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 round connector that gets its name from Deutsche Industrie Norm - a German standards organization. Normally a round connector with a circular or semicircle of pins.






2. Aka Domain Name Service.






3. Circuitry in a PC on an adapter card - or directly on the motherboard - that controls the output from the PC to the display device.






4. The plug at the end of a cable or the port or connection point on a computer or device.






5. A 20- or 24- pin connector that supplies power from a PC's power supply to the motherboard.






6. Aka serial ATA.






7. A WAN connection that uses existing copper telephone wire for the communication circuit. To accomplish this - a DSL modem splits the existing phone line into two bands; voice transmission uses the frequencies below 4000 Hz - whereas data transmission






8. Aka complementary metal-oxide semiconductor.






9. A double-sided - double-layer digital versatile disc (DVD) that stores 17.08 GB of data - or over eight hours of video.






10. A file or folder name that breaks the 8.3 file-naming convention used in the FAT file system. This term continues to be used on newer file systems.






11. Aka pin grid array.






12. Aka Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).






13. The type of battery used in the first portable PCs - which was heavy and inefficient.






14. A slide switch on the exterior of a PC power supply used to switch between two input voltages.






15. An action - such as the CTRL-ALT-DELETE key combination or the insertion of a smart card - that clears memory of certain types of viruses before a user logs on.






16. A parallel port mode that has the same performance as ECP but is used with parallel devices other than printers and scanners.






17. Aka Serial Attached SCSI.






18. Aka Wireless Fidelity.






19. The former name of the Parallel AT Attachment (PATA) interface standard.






20. Aka digitizing tablet.






21. Aka Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).






22. The practice of applying a digital signature to device driver code.






23. A process applied to digitally signed code to unencrypt the signature data and use the information to verify the program code was not modified since the signature was added.






24. Not revealing information about someone that would be harmful to or embarrass him or her.






25. A command-line command - installed with the TCP/IP protocol suite - which provides statistical information about the TCP/IP protocols and network connections involving your computer - depending on the switches you use when you enter the command.






26. A virtual tunnel created between two endpoints over an untrusted network. The tunnel is created by encapsulating the packets within special packets for the tunnel. Other security methods are also usually applied to a VPN - such as encrypting the data






27. The format in which IP addresses are usually shown - with decimal numbers separated by "dots" as in 192.168.100.2.






28. In an operating system GUI - a tiny graphic representing an application - folder - disk - menu item - or other entity.






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






30. In Windows - an Advanced Options menu choice that starts Windows without several drivers and components and loads only very basic - non-vendor-specific drivers for mouse - video - keyboard - mass storage - and system services. It also displays in low






31. Memory that does not require power to keep stored data intact. Also called flash memory.






32. A CPU containing two CPU cores.






33. Using the same cabling as 10BaseT - Fast Ethernet - or 100Base-T - operates at 100 Mbps and uses different network interface cards.






34. A TPM is a special microchip - installed on a motherboard - that stores passwords - keys - and digital certificates. Various services - such as BitLocker can store such security data in this chip.






35. Slang for motherboard.






36. Sony-Philips digital interface format






37. An obsolete memory module standard that was produced in 30-pin and 72-pin sizes. Thirty-pin SIMMs are 8-bit - and 72-pin SIMMs are 32-bit.






38. A type of memory checking in which every eight-bit byte of data is accompanied by a ninth bit (the parity bit) - which is used to determine the presence of errors in the data. The two types of parity are odd and even.






39. The "activity" status light on a NIC that indicates data is being transmitted.






40. A 9-pin D-shell connector.






41. 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.






42. Aka electromagnetic pulse.






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






44. The number of colors used by a display.






45. Aka distributed denial of service attack.






46. The delivery of electricity (as from a wall outlet) in which the flow of electrons reverses periodically and has alternating positive and negative values.






47. A fraudulent method of obtaining personal and financial information through the use of pop-ups or e-mail messages that purport to be from a legitimate organization - such as a bank - credit card company - or retailer.






48. The second version of the IEEE 1394 standard; it supports speeds up to 3.2 Gbps and distances of up to 100 meters.






49. 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






50. Aka logical block address.