Comptia A+ Core 1 -- TOTAL

Toner

Laser Printer Component:

• Powdered ink

Imaging Drum

Laser Printer Component:

• Photosensitive drum that the laser/LED write to

  • If scratched, it will leave visibile marks on the printout

Transfer Belts / Rollers

Laser Printer Component:

• Keep the colors aligned

Erase Lamp

Laser Printer Component:

• Clears the imagine drum

  • If not properly cleared, can result in “Ghosting”

Pickup Rollers

Laser Printer Component:

• Picks up paper from the tray

Separation Pads

Laser Printer Component:

• Separates paper to ensure the printer doesn’t pick up more than one sheet

Duplex Assembly

Laser Printer Component:

• Used to print on two sides of a page

Primary Corona Wire

Laser Printer Component:

• Charges the imaging drum

  • If this fails, the page will be blank or black

Transfer Corona Wire / Roller

Laser Printer Component:

• Pulls the toner onto the paper from the drum

  • If this fails, the page will be blank

Laser

Laser Printer Component:

• Writes to the imagine drum

Fuser

Laser Printer Component:

• Melts the toner onto the paper

  • If this fails, toner can rub off the pages

Processing

Laser Print Process:

• The printer recieves and processes the image and stores the page in memory

Charging

Laser Print Process:

• Places a very high negative charge on the photosensative drum using the charging corona

Exposing

Laser Print Process:

• The laser writes an image onto the drum by lowering the voltage

Developing

Laser Print Process:

• While the roller has a negative charge and the toner sticks to it…
  It rolls towards the photosensitive drum, and the toner is attracted to it

Transferring

Laser Print Process:

• The image is transferred from the drum to the paper

Fusing

Laser Print Process:

• A special roller and a pressure roller make the image permanent. The paper then exists the printer.

Cleaning

Laser Print Process:

• The printer uses a rubber scraper to clean the photosensitive drum

Impact Printer

• Uses ink in the form of an ink ribbon and prints via a mechanism striking the ribbon to transfer an image to the page.

  • Can print onto carbon paper

Thermal Printer

• Prints on heat sensitive paper

  • Does not use ink

PCL

• Device dependent

• Text focused

• Faster for everyday office documents

Post Script

• Device independent

• Vector focused

• Excels at complex graphics and desktop publishing

LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)

• Display Technology - Requires a backlight

  • Has a lower contrast ratio than the alternative

  • Most common in modern displays

TN (Twisted Nematic)

• LCD Display Technology

  • Very old

  • Bad viewing angle

  • Bad color

  • High refresh rate

IPS (In-Plane Switching)

• LCD Display Technology

  • Great color

  • Good viewing angles

  • Decent refresh rate

VA (Vertical Alignment)

• LCD Display Technology

  • Great color

  • Not-so-great refresh rate

OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode)

• Display Technology — DOESN’T require a backlight

  • Better contrast ratio with deeper blacks

  • Used in most smaller devices

  • Can suffer from “burn in”

Inverter

• Converts DC to AC for the backlight

(*Often the cause of “flickering” or screen dimness)

Screen Resolution

• The total number of individual dots (pixels) making up an image on a screen

Pixel Density

• How tightly pixels are packed together, measured in PPI (Pixels Per Inch)

Color Gamut

• The range of colors a display can produce

Overclocking

• Increase the CPU frequency by increasing the multiplier to get better performance

Hyperthreading

• An Intel based technology which allows a CPU core to process multiple instructions simultaneously

  • SMT (AMD)

CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor)

• Used to store configuration changes done to BIOS / UEFI

  • CR 2032 button battery

ITX (Information Technology eXtended)

• A low-power consumption, small form factor motherboard type used in industrial and embedded PC applications

Molex (Standard Connector)

Power Connector:

• 5v, 12v

SATA

Power Connector:

• 5v, 12v, 3.3v

PCIe

Power Connector:

• 6pin / 3 rails of 12v

• 8pin / 4 rails of 12v

ATX

Power Connector:

• 5v, 12v, 3.3v

• 20 - 24 pin

ATX12v

Power Connector:

• aka P4 connector

• Connects to the motherboard to power the CPU

110 - 120 VAC (low-line)

• The standard voltage range for most residential and commercial power outlets in the United States

220 - 240 VAC (high-line)

• The standard voltage range for most residential and commercial power outlets in the UK

Laptop / Notebook

HDD:

• 5,400 rpm

• 2.5” / 3.5”

Desktops

HDD:

• 7,200 rpm

• 2.5” / 3.5”

Gaming & Servers

HDD:

• 10,000 rpm

• 3.5”

Enterprise & Data Servers

HDD:

• 15,000 rpm

• 3.5”

eSATA

Cable

• 1.5 GBps - 6 GBps

USB

Cable

• 480 Mbps - 40 GBps

Thunderbolt

Cable

• 10 GBps - 80 GBps

Disk Striping

• A method of storage that spreads data bits across all disks in the array, increasing performance and capacity

Disk Mirroring

• Actively duplicates data bits across two disks to prevent data loss

Parity Data

• A small representative value that can be used to recreate data if data is lost

RAID 0

• Uses disk striping to combine drives into one larger and faster logical drive

  • + Speed / NO redundancy

RAID 1

• Provides data protection by mirroring data across two disks

  • NO Speed / + Redundancy

RAID 5

• Uses disk striping to combine drives into one larger and faster logical drive and distributes parity across all disks in the array

  • + Speed / + Redundancy

RAID 10 (1+0)

• Combines disks into RAID 1 arrays and then combines those arrays into a RAID 0 array

  • + Faster speed / + More redundancy

SATA 1

Cable (SATA):

• 1.5 GBps / 150 Mbps

SATA 2

Cable (SATA):

• 3 GBps / 300 Mbps

SATA 3

Cable (SATA):

• 6 GBps / 600 Mbps

NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express)

• PCIe based SSD drive which provides the best performance

M.2

• SSD form factor

B Key

M.2 Connector:

• SATA SSD

  • SATA cable

M Key

M.2 Connector:

• NVMe SSD

  • PCIe cable

B + M Key

M.2 Connector:

• SATA or NVMe SSD

  • SATA or PCIe cable

mSATA

• An older, portable device SSD form factor superseded by M.2

SAS (Serial Attached SCSI)

• High speed point-to-point serial protocol that moves data to and from computer storage devices.

Microsoft 365

• A subscription that allows for Office application installs, Windows licensing, and other Office 365 services

PRL (Preferred Roaming List)

• Information that the cellular radio needs to connect to the network

  • A PRL update can be triggered from the device’s Settings menu or by dialing a special code, such as *228

GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication)

• Subscribers use a removable SIM card to use an unlocked handset with their chosen network provider

CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)

• The handset is directly managed by the provider and there is no removable SIM card

ActiveSync

• A technology that allows email applications to connect to an Exchange server or Office 365 service

USB 2.0

Connector Interface:

• Maximum data transfer speed of 480 Mbps

USB 3.0

Connector Interface:

• Maximum data transfer speed of 5 Gbps

USB 3.2 - Gen 2

Connector Interface:

• Maximum data transfer speed of 10 Gbps

MOLEX

• Computer Interface — 4-pin power connectors, traditionally found in older computer systems

  • Often used to power devices such as case fans, optical drives, and older hard disk drives

SATA

• Computer Interface — 7-pin power connector

  • Used to connect storage devices (HDDs, SSDs, and optical drives) to a computer motherboard

802.11 a

• 5 GHz

• 54 Mb/s

802.11 b

• 2.4 GHz

• 11 Mb/s

802.11 g

• 2.4 GHz

• 54 Mb/s

802.11 n

• 2.4 / 5 GHz

• 300 / 600 Mb/s

802.11 ac

• 5 GHz

• 3.5 Gb/s

802.11 ax

• 2.4 / 5 / 6 GHz

• 9.6 Gb/s

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)

• Used to share files w/ users in a LAN or WAN

• Unencrypted

• port 20 / 21 (TCP)

SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol)

• Secure implentation of FTP

• Encrypted

• port 22 (TCP)

SSH (Secure Shell)

• Remote command line access to interface w/ a server

• Encrypted

• port 22 (TCP)

Telnet

• Remote command line access to interface w/ a server

• Unencrypted

• port 23 (TCP)

SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)

• Outgoing mail to server

• port 25 (TCP)

DNS (Domain Name System)

• Name to IP resolution

• port 53 (TCP / UDP)

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)

• Provides IP configuration via broadcast

• port 67 / 68 (UDP)

HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol)

• Transmit web pages

• Unencrypted

• port 80 (TCP)

POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3)

• Removes incoming mail from server

• port 110 (TCP)

NetBIOS (Network Basic Input / Output System)

• Provides network communication features in a Windows network

• port 137 / 139 (TCP / UDP)

IMAP (Internet Mail Access Protocol)

• Synchronizes mail w/ server

• port 143 (TCP)

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)

• Used to query and monitor host in LAN

• encrypted (version 3)

• port 161 / 162 (UDP)

LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)

• Used in domain based networks to facilitate system and user management

• port 389 (TCP / UDP)

HTTPS (HypterText Transfer Protocol Secure)

• Transmit web pages

• Encrypted using SSL or TLS

• port 443 (TCP)

SMB (Server Message Block)

• Provides file sharing, network browsing, and printing services.

  • Most common in Windows enviornments

• CIFS (Common Internet File System)

  • Open source implementation with built in support for Linux & Mac

• port 445 (TCP)

RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol)

• Securely access Windows desktop remotely

• port 3389 (TCP)

Long-Range Fixed Wireless

• Used to connect wireless devices over miles

• Unlicensed & Licensed (← FCC)

UTM (Unified Threat Managment)

• A combination of antimalware, firewall, and intrusion detection systems (IDS)