Test your basic knowledge |

Comptia A + Certification

Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. A protocol used by e-mail clients for communicating with e-mail servers. This protocol is replacing the POP protocol. IMAP allows users to connect to e-mail servers and not only retrieve e-mail - which removes the messages from the server - as they c






2. An assigned channel over which a device can send a signal to the processor to get its attention.






3. A protocol used with WPA wireless encryption that was broken by hackers.






4. A specialized type of scanner that reads bar codes - which are patterns of bars of varying widths printed on labels or directly on items. The bar pattern is converted into a numeric code that is transmitted to a computer as data.






5. The digital versatile disc (DVD) encoding format used for data storage.






6. In fiber-optics - a single light wave passing down a cable.






7. A unit of measurement of actual delivered power - calculated by the formula watts = volts






8. Aka Extended Video Graphics Array.






9. A connection over a wide area network.






10. A device used with a laptop. The port replicator remains on the desktop with external devices connected to ports on it. A laptop then needs only one connection to the port replicator to have access to the peripherals.






11. A storage type in Windows that uses the partition table in the master boot record (MBR) to define disk partitions.






12. A component of the Windows operating system that resides in a file and is loaded into memory during the kernel loading phase of the Windows startup.






13. A Windows command prompt utility that uses the WFP (Windows 2000 and Windows XP) or WRP (Windows Vista and Windows 7) service to scan and verify the versions of all protected system files after you restart your computer.






14. Aka Static RAM.






15. A file used during an unattended installation of Windows. It provides a script of responses to the questions Setup asks so the user does not have to answer them manually.






16. A plastic card - often the size of a credit card - that contains a microchip. The microchip can store information and perform functions - depending on the type of smart card. Some smart cards only store data - whereas others may have a variety of fun






17. A very old expansion bus standard - seen in the early IBM PC.






18. The smallest laptop type - weighing less than 3 pounds. Aka also netbook and mini-notebook.






19. Aka local area network.






20. The fine copper lines that are the electronic circuits through which power - data - and control signals travel on a circuit board.






21. A device that sits at the connection between networks and routes packets based on their logical destination addresses.






22. The act of moving through a neighborhood in a vehicle or on foot - using either a laptop equipped with Wi-Fi wireless network capability or a simple Wi-Fi sensor available for a few dollars from many sources. War drivers are searching for open hotspo






23. A service that manages Microsoft NetBIOS names for a Windows network. This service is becoming obsolete - as Windows has moved to DNS for naming and name service.






24. A type of printer that transfers ink to paper by causing a print head to strike a printer ribbon containing ink against the paper.






25. The utility to use when doing a single data and settings transfer to a new Windows Vista computer from one running Windows XP or Windows Vista.






26. Aka permanent virtual circuit.






27. The sudden and uncontrolled movement of electricity from an object with a greater charge to one with a lesser charge. Also called static electricity.






28. The redirection of incoming traffic to the requesting internal hosts that initiated the communication with an external host.






29. An extension of the SATA standard for external SATA devices - with speeds triple that of USB 2.0.






30. A drive that can write either to CD-R discs or to specially designed CD-RW discs. In the case of the CD-RW discs - the drive can write more than once to the same portion of disc - overwriting old data.






31. A generic reference to a PC's serial communications port - in which the x represents the port number.






32. A RAID array in which every time data is written to disk - a portion (block) is written to each disk in turn - creating a "stripe" of data across the member disks. RAID 0 uses the total disk space in the array for storage - without protecting the dat






33. This attack occurs when someone sends a large number of requests to a server - overwhelming the server so it stops functioning on the network.






34. The bus within a CPU that connects the CPU to external components.






35. Aka software firewall.






36. The displayable number of pixels - expressed as x and y numbers - such as 1024






37. An online power protection device that isolates a computer or other device plugged into it. During normal operation - the devices run directly off the battery through an inverter - rather than switching to the battery only after a loss of power.






38. A processor packaging that uses pads on the processor that come in contact with pins in the socket on the motherboard - permitting a higher density than possible with PGA.






39. A technology for ROM that can be reprogrammed using special software.






40. The signal in a television transmission that contains the color of the image.






41. A drive used for reading from and writing to removable floppy disks. Also called FDD.






42. A type of power supply that converts AC power to voltages needed for a device. AC adapters are generally used for portable PC systems and other devices.






43. A chip that retains system settings such as the time - keyboard settings - and boot sequence.






44. A cooling fan mounted directly on the case - as opposed to a power supply fan - which is inside the power supply.






45. The act of writing to two disk drives at the same time - creating identical drives.






46. Software that runs on the computers in a network and that receives services from servers.






47. Aka uninterruptible power supply.






48. The process that authenticates a user and verifies the user account's level of access to a resource.






49. Traditionally - this term only applied to the type of device described in the definition for analog modem. Now - it is also used for the digital devices in DSL and cable data communications.






50. An identifier assigned to a process when it starts.