating an image of the entire system drive. Therefore, restoring a computer with a previously created recovery image restores the entire operating system environment to its state at the previous point in time. See Book 7, Chapter 3.
  5. A. A keyboard-video-mouse (KVM) switch is exactly what you need in this situation. You'll oftentimes find KVMs in data centers so that engineers can easily manage several systems located in the same server rack. See Book 3, Chapter 2.
  6. B. WiFi Protected Access (WPA) encryption is available on IEEE 802.11 WiFi networks only. While we're on the subject, be sure never to use Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), which is a fundamentally broken WiFi security protocol. See Book 3, Chapter 4.
  7. C. If you remember that Ethernet uses the RJ-45 connector type, then you'll answer this question correctly every time. Recall that RJ-11 is used for traditional telephones and (yuck) analog modem connections. See Book 3, Chapter 6.
  8. D. Linux computers typically use the EXT3 or EXT4 file systems, although they can support other file systems for compatibility with other operating system platforms. See Book 5, Chapter 3.
  9. D. A zero insertion force (ZIF) socket is a type of socket used with PGA and LGA chips to allow easy removal and installation of the processor chip. A ZIF socket has a lever that allows releases the processor and allows it to be lifted out of the socket. See Book 2, Chapter 2.
  10. B. Desktop computers use DIMM when installing RAM into the computer. SODIMM are used by laptop computers. See Book 2, Chapter 3.
  11. A. The 6-pin power connector is typically used to supply power to the PCIe graphics card. See Book 2, Chapter 1.
  12. C. In today’s day and age you should avoid the WEP encryption protocol when configuring wireless security because the encryption with WEP is easy to crack. When encrypting wireless traffic always use the newer protocols such as WPA2. See Book 8, Chapter 2.
  13. D. Network address translation, or NAT, is a network service that allows multiple systems and devices on the network to access the Internet using a single IP address. NAT is typically a service provided with routers. See Book 8, Chapter 1.
  14. B. When NTFS permissions conflict with shared folder permissions, the most restrictive permission will be the effective permission. In this case, read is more restrictive than modify. See Book 8, Chapter 3.
  15. D. Before trying to configure virtual machines on the system you should verify that virtualization support has been enable within the BIOS. See Book 2, Chapter 4.
  16. A. A denial of service attack (DoS) is when a system is overloaded with request from a hacker, which causes the server to be unresponsive to valid request from client, or eventually crashes the server. See Book 9, Chapter 1.
  17. C. The default gateway address is incorrect. The default gateway address must reference the same network ID as your client system; in this case, the address should start with the network ID of 192.168.1.x instead of 192.168.2.x. See Book 8, Chapter 3.
  18. B. The third step in the CompTIA problem is Test the theory to determine cause. You can review all six steps in Book 1, Chapter 2.
  19. D. Taskkill.exe supports several options to terminate a task either by name or by PID. To terminate a task by PID you would use taskkill.exe /PID 3375 and to terminate by name you would use taskkill.exe /IM notepad.exe. Read through Book 6, Chapter 3.
  20. B. The only device which protects against a blackout is a UPS. See Book 2, Chapter 6.
  21. C. The System Configuration Utility (msconfig.exe) can be used to perform a selective startup of Windows to assist in troubleshooting issues. Defrag.exe is used to defragment the disk, diskpart.exe is used to partition a disk, and chkdisk.exe is used to check your disks for errors. See Book 6, Chapter 4.
  22. A. To reduce the chance of ESD, you should increase the relative humidity. ESD risks are increased in dry air. Locate this information in Book 4, Chapter 1.
  23. D. The command gpupdate is used to trigger the processing of Activity Directory GPOs, while gpresult will display the effective results of GPOs. The command attrib is used to adjust file attributes, such as read-only and archive, while expand is used to expand compressed system files. See Book 5, Chapter 5.
  24. A. The command to change permissions is chmod, while chown will change the owner and group who has access to the resource. The grep command will display and filter contents of files or output from commands, and iwconfig is used to manage wireless configurations. Review Book 5, Chapter 1.
  25. D. The BCD or Boot Configuration Database stores boot configuration settings which are used during the boot process. The file ntoskrnl.exe is the operating system kernel, winload.exe is the operating system loader, and ntdetect.com was an OS load file from older Windows OSes. Review Book 5, Chapter 6.

Book 1

Setting the A+ Groundwork

Contents at a Glance

Chapter 1: The 2015 A+ Exams

Chapter 2: A+ Soft Skills

Chapter 3: Protecting Yourself and Your PC

Chapter 4: An Overview of System Components

Chapter 1

The 2015 A+ Exams

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding A+ Certification and its benefits

Looking at the exams and their objectives

Preparing for the exams

Arranging to take the exams

Test day

So, you are interested in taking the CompTIA A+ Certification Exams? This chapter introduces you to the exams and gives you a good idea of what you can expect when you go to take them. Knowing what to expect in regard to the exam procedures and format will remove that uncertainty, which can weigh on your mind. Read through the procedures here; then you will be able to focus on the exam facts, which will help you breeze through the exams.