CompTIA core 1 pt 2

A47. Which mobile device connection is commonly used for making payments at a store checkout? ❍ A. NFC ❍ B. Infrared ❍ C. Cellular ❍ D. Bluetooth

T he Answer: A. NFC NFC (Near Field Communication) is designed to transfer small amounts of data wirelessly over a limited area. It's common to use a smart phone or smart watch with a credit card terminal to pay for goods or services.

A46. A user in the manufacturing department reports that every page printed from the central networked laser printer has a single black line that extends from the top of the page to the very bottom. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of this issue? ❍ A. The fuser is damaged ❍ B. The printer is out of memory ❍ C. The photosensitive drum is damaged ❍ D. The toner is low

T he Answer: C. The photosensitive drum is damaged A scratched photosensitive drum would cause a line to appear down the printed page as the toner sticks to the scratched part of the drum. Some printers allow individual drums to be replaced, and others require the entire toner cartridge with drum to be replaced. Once the scratched drum is replaced, the black line will no longer appear on the printer output.

A64. A manager is able to receive email messages on their tablet, but they're having problems configuring the tablet to send email messages. Which of the following should be the FIRST troubleshooting step? ❍ A. Check the SMTP settings ❍ B. Check the IP address configuration ❍ C. Send a test message using web-based email ❍ D. Check the IMAP settings

The Answer: A. Check the SMTP settings If you're sending an email message from an email client, you're commonly using SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol). There are three SMTP configuration settings that are important; the SMTP server name or IP address, the SMTP username, and the SMTP password.

A55. A user in a SOHO office needs to connect a laptop to the DSL router. Which of the following cables should be used for this connection? ❍ A. Ethernet ❍ B. Lightning ❍ C. Coaxial ❍ D. USB-C

The Answer: A. Ethernet A SOHO (Small Office Home Office) with a DSL (Digital Subscriber Link) modem will commonly connect to the modem using an Ethernet cable connection.

A49. When printing a document on a laser printer, a user finds that all of the text on the page smears when touched. What is the MOST likely cause of this issue? ❍ A. Fuser is damaged ❍ B. Toner cartridge is low ❍ C. Photosensitive drum has been scratched ❍ D. Incorrect printer driver is installed ❍ E. Printer cleaning process is not working

The Answer: A. Fuser is damaged The fuser permanently melts the toner to the paper using heat and pressure. If the fuser is not working, the toner will easily smear when touched.

A58. A system administrator created a series of VMs that will use a portion of a server's available physical memory. Which of the following describes this cloud computing characteristic? ❍ A. Resource pooling ❍ B. Rapid elasticity ❍ C. Metered ❍ D. On-demand

The Answer: A. Resource pooling Resource pooling places all of the computing resources in one place, and then distributes from the pool when needed. A VM (Virtual Machine) manager using a portion of available physical memory is taking advantage of resource pooling.

A56. A user in the accounting department has turned on their computer and received the message "Date and Time not set." Which of the following would be the MOST likely reason for this message? ❍ A. The motherboard battery has discharged ❍ B. Windows update has rebooted the computer ❍ C. Daylight Saving Time occurred during the weekend ❍ D. The BIOS was just upgraded

The Answer: A. The motherboard battery has discharged The battery on a motherboard is used to maintain the date and time configuration when the computer is not connected to a power source. If the battery has discharged, the computer will not be able to maintain the proper time and an error message will appear during startup.

A84. A server administrator is upgrading the memory in a web server from 16 GB of non-ECC RAM to 64 GB of ECC RAM. After starting the system with the new memory, the computer beeps and nothing is displayed on the screen. Changing the number and location of new RAM modules results in the same beeping sounds and blank screen. After replacing the original 16 GB modules, the system starts normally. Which of the following is the MOST likely reason for this issue? ❍ A. The new memory is not compatible with the motherboard ❍ B. The new memory is faulty ❍ C. The BIOS needs to be updated ❍ D. The system is overheating during the startup process

The Answer: A. The new memory is not compatible with the motherboard ECC (Error Correcting Code) memory is designed to detect errors and correct them on the fly. Not all systems use ECC memory, and it's important that the memory matches the motherboard requirements. If non-ECC RAM (Random Access Memory) is replaced with ECC RAM and the system fails to start, then the issue is most likely associated with the change from non-ECC to ECC RAM.

A86. Which of the following is used to forward traffic based on a destination MAC address? ❍ A. Unmanaged switch ❍ B. Repeater ❍ C. Router ❍ D. Firewall

The Answer: A. Unmanaged switch Switches determine how traffic is forwarded based on the destination MAC (Media Access Control) address in the frame. The qualification of managed or unmanaged is not important in this case, since both types of switches make forwarding decisions the same way. The difference between a managed and unmanaged switch are based on other features not associated with the forwarding process.

A59. A group of wireless laptops in a conference room are reporting intermittent connectivity issues. The wired computers in the room are not experiencing any network problems. A check of the laptops shows that the IP addresses and configurations appear to be correct. Which of the following would be the best NEXT troubleshooting step? ❍ A. Verify the wireless signal strength ❍ B. Check the ARP table on the default gateway ❍ C. Confirm the operation of the DHCP server ❍ D. Perform a wire map on the network drops

The Answer: A. Verify the wireless signal strength Since the wired devices are working properly, the troubleshooting process should focus on the wireless network. The connectivity is also intermittent, which means that the network is operating normally during certain periods. This would move the focus from the network configuration to an availability issue.

A78. A network administrator is installing a wireless access point in a new conference room. Which of these settings would provide the BEST security for this installation? ❍ A. WPA2 encryption ❍ B. SSID suppression ❍ C. Static IP addressing ❍ D. UPnP ❍ E. MAC filtering

The Answer: A. WPA2 encryption Configuring WPA2 (Wi-Fi Protected Access II) encryption would prevent unauthorized users from accessing the wireless network and would encrypt the data sent over the wireless network.

A72. Which of these connection types use coax to provide Internet data, voice, and video over the same wire? ❍ A. DSL ❍ B. Cable ❍ C. ISDN ❍ D. Dialup

The Answer: B. Cable Cable television brought cable into everyone's home, and now they include voice and Internet services on the same coax cable.

A53. What is the minimum category of unshielded copper cable that would run a 10 gigabit per second Ethernet link with a fifteen meter distance? ❍ A. Category 5 ❍ B. Category 6 ❍ C. Category 5e ❍ D. Category 6A

The Answer: B. Category 6 The physical characteristics of networking cables are separated into categories. A category 6 cable can support a ten gigabit per second 10GBASE-T network to a distance of thirty-seven to fifty-five meters.

A62. A manager in the marketing department is printing many copies of a twenty page document. The manager would like to print all twenty pages of the document before the next copy begins printing. What setting should the manager configure in the output settings? ❍ A. Duplex ❍ B. Collate ❍ C. Quality ❍ D. Orientation

The Answer: B. Collate The printing of multiple copies in their proper order is called collating the output. If the output was not collated, all of the page one copies would print, then all of the page 2, etc.

A69. A site manager has found that her smartphone has a short battery life when used at work, and the battery life is normal when working from home. The work location has limited mobile service reception, but most office services are provided over the local 802.11 Wi-Fi network. The site manager does not enable Bluetooth on her smartphone. Which of the following would be the BEST way to extend the battery life of her mobile device? ❍ A. Disable 802.11 Wi-Fi ❍ B. Disable the cellular radio at work ❍ C. Replace the battery ❍ D. Enable Bluetooth on the mobile device

The Answer: B. Disable the cellular radio at work When a mobile provider's network isn't available, a phone will constantly try to reconnect to a cellular network. This reconnection process constantly uses the radio, and subsequently more of the battery is used in the process. To conserve battery life, it would be useful to disable the cellular network connection when outside of a coverage area.

A87. A system administrator made some BIOS changes to a desktop computer running Windows 10, and now this message appears when starting the computer: "This drive can only boot in UEFI mode." Which of the following would be the BEST next troubleshooting step? ❍ A. Modify the boot drive sequence ❍ B. Enable Secure Boot ❍ C. Remove the BIOS password ❍ D. Boot the system with the Windows setup media

The Answer: B. Enable Secure Boot Secure Boot is part of the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) standard for a computer BIOS (Basic Input Output System). Secure Boot ensures that the underlying operating system has not been modified by malware or any other process.

A68. A system administrator has configured a VM for dual processors, 16 GB of RAM, and 120 GB of disk space. Which of the following is required to start this VM? ❍ A. Shared network address ❍ B. Hypervisor ❍ C. Virtual switch ❍ D. Video display

The Answer: B. Hypervisor A hypervisor, or virtual machine manager, is the software that manages the virtual platform and guest operating systems.

A48. A company is planning to use a cloud-based file storage service to store, share, and synchronize files across all company devices. Which of the following would be the MOST important resource requirement for this service? ❍ A. Local storage capacity ❍ B. Internet bandwidth ❍ C. CPU utilization ❍ D. System memory

The Answer: B. Internet bandwidth Cloud-based services work almost exclusively over the network, and file synchronization services will require additional bandwidth to process constant updates and changes over the network.

A89. A technician is installing a DSL modem at a SOHO facility. Which of the following connectors would be used to connect the DSL modem to the Internet provider line? ❍ A. RS-232 ❍ B. RJ11 ❍ C. BNC ❍ D. F-connector

The Answer: B. RJ11 The RJ11 connector (Registered Jack 11) is the modular connector commonly associated with analog POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) lines. Since DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) uses the existing telephone lines, the DSL connection from an Internet Service Provider will also use those same lines with RJ11 connectors. These connectors will be the same for both residential, large-scale commercial, and SOHO (Small Office / Home Office) use.

A51. A company is developing an internal application that will run on smartphones and tablets. What should the application use to simplify the authentication process? ❍ A. Strong passwords ❍ B. SSO ❍ C.VPN ❍ D. SSL

The Answer: B. SSO SSO (Single Sign-on) is a method of centralizing authentication to a common database. This allows the users to authenticate once with a single username and password, and those credentials will be used across all services.

A61. When pressing the power button on a desktop computer, the power indicator lights up but the computer does not display any message on the screen. The voltage at the wall outlet has been checked with a multimeter and it appears to be normal. The motherboard power connector voltage was checked, and the 12 volt pin was showing 6 volts. What is the MOST likely cause of this issue? ❍ A. The components that use 12 volt power are faulty ❍ B. The power supply is faulty ❍ C. The wall outlet voltage does not match the power supply ❍ D. The motherboard is faulty

The Answer: B. The power supply is faulty If the 12 volt line from the power supply to the motherboard is showing 6 volts, it's likely a problem with the power supply itself. A power supply replacement should be the next troubleshooting step for this system.

A54. An engineer has manually configured IP addresses for a small office that uses a cable modem for Internet connectivity. However, none of the devices configured with a manual IP address are able to browse Internet websites. All devices are connected to the cable modem with twisted-pair Ethernet cables. This is the configuration of one device: 88 IP address: 192.168.1.7 Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 Default gateway: 192.168.1.1 DNS: 192.168.1.7 The engineer can successfully ping the local IP address and the default gateway address. Which of the following should be the NEXT troubleshooting step? ❍ A. Check for duplicate IP addresses ❍ B. Replace the Ethernet cable ❍ C. Check the DNS configuration ❍ D. Replace the cable modem

The Answer: C. Check the DNS configuration One of the most noticeable of the IP (Internet Protocol) configuration settings was that the DNS (Domain Name Service) server IP address was configured to be the same as the local device. Since DNS servers are commonly separate (and often remote) devices, it would be unusual to see a DNS configured with the same IP address of the local device. The next step should be to confirm the DNS settings with the local network administrator.

A67. A new SOHO remote site includes the installation of IoT lights, thermostats, and cameras. Which of the following would be the BEST way to protect the rest of the network against IoT hacking? ❍ A. Use WPA2 encryption ❍ B. Configure SSID suppression on the wireless network ❍ C. Connect the IoT devices to a DMZ ❍ D. Configure static IP addressing

The Answer: C. Connect the IoT devices to a DMZ One of the concerns around IoT (Internet of Things) is that a single exploit of an IoT device can potentially put the entire network at risk. To avoid this issue, it's useful to put IoT devices into their own protected network, such as a DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). This means that if an IoT device was exploited, the attacker would not have any access to the more important devices and services on the rest of the network.

A73. A desktop administrator has been asked to troubleshoot a laptop computer that beeps during the power on process while the laptop screen remains dark. Which of the following would be the best NEXT troubleshooting step? ❍ A. Implement a solution ❍ B. Document findings ❍ C. Establish a theory ❍ D. Evaluate results

The Answer: C. Establish a theory Once an issue has been identified, it's important to consider all of the possible reasons the problem may have occurred. It's useful to list all possible causes, even those that might not be obvious.

A90. Which of the following would be the BEST choice for capturing an image from a printed page and saving it on a computer? ❍ A. QR code reader ❍ B. Optical drive ❍ C. Flatbed scanner ❍ D. Webcam

The Answer: C. Flatbed scanner A flatbed scanner is designed to capture images from paper and convert them into digital form.

A75. A company is deploying cloud-hosted virtual desktops for training room classes. The VMs have already been configured in the cloud. Which of the following is required to access these VMs using thin clients in the training room? ❍ A. High-end video cards ❍ B. Separate Internet connection ❍ C. Mouse, keyboard, and monitor ❍ D. Category 6A cabling

The Answer: C. Mouse, keyboard, and monitor Cloud-hosted virtual desktops are a type of VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure). Access to the desktop is provided over a remote access- style client, and access can be provided from almost any operating system using a low-bandwidth network connection. The client device is usually a thin-client that has a minimum set of resources, a mouse, keyboard, and a monitor.

A76. A technician has connected a laptop to an LCD display. The LCD display is presenting the correct information, but all of the content appears to be compressed vertically. Which of the following is the MOST likely reason for this issue? ❍ A. The LCD display is faulty ❍ B. The laptop display adapter is incompatible with the LCD display ❍ C. The laptop resolution is incorrect ❍ D. The LCD display cable is faulty

The Answer: C. The laptop resolution is incorrect An LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) has an optimal resolution that is based on the physical dimensions of the display. If the resolution settings in the operating system don't match the physical display, then the information on the screen may appear blurry or skewed. Configuring the correct resolution in the operating system will commonly resolve this issue.

A70. A desktop computer has just abruptly shut off, and pressing the power button doesn't restart the system. There are no fans spinning, no lights are on, and no messages appear on the display. Which of these would be the MOST likely cause of this issue? ❍ A. The BIOS is configured with a startup password ❍ B. The LCD display backlight has failed ❍ C. The power supply is faulty ❍ D. The master boot record is corrupted ❍ E. The boot sector is missing

The Answer: C. The power supply is faulty A faulty power supply could cause a loss of power across all computer systems, and the lack of fans, lights, and output on the display would be the most likely cause given the available options.

A74. A manager is complaining of short battery life on their laptop when traveling. Which of the following should be disabled to provide the BEST battery conservation? ❍ A. Internal speakers ❍ B. Webcam ❍ C. Smart card interface ❍ D. Bluetooth ❍ E.Touchpad

The Answer: D. Bluetooth Bluetooth, and any radio-based communication, constantly uses some of the power, and those systems can quickly deplete the battery. If you're not going to be using wireless devices, then it's useful to place the device in airplane mode or disable Bluetooth, 802.11, and cellular radios.

A50. A manager's computer is able to connect to Internet sites while in conference rooms or in the building courtyard. When the laptop is brought back to the manager's desk and placed into the docking station, the Internet access is unavailable but all other features are working. Which of the following should be the FIRST troubleshooting task for this issue? ❍ A. Replace the docking station power supply ❍ B. Upgrade the laptop BIOS ❍ C. Replace the docking station ❍ D. Check the docking station network cable

The Answer: D. Check the docking station network cable The Internet access on the laptop appears to be working properly on the wireless network, but the docking station connection would use a wired Ethernet connection. If everything else is working properly, then the issue would most likely be associated with the Ethernet interface in the docking station.

A71. What kind of device is commonly used to filter traffic based on a predefined set of rules? ❍ A. PoE switch ❍ B. Repeater ❍ C. DSL modem ❍ D. Firewall

The Answer: D. Firewall A firewall is designed to evaluate inbound traffic, compare that traffic to predefined security policies, and then allow or block that traffic from passing through the firewall. Firewalls are common security appliances between an organization's internal network and the Internet.

A60. A server administrator has been asked to troubleshoot a system that has been slowing down over time. While examining the computer, the administrator can hear a series of clicks from the inside of the case. Which of the following should be the FIRST step to address this issue? ❍ A. Replace the motherboard ❍ B. Power the system off and back on ❍ C. Replace the hard drive ❍ D. Perform a full backup of the server ❍ E. Replace the power supply

The Answer: D. Perform a full backup of the server A clicking noise indicates some type of hardware issue with the computer, so the first step would be to confirm that a recent backup is available for all of the data on this system. If the computer fails completely, at least the data will be secure.

A77. An engineering firm is upgrading their storage array to include additional drive space for documents and designs. The primary goal is to provide high performance and uptime, even if two drives were to fail. Which of the following would be the BEST choice for this firm? ❍ A. RAID 1 ❍ B. RAID 5 ❍ C. RAID 0 ❍ D. RAID 10

The Answer: D. RAID 10 RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a method of combining storage drives together to add speed and/or redundancy. A RAID 10 array is a nested RAID configuration that creates a mirrored set of RAID 0 drives. As long as only one drive fails in each RAID 0 mirror, the redundancy will remain valid and the user's data will continue to be available.

A81. A company has designed an application platform to scale up when the application use increases during the day, and scale back down at night. Which of the following BEST describes this characteristic of cloud computing? ❍ A. Resource pooling ❍ B. Measured service ❍ C. Hybrid ❍ D. Rapid elasticity

The Answer: D. Rapid elasticity Scaling up and down as needed is a significant characteristic of cloud computing. This allows organizations to manage and pay for resources when busy, but save time and money when the resources are no longer needed.

A88. A user has spilled coffee on their laptop keyboard, and now the system will not start. The laptop contains a presentation for an upcoming conference. Which of the following would be the BEST way to gain access to this presentation? ❍ A. Boot the system with a drive image utility ❍ B. Connect an external monitor and boot from a USB drive ❍ C. Boot to the Windows Recovery Environment ❍ D. Remove the storage drive and place it into an external enclosure

The Answer: D. Remove the storage drive and place it into an external enclosure The current laptop will not boot due to the liquid damage, so the only option would be to remove the storage device from this laptop and use a different computer to access the required presentation files.

A82. A user's tablet has stopped responding to any type of finger input on the screen. The clock and other tablet functions appear to be working. Which of the following would be the BEST way to correct this issue? ❍ A. Replace the screen ❍ B. Reset the wireless network ❍ C. Connect to a power source ❍ D. Restart the tablet

The Answer: D. Restart the tablet Before making any changes to hardware or software, it's useful to restart the tablet to see if a software glitch may have been the underlying issue.

A63. A remote user is visiting their corporate office. They are trying to connect their laptop to the office wireless network, but the network name does not appear in the list of available wireless networks. Which of the following would be the most likely reason for this issue? ❍ A. There is interference with the wireless signal ❍ B. The laptop has been assigned an APIPA address ❍ C. The user does not have permission to use the wireless network ❍ D. SSID broadcasts have been disabled

The Answer: D. SSID broadcasts have been disabled The name of the wireless network, or SSID (Service Set Identifier) is normally broadcast to all nearby devices. If the SSID broadcasts are administratively disabled, the network name will not appear in the drop- down list of available wireless networks.

A85. A workstation has been assigned an APIPA address. Which of the following would be the MOST likely reason for this configuration? ❍ A. The workstation is not connected to the wireless network ❍ B. The DNS server is misconfigured ❍ C. The network is using public Internet addresses ❍ D. The DHCP server is down

The Answer: D. The DHCP server is down APIPA (Automatic Private IP Addressing) is an IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) link-local addressing scheme. If a device does not have a static IP address and an address is not available from a DHCP server, the local device will assign itself an APIPA address so that communication to other APIPA devices on the same subnet will be available.

A79. A university library needs to purchase a new printer for an open study area. The primary requirement of this printer is to be as quiet as possible. Which of these printer types would be the best fit for this requirement? ❍ A. Dot-matrix ❍ B. Inkjet ❍ C. Laser ❍ D.Thermal

The Answer: D. Thermal Of the available options, thermal printers are the quietest. The only moving parts in a thermal printer are the motors that push the paper through the printer, and those motors are small and run almost silently.

A83. A user would like to connect a tablet to their laptop computer using 802.11, but they are in a location without a wireless access point. Which of the following would be the BEST way to make this connection? ❍ A. Enable Bluetooth discovery on the tablet ❍ B. Configure infrastructure mode on both devices ❍ C. Create shared folders on the laptop computer ❍ D. Use ad hoc mode

The Answer: D. Use ad hoc mode Ad hoc mode allows two devices to directly communicate over an 802.11 wireless link without using an access point.

A65. A user is reporting that a shared laser printer in the marketing department is not printing from one particular application. The front panel of the printer shows that the printer is online and ready to receive print jobs. Other users in the department are able to successfully print to the printer. Which of the following would be the BEST next troubleshooting step? ❍ A. Power cycle the printer ❍ B. Restart the print spooler ❍ C. Perform a test print from the printer console ❍ D. Verify the network printer name in the application

The Answer: D. Verify the network printer name in the application We know that the printer is working normally because other people are able to print successfully. This also means that the spooling process is working and that the print server is successfully queuing the print jobs. Given the other options, it's most likely that the user is directing the print job to a different printer.

A66. A network administrator is connecting four company locations that reside in different countries. Which of the following would BEST describe this configuration? ❍ A. LAN ❍ B. PAN ❍ C.MAN ❍ D. WAN

The Answer: D. WAN A WAN (Wide Area Network) connects LANs across a long geographical distance. Once the link extends past the local city area, the connection would be considered a WAN link.

A80. Which of the following would be the BEST choice for reading textbooks in bright sunlight? ❍ A.Tablet ❍ B. Augmented reality ❍ C. Wearable technology ❍ D. e-Reader

The Answer: D. e-Reader e-Readers are standalone book and magazine reading devices that are often designed with electronic paper or electronic ink technology. The electronic ink screens on the e-Readers are specifically designed for reading text-based content in bright sunlight.

A52. One of the software developers in your company would like to install six virtual machines on their desktop for application testing. Each VM would run a different operating system, but only one VM would be running at any particular time. Which of the following components would be the MOST important for this configuration? (Choose TWO) ❍ A. Video adapter RAM ❍ B. Hard drive space ❍ C. Gigabit NIC ❍ D. System RAM ❍ E. Enhanced audio

The Answers: B. Hard drive space and D. System RAM Six virtual machines will require enough hard drive space to install all six operating systems, so it will be important to have enough free storage space. Running more than one operating system at a time on a computer also requires additional memory, so having enough system RAM is also an important consideration.

A57. A technician has just replaced a broken touch screen on a laptop used for trade shows. However, the touch functionality is no longer working on the display. Which of the following would be the MOST likely reason for this issue? (Select TWO) ❍ A. The digitizer is not calibrated ❍ B. The replacement screen is not a touch screen ❍ C. The BIOS needs to be updated ❍ D. The display resolution is incorrect ❍ E. The digitizer is not properly connected ❍ F. The wireless network is conflicting with the digitizer

The Answers: B. The replacement screen is not a touch screen, and E. The digitizer is not properly connected When replacing a touch screen display, it's important to make sure the replacement is also a touch screen unit. The two look almost identical, so it would be a common mistake to accidentally install the wrong hardware. After installation, a separate connection is often required to enable the digitizer. If the display panel is the correct hardware, then it's important to check that all of the cables are connected, especially the cables specific to the digitizer features.