Wednesday, 9 December 2009

Interview Questions for L2 Engineer in Infrastructure Management Companies

Infrastructure management companies in India Like HCL, WIPRO, TCS, Microland, HP, EDS, MPHASIS, IBM, etc. Een other companies ask the below questions when recruiting a windows professional for L2 level. ===================================================================== These questions would help in the interviews conducted for positions open in Infrastructure management companies for the post of WINTEL L2 positions. These are common questions which are always asked. =================================================================== 1. How to check AD configured properly? Ans: Check NTDS and SYSVOL shared folder at %systemroot%windows\. 2. How to transfer global catalog to another domain? Ans: We can not transfer the global catalog; we can only remove the global catalog from one server and enable other server as a global catalog. 3. How to configure global catalog server? Ans: Go to Active directory site and services and expand till your desire servers NTDS settings and then right click; property and check mark the Global catalog check box. 4. What are the fsmo roles and it gets down what will impact? Ans: Flexible Single Master Operation, There are five roles. Domain Naming Master (Forest wide role) Schema Master (Forest wide role) PDC Emulator (Domain wide role) RID Master (Domain wide role) Infrastructure Master (Domain wide role) 5. What is the RID pool? Ans: RID Master provides the RID (Relative Identifier) pool to Domain controller of the Domain. When an object is create in a domain, a Unique SID (Security ID) is assigned to it which consisting of a RID (Unique ID) and a SID (Common ID for all Object), A RID pool contain 500 RIDs. 6. How to check FSMO roles running on which server? Ans: By using DCdiag /test:Knowsofroleholders /v command. ii) Type Netdom query fsmo 7. How to transfer FSMO role one domain controller to another domain controller command prompt and GUI? Ans: Go to Start Run dsa.msc go the property of users and computers and transfer

the RID, PDC, and Infrastructure roles. Go to Start Run go to the property of the active directory domain and trust and transfer the Domain naming master role For transferring schema master role, first we have to register the schema master by using regsvr32 schmgmt.dll command in run. Than Go start Run MMCAdd Active directory schema and transfer the schema master role. 8. What is AD data base file and log file where it stored is and what is the use of log file? Ans: AD Data base is NTDS.DIT and its location is %system root %\windows\NTDS\ntds.dit. AD Log files are EDB.log ,EDB.chk and REG.log and the location of there files are %system root%\windows\NTDS\ntds.dit. 9. How to recover corrupted AD data base file? 10. Is it possible to rename domain name in windows 2003? Ans: Yes, We can rename the domain name in windows 2003. 11. What are the two types of replication? Ans: Inter-site replication, Intra-site replication. 12. What are the protocols used in replication? 13. What is default time for replication? Ans: KCC (Knowledge Consistency Checker) is the algorithm and the two protocols used are RPC over IP and SMTP over IP. They replicate in every 15 min. 14. What is the difference between the two types of replication i.e. intrasite and intersite? Intersite replication is for replication with in the site and Intra-site replication is for the replication between the sites. 15. What are replication partition and tell about partition? Ans: FSMO role Partition Schema CN=Schema,CN=configuration, DC= Domain Naming Master CN=configuration,DC= PDC DC= RID DC= Infrastructure DC= Replication partitions are. Schema Partition Configuration Partition Domain Partition Application Partition 16. Is application partition available in windows 2003? Ans: Yes, Windows 2003 contains application partition, mainly application partition

contains the application information like: DNS 17. What is the DNS? Ans: Domain Naming System. Used to resolve the host name (FQDN) name to IP Address and Vice Versa 18. What are types of DNS and zones? (i)Primary DNS zone (ii)Secondary DNS zone (iii)Active directory integrated zone (IV)Stub zone 19. What is the authoritys record and is the use? 20. What are records available in dns? Ans: Address records, Host Records, MX Records, and CNAME records. 21. Explain about SRV, MX and CNAME records? 22. Where DNS file stored and data base of DNS? Ans: %SYSTEMROOT%\Windows\System32\DNS 23. How do configure DHCP Server and steps? 24. How to reserve IP address? Ans: We can assign a particular IP address to the MAC address of a machine using IP reservation in DHCP. 25. Why do we need two subnets? To segment or restrict one type of traffic to one segment. 26. Two different subnet, how to configure it in single DHCP server? Two different scopes are created for two subnets. 27. What is the use of relay agent? A router drops the DHCP packet as its a broadcast packet. The relay agent helps in sending it over to the destined subnet. 28. What is the group policy? Ans: It is way to provide the desirable predefined environment to all users and it is centrally manageable. 29. My requirement is to need disable USB port, how will you do? Through Group policy. 30. How to take backup group policy? Ans: We can use GPMC (Group Policy Management Console), right click on the GPO and select backup and take backup on destination folder

31. You are administrator; my requirement is to configure active directory for four different locations. How will you plan it? Ans: Depending on the requirement I' ll configure one parent domain and three child domains, or One domain with four sites, or four different domains (least preferred). 32. What are the two types terminal servers? User mode and applciation mode. 33. What is the default security group, groups give explanations? Ans: 34. You are maintaining remote servers that u can take remote but you cant to ping them, now how to troubleshoot? 35. What is use of Kerberos protocol? Ans: Kerberos protocol is an authentication protocol. 36. What is the version Kerberos protocol? Ans: We are using Kerberos V 5.0. 37. What is the authentication protocol in Windows NT? Ans:Windows NT supported two kinds of challenge/response authentication: LanManager (LM) challenge/response Windows NT challenge/response (also known as NTLM challenge/response) 38. What are RAID levels? Ans: Main RAID levels are RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-5 and RAID-10. 39. Which RAID you will recommend and why? Ans: RAID-1 for O.S - mirroring RAID-5 for DATA partition- Stripe set with parity. 40. What are the different RAID1 and RAID 5? RAID-1:- In RAID-1 two hard disk are there and the data on one is mirrored to another. So even if one fails other one is there with the same data for service continuity. RAID-5: We can use minimum three hard disk and maximum depend upon RAID controller card, Data written on disk in stripes with distributed parity set. 41. What are the Different between and disk mirroring and disk duplex? 42. What is the dynamic disk? 43. What is disk striping? 44. What are the backup types? Ans: (i) Normal or full Backup (ii) Deferential Backup (iii)Incremental Backup

(iv)Copy backup (v)Daily Backup 45. Which type backup reset archive bits? Ans:- The bit which have checked mark on that folder which have been normal backuped. 46. What is the use of DFS? Ans: Distributed File System, It is used for the fault tolerance because it makes the duplicate copy of every DFS root. Not only that the domain login process uses DFS to find out the nearest DC to login. 47. Do you know about FRS? Ans: File Replication Services. Example: Replication of SYSVOL folder. 48. What are difference between TCP and UDP protocol? Ans: TCP is a connection orientated protocol while UDP is not a connection orientated protocol. 49. What is different between HUB and Switch? Ans: HUB broadcast the data packet but Switches multicast the data packet into the network which reduces the collision of data packets. 50. Which layer working in router? Ans: One layer Three (Network layer) 51. You are going to migrate the domain how to plan? 52. For project requirement you going to share 20 folders what is the step you will take? 53. Why is it requiring VLAN? Ans: To divide/restrict the traffic to one segment of the network. 54. Right required to transfer FSMO roles? Ans. logged-on user should be a member of the Enterprise Administrators group to transfer Schema master or Domain naming master roles, or a member of the Domain Administrators group of the domain where the PDC emulator, RID master and the Infrastructure master roles are being transferred. 55. Write down the command line to transfer all the FSMO roles to other server? Ans: Click Start, click Run, type ntdsutil in the Open box, and then click OK Type roles, and then press ENTER. Type connections, and then press ENTER. Type connect to server servername, and then press ENTER, where servername is the name of the domain controller that you want to assign the FSMO role to.

At the server connections prompt, type q, and then press ENTER. Type transfer role, where role is the role that you want to transfer. For example, To transfer the RID master role, type transfer schema master To transfer the RID master role, type transfer domain naming master To transfer the RID master role, type transfer rid master To transfer the RID master role, type transfer pdc To transfer the RID master role, type transfer infrastructure master 7. At the fsmo maintenance prompt, type q, and then press ENTER to gain access to the ntdsutil prompt. 56. Write down the command line to seize all the FSMO roles to a server? Ans: Click Start, click Run, type ntdsutil in the Open box, and then click OK Type roles, and then press ENTER. Type connections, and then press ENTER. Type connect to server servername, and then press ENTER, where servername is the name of the domain controller that you want to assign the FSMO role to. At the server connections prompt, type q, and then press ENTER. Type seize role, where role is the role that you want to seize. For example, To seize the RID master role, type seize schema master To seize the RID master role, type seize domain naming master To seize the RID master role, type seize rid master To seize the RID master role, type seize pdc To seize the RID master role, type seize infrastructure master. 7. At the fsmo maintenance prompt, type q, and then press ENTER to gain access to the ntdsutil prompt. 57. Command for removing active directory? Ans: dcpromo /forceremoval 58. How to test whether a domain controller is also a global catalog server: Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Sites and Services. Double-click Sites in the left pane, and then locate the appropriate site or click Default-first-site-name if no other sites are available. Open the Servers folder, and then click the domain controller. In the domain controller's folder, double-click NTDS Settings. On the Action menu, click Properties. On the General tab, view the Global Catalog check box to see if it is selected.

Basic information on Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, RAID

DNS:A Domain Naming server is a hierarchical namespace structure designed to provide host to IP address name resolution and registration. DNS ZONE TYPE: Forward lookup zone: resolves names to IP address. Reverse lookup zone: resolves IP addresses to Host names. AD INTEGRATED ZONE ADintegrated DNS enables AD storage and replication of DNS zone databases. Windows 2000 & 2003 DNS servers which accommodates storing zone data in AD. When you configure a computer as a DNS server, zones are usually stored as text files on name servers that is, all of the zones required by DNS are stored in a text file on the server computer. These text files must be synchronized among DNS name servers by using a system that requires a separate replication topology and schedule called a zone transfer However, if you use AD integrated DNS you configure a domain controller as a DNS name server, zone data is stored as an AD object and is replicated as part of domain replication. STUB ZONE A Stub zone is a read only copy of a zone that contains only those resources records necessary to identify the authoritative DNS servers for the actual zone. A stub zone is used to keep a parent zone aware of authoritative DNS servers for a delegated zone and thereby maintain DNS name resolution efficiently. A stub zone is conposed of (A), (NS), (SOA) Types of DNS Records: A(Host): Represents a computer or device on the network. 'A'records are the most common and most used DNS records. PTR(Pointer): Used for finding the DNS name that corresponds to an IP address. The PTR is found only in the reverse lookup zone. NS(NameServer): The NS RRs facilitate delegation by identifying DNS servers for each zone. They appear in all forward and reverse look-up zones. SOA(Start Of Authority): The first record in any zone file is a SOA. the SOA identifies a primary DNS name server for the zone as the best source of information for the data within that zone and as an entity processing the updates for the zone. SRV(Service Record): Indicates a network service offered by a host.- CNAME(Alias):an alias is hostname that refers to another hostname. ========================================= DHCP: Is a standard for simplifing management of host IP configuration. SUPERSCOPE: Superscope is a administrative feature of DHCP server that you can

create and manage through the DHCP console. Using a Superscope you can group multiple scopes as a single administrative entity. DHCP Authorize: This procedure is usually only needed if you are running a DHCP server on a member server. In most cases, if you are installing a DHCP server on a computer also running as a domain controller, the server is automatically authorized the first time you add the server to the DHCP console. SCOPE: DHCP scope is a poole of IP addresses which are offered to DHCP clients. ========================================= WHAT ARE FSMO ROLES IN ACTIVE DIRECTORY? Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 Active directory follow the multimaster model. Under this model there are five roles which which can be held by the DCs (Domian Controllers). The five roles are given below: Schema Master: The schema master domain controller controls all updates and modifications to the schema. To update the schema of a forest, you must have access to the schema master. There can be only one schema master in the whole forest. Domain naming master: The domain naming master domain controller controls the addition or removal of domains in the forest. There can be only one domain naming master in the whole forest. Infrastructure Master: The infrastructure is responsible for updating references from objects in its domain to objects in other domains. At any one time, there can be only one domain controller acting as the infrastructure master in each domain. Relative ID (RID) Master: The RID master is responsible for processing RID pool requests from all domain controllers in a particular domain. At any one time, there can be only one domain controller acting as the RID master in the domain. PDC Emulator: The PDC emulator is a domain controller that advertises itself as the primary domain controller (PDC) to workstations, member servers, and domain controllers that are running earlier versions of Windows. For example, if the domain contains computers that are not running Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Microsoft Windows 2000 client software, or if it contains Microsoft Windows NT backup domain controllers, the PDC emulator master acts as a Windows NT PDC. It is also the Domain Master Browser, and it handles password discrepancies. At any one time, there can be only one domain controller acting as the PDC emulator master in each domain in the forest. What is replication in active directory? REPLICATION Replication is a process of sending update information for data that has changed in the directory to other domain controllers, as a Part of the AD planning an implementation process.*2000/2003 uses MULTI-MASTER replication for the AD. Types of UPDATES which force replication: Add, Modify, ModifyDN, delete USN: Update sequence numbers GUID: Globally unique identifier REPLICATION PARTITIONS: Schema Partition: contains object and attribute definitions. In other words it contains a list of definitions that define what objects

and attributes for those objects can exist in the AD.Configuration partition: contains information about the physical structure of the AD, such as the sites and domains and where DC resides in the enterprise. It is replicated to all DC's in the tree or forest.Domain partition: contains information about all AD objects that are specific to that domain, such as users, groups and other resources. All domain partition information is completely replicated to all domain controllers within the domain. REPLICATION TOPOLOGY KCC: Knowledge Consistency Checker: It builds the topology for the intrasite replication between the DCs. It uses only RPC to communicate with the directory service. Bridgehead server: A point where a replication information leaves or enters a site for intersite replication. BENIFITS Optimize replication for speed and bandwidth consumption between domain controllers. Locate the closest domain controller for client logon, services, and directory searches. Direct a Distributed File System (DFS) client to the server that is hosting the requested data within the site. Replicate the system volume (SYSVOL), a collection of folders in the file system that exists on each domain controller in a domain and is required for implementation of Group Policy ============================================================= What is RAID? ANS: Redundant Array of Inexpensive disk is a way to increase capaxity, performance and reliablility. RAID0: (Striping) Not really RAID as it has no fault tolerance, Data is striped across all disks, Excelent read/write performance. RAID1: (Mirroring) Need at least 2 drives, tolerates single drive failure, often used for OS drive or boot volume. RAID5: Requires at least 3 drives, data and parity striped across all disks, can tolerate failure of any one disk without losing data but performance does degrade. TCP/IP MODEL: Application Layer Transport Layer Internet Network Interface OSI MODEL Application Layer Presentation layer Session layer Transport Layer Network Layer

Data-link Layer Physical layer

What is a switch?
A network switch, or bridge, is a specialized device that connects multiple network segments. It's a more modern and efficient form of the ubiquitous (and outdated) network hub. A hub, also known as a repeater, is a simple device that has been used for years to connect all nodes, or computers, on a network to a central location. Each node on a network has a unique hardware address called a MAC address. A hub is known as a repeater because when a packet of data, or frame, is sent through the hub, it is repeated to each and every computer on the network.This means that if a 1 GB video is sent to one computer through the hub, the file will also be sent to all of the other computers on the hub. This is very inefficient for bandwidth management. "Hubs have two major drawbacks," says Ben deGonzague, a deployment engineer with TopCoder Software, a Glastonbury, Conn.-based software engineering firm. "First, network bandwidth is consumed as each and every frame is sent to all devices on a network. Second, your network is only as fast as the slowest device. Hubs have become obsolete with switching-based networks."A switch-based network is one that utilizes switches instead of hubs. A switch is a major upgrade to a hub. Instead of sending all network data to each and every network node, the switch will analyze the MAC address and determine where to send the data. Network bandwidth is not wasted by sending every frame to every port.So when a switch receives data for a file, if it was addressed to one computer it will only be sent there. The other computers on the network wouldn't know about it. This means that the network is now much more efficient, but it's also a step toward being more secure: "Since switches can segregate traffic from different nodes," says deGonzague, "this makes it more difficult for anyone to capture packets on your network.

What is a router?
While switches connect multiple computers, a router is required to connect multiple networks, like your LAN to the Internet. Routers work by storing large tables of networks and addresses, then using algorithms to determine the shortest routes to individual addresses within those networks. In this way efficient routers not only facilitate intra-network communications, but also play a role in overall network performance. delivering the information faster.While many consumers are familiar with small routers from companies like Linksys, which can be purchased for less than $50 at computer hardware stores, they shouldn't be confused with a proper router for business. "A typical router at home will connect your cable modem or DSL network to your internal network. This is just connecting two different networks. Routers for businesses on the other hand might have to connect several different networks," says deGonzague. Small business routers from vendors like Cisco often include management software, enabling IT staff to better manage network stability and, ultimately, performance.

How To Become A Desktop Engineer

Interview Questions =================== A) Tell me something about yourself. Tell about your eductaion, place you belong to, some struggle in life which shows that you have positive attitude and will to fight the odds. B) Technical Questions: 1) What is Active Directory? A central component of the Windows platform, Active Directory directory service provides the means to manage the identities and relationships that make up network environments. For example we can create, manage and administor users, computers and printers in the network from active directory. 2) What is DNS? Why it is used? What is "forward lookup" and "reverse lookup" in DNS? What are A records and mx records? DNS is domain naming service and is used for resolving names to IP address and IP addresses to names. The computer understands only numbers while we can easily remember names. So to make it easier for us what we do is we assign names to computers and websites. When we use these names (Like yahoo.com) the computer uses DNS to convert to IP address (number) and it executes our request. Forward lookup: Converting names to IP address is called forward lookup. Reverse lookup: Resolving IP address to names is called reverse lookup. 'A' record: Its called host record and it has the mapping of a name to IP address. This is the record in DNS with the help of which DNS can find out the IP address of a name. 'MX' Record: its called mail exchanger record. Its the record needed to locate the mail servers in the network. This record is also found in DNS. 3) What id DHCP? Why it is used? What are scopes and super scopes? DHCP: Dynamic host configuration protocol. Its used to allocate IP addresses to large number of PCs in a network environment. This makes the IP management very easy. Scope: Scope contains IP address like subnet mask, gateway IP, DNS server IP and exclusion range which a client can use to communicate with the other PCs in the network. Superscope: When we combine two or more scopes together its called super scope. 4) What are the types of LAN cables used? What is a cross cable? Types of LAN cables that are in use are "Cat 5" and "Cat 6". "Cat 5" can support 100 Mbps of speed and "CAT 6" can support 1Gbps of speed. Cross cable: Its used to connect same type of devices without using a switch/hub so

that they can communicate. 5) What is the difference between a normal LAN cable and cross cable? What could be the maximum length of the LAN cable? The way the paired wires are connected to the connector (RJ45) is different in cross cable and normal LAN cable. The theoritical length is 100 meters but after 80 meters you may see drop in speed due to loss of signal. 6) What would you use to connect two computers without using switches? Cross cable. 7) What is IPCONFIG command? Why it is used? IPCONFIG command is used to display the IP information assigned to a computer. Fromthe output we can find out the IP address, DNS IP address, gateway IP address assigned to that computer. 8) What is APIPA IP address? Or what IP address is assigned to the computer when the DHCP server is not available? When DHCP server is not available the Windows client computer assignes an automatic IP address to itself so that it can communicate with the network cmputers. This ip address is called APIPA. ITs in the range of 169.254.X.X. APIPA stands for Automatic private IP addressing. Its in the range of 169.254.X.X. 9) What is a DOMAIN? What is the difference between a domain and a workgroup? Domain is created when we install Active Directory. It's a security boundary which is used to manage computers inside the boundary. Domain can be used to centrally administor computers and we can govern them using common policies called group policies. We can't do the same with workgroup. 10) Do you know how to configure outlook 2000 and outlook 2003 for a user? Please visit the link below to find out how to configure outlook 2000 and outlook 2003.http://www.it.cmich.edu/quickguides/qg_outlook2003_server.asp 11) What is a PST file and what is the difference between a PST file and OST file? What file is used by outlook express? PST file is used to store the mails locally when using outlook 2000 or 2003. OST file is used when we use outlook in cached exchanged mode. Outlook express useds odb file. 12) What is BSOD? What do you do when you get blue screen in a computer? How

do you troubleshoot it? BSOD stands for blue screen of Death. when there is a hardware or OS fault due to which the windows OS can run it give a blue screen with a code. Best way to resolve it is to boot the computer is "LAst known good configuration". If this doesn't work than boot the computer in safe mode. If it boots up than the problemis with one of the devices or drivers. 13) What is RIS? What is Imaging/ghosting? RIS stands for remote installation services. You save the installed image on a windows server and then we use RIS to install the configured on in the new hardware. We can use it to deploy both server and client OS. Imaging or ghosting also does the same job of capturing an installed image and then install it on a new hardware when there is a need. We go for RIS or iamging/ghosting because installing OS everytime using a CD can be a very time consuming task. So to save that time we can go for RIS/Ghosting/imaging. 14) What is VPN and how to configure it? VPN stands for Virtual private network. VPN is used to connect to the corporate network to access the resources like mail and files in the LAN. VPN can be configured using the stepsmentioned in the KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305550 15) Your computer slowly drops out of network. A reboot of the computer fixes the problem. What to do to resolve this issue? Update the network card driver. 16) Your system is infected with Virus? How to recover the data? Install another system. Insall the OS with the lates pathces, Antivirus with latest updates. Connect the infected HDD as secondary drive in the system. Once done scan and clean the secondary HDD. Once done copy the files to the new system. 17) How to join a system to the domain? What type of user can add a system to the domain? Please visit the article below and read "Adding the Workstation to the Domain" http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/technologies/d irectory/activedirectory/stepbystep/domxppro.mspx 18) What is the difference between a switch and a hub? Switch sends the traffic to the port to which its meant for. Hub sends the traffic to all the ports. 19) What is a router? Why we use it?

Router is a switch which uses routing protocols to process and send the traffic. It also receives the traffic and sends it across but it uses the routing protocols to do so. 20) What are manageable and non manageable switches? Switches which can be administered are calledmanageable switches. For example we can create VLAN for on such switch. On no manageable swiches we can't do so.

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IT Helpdesk Questions
Technical Questions 1. What is NIC? A network card, network adapter or NIC (network interface controller) is a piece of computer hardware designed to allow computers to communicate over a computer network 2. What is USB? Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a serial bus standard to interface devices. Devices like Modem, Mouse, Keyboard etc can be connected. 3. Dialup vs. Broadband A broadband connection (ADSL) provides high-speed Internet access over a standard phone line. The advantage of a broadband connection over a standard dialup service, is that Broadband is considerably faster, and is "always-on", meaning that once you"re logged on, your PC is online until the PC is turned off again. Broadband offer high-speed Internet access and allows telephone calls and a permanent Internet connection to share a single phone line simultaneously whereas in Dialup connection either Internet connection or telephone call can made at given time. 4. LAN and WAN A local area network is a computer network covering a small geographic area, like a home, office, or group of buildings

Wide Area Network (WAN) is a computer network that covers a broad area (i.e., any network whose communications links cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries). Or, less formally, a network that uses routers and public communications links 5. Microsoft Access Microsoft Office Access, previously known as Microsoft Access, is a relational database management system from Microsoft. 6. What is RAS? Remote Access Services (RAS) refers to any combination of hardware and software to enable the remote access to tools or information that typically reside on a network of IT devices. 7. Difference between Client Mail and Web Mail? Email clients download your emails onto your computer. Using a specialized email program such as Outlook Express or Apple Mail has the advantage of giving you complete control over your email; every email you receive is placed on your computer and you can keep as many large file attachments as you want. Checking your email through our webmail is similar to using Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail. You never actually copy your messages to your computer; in fact, you are looking at them through your web browser on somebody else"s computer. When you are not online, you are not able to see your email. 8. RAM and ROM random access memory, a type of computer memory that can be accessed randomly; that is, any byte of memory can be accessed without touching the preceding bytes. RAM is the most common type of memory found in computers and other devices, such as printers. Pronounced rahm, acronym for read-only memory, computer memory on which data has been prerecorded. Once data has been written onto a ROM chip, it cannot be removed and can only be read. Unlike main memory (RAM), ROM retains its contents even when the computer is turned off. ROM is referred to as being nonvolatile, whereas RAM is volatile. 9. Spamguard Spam Guard is an Outlook add-in that filters email that arrives in your inbox. If the sender of any message cannot be identified then the message is moved into a spam quarantine folder. Messages deposited in the spam quarantine folder can be inspected

and either deleted or approved at your leisure.

10. Firewall and Antivirus A system designed to prevent unauthorized access to or from a private network. Firewalls can be implemented in both hardware and software, or a combination of both. Firewalls are frequently used to prevent unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks connected to the Internet, especially intranets. All messages entering or leaving the intranet pass through the firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria. Antivirus is a software program which helps protect a computer against being infected by a virus. 11. DNS Short for Domain Name System (or Service or Server), an Internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses. Because domain names are alphabetic, they"re easier to remember. The Internet however, is really based on IP addresses. Every time you use a domain name, therefore, a DNS service must translate the name into the corresponding IP address. For example, the domain name www.example.com might translate to 198.105.232.4. 12. IPConfig IPConfig is a command line tool used to control the network connections on Windows NT/2000/XP machines. There are three main commands: "all", "release", and "renew". IPConfig displays all current TCP/IP network configuration values and refreshes Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Domain Name System (DNS) settings. Used without parameters, IPConfig displays the IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway for all adapters. 13. Trace route Trace route is the program that shows you the route over the network between two systems, listing all the intermediate routers a connection must pass through to get to its destination. It can help you determine why your connections to a given server might be poor, and can often help you figure out where exactly the problem is. It also shows you how systems are connected to each other, letting you see how your ISP connects to the Internet as well as how the target system is connected.

Please find the technical questions: 1) What is IP Address ? 2) What are the layers of network ? 3) What are the different types of network ? 4) What is networking ? 5) What is the difference between OSI and TCP/IP Model ? 6) What is TCP/IP ? 7) What is HTTP? 8) What is Protocol ? 9) What is communication medium ? 10) What is PORT ? 11) What is SOCKET ? 12) What is the difference between PORT and SOCKET? 13) What is wireless networking ? 14) What is topology ? 15) What are the different types of topology ? 16) What is the size of IP Address? 17) What is FTP ? 18) What is SMTP ? 19) What are the different types of protocol ? 20) What is Dial-Up connection ? 21) What is Broad Band Connection? 22) What is the difference between Dial-up and broad band connection?

23) What IEEE standard for wireless networking? Ans: 802.11g 24) What is IEEE standard ? Ans: Institute of electrical and electronic engineer.They develop standard for networking
Posted by Chandan Patralekh at 05:41 0 comments

Thursday, 19 June 2008

Basic information on Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, RAID

DNS:A Domain Naming server is a hierarchical namespace structure designed to provide host to IP address name resolution and registration. DNS ZONE TYPE: Forward lookup zone: resolves names to IP address. Reverse lookup zone: resolves IP addresses to Host names. AD INTEGRATED ZONE ADintegrated DNS enables AD storage and replication of DNS zone databases. Windows 2000 & 2003 DNS servers which accommodates storing zone data in AD. When you configure a computer as a DNS server, zones are usually stored as text files on name servers that is, all of the zones required by DNS are stored in a text file on the server computer. These text files must be synchronized among DNS name servers by using a system that requires a separate replication topology and schedule called a zone transfer However, if you use AD integrated DNS you configure a domain controller as a DNS name server, zone data is stored as an AD object and is replicated as part of domain replication. STUB ZONE A Stub zone is a read only copy of a zone that contains only those resources records necessary to identify the authoritative DNS servers for the actual zone. A stub zone is used to keep a parent zone aware of authoritative DNS servers for a delegated zone and thereby maintain DNS name resolution efficiently. A stub zone is conposed of (A), (NS), (SOA) Types of DNS Records: A(Host): Represents a computer or device on the network. 'A'records are the most common and most used DNS records. PTR(Pointer): Used for finding the DNS name that corresponds to an IP address. The PTR is found only in the reverse lookup zone. NS(NameServer):

The NS RRs facilitate delegation by identifying DNS servers for each zone. They appear in all forward and reverse look-up zones. SOA(Start Of Authority): The first record in any zone file is a SOA. the SOA identifies a primary DNS name server for the zone as the best source of information for the data within that zone and as an entity processing the updates for the zone. SRV(Service Record): Indicates a network service offered by a host.- CNAME(Alias):an alias is hostname that refers to another hostname. ========================================= DHCP: Is a standard for simplifing management of host IP configuration. SUPERSCOPE: Superscope is a administrative feature of DHCP server that you can create and manage through the DHCP console. Using a Superscope you can group multiple scopes as a single administrative entity. DHCP Authorize: This procedure is usually only needed if you are running a DHCP server on a member server. In most cases, if you are installing a DHCP server on a computer also running as a domain controller, the server is automatically authorized the first time you add the server to the DHCP console. SCOPE: DHCP scope is a poole of IP addresses which are offered to DHCP clients. ========================================= WHAT ARE FSMO ROLES IN ACTIVE DIRECTORY? Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 Active directory follow the multimaster model. Under this model there are five roles which which can be held by the DCs (Domian Controllers). The five roles are given below: Schema Master: The schema master domain controller controls all updates and modifications to the schema. To update the schema of a forest, you must have access to the schema master. There can be only one schema master in the whole forest. Domain naming master: The domain naming master domain controller controls the addition or removal of domains in the forest. There can be only one domain naming master in the whole forest. Infrastructure Master: The infrastructure is responsible for updating references from objects in its domain to objects in other domains. At any one time, there can be only one domain controller acting as the infrastructure master in each domain. Relative ID (RID) Master: The RID master is responsible for processing RID pool requests from all domain controllers in a particular domain. At any one time, there can be only one domain controller acting as the RID master in the domain. PDC Emulator: The PDC emulator is a domain controller that advertises itself as the primary domain controller (PDC) to workstations, member servers, and domain controllers that are running earlier versions of Windows. For example, if the domain contains computers that are not running Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Microsoft Windows 2000 client software, or if it contains Microsoft Windows NT backup domain controllers, the PDC emulator master acts as a Windows NT PDC. It is also the Domain Master Browser, and it handles password discrepancies. At any one time, there can be only one domain controller acting as the PDC emulator master in

each domain in the forest. What is replication in active directory? REPLICATION Replication is a process of sending update information for data that has changed in the directory to other domain controllers, as a Part of the AD planning an implementation process.*2000/2003 uses MULTI-MASTER replication for the AD. Types of UPDATES which force replication: Add, Modify, ModifyDN, delete USN: Update sequence numbers GUID: Globally unique identifier REPLICATION PARTITIONS: Schema Partition: contains object and attribute definitions. In other words it contains a list of definitions that define what objects and attributes for those objects can exist in the AD.Configuration partition: contains information about the physical structure of the AD, such as the sites and domains and where DC resides in the enterprise. It is replicated to all DC's in the tree or forest.Domain partition: contains information about all AD objects that are specific to that domain, such as users, groups and other resources. All domain partition information is completely replicated to all domain controllers within the domain. REPLICATION TOPOLOGY KCC: Knowledge Consistency Checker: It builds the topology for the intrasite replication between the DCs. It uses only RPC to communicate with the directory service. Bridgehead server: A point where a replication information leaves or enters a site for intersite replication. BENIFITS Optimize replication for speed and bandwidth consumption between domain controllers. Locate the closest domain controller for client logon, services, and directory searches. Direct a Distributed File System (DFS) client to the server that is hosting the requested data within the site. Replicate the system volume (SYSVOL), a collection of folders in the file system that exists on each domain controller in a domain and is required for implementation of Group Policy ============================================================= What is RAID? ANS: Redundant Array of Inexpensive disk is a way to increase capaxity, performance and reliablility. RAID0: (Striping) Not really RAID as it has no fault tolerance, Data is striped across all disks, Excelent read/write performance. RAID1: (Mirroring) Need at least 2 drives, tolerates single drive failure, often used for OS drive or boot volume. RAID5: Requires at least 3 drives, data and parity striped across all disks, can tolerate failure of any one disk without losing data but performance does degrade.

TCP/IP MODEL: Application Layer Transport Layer Internet Network Interface OSI MODEL Application Layer Presentation layer Session layer Transport Layer Network Layer Data-link Layer Physical layer

What is a switch?
A network switch, or bridge, is a specialized device that connects multiple network segments. It's a more modern and efficient form of the ubiquitous (and outdated) network hub. A hub, also known as a repeater, is a simple device that has been used for years to connect all nodes, or computers, on a network to a central location. Each node on a network has a unique hardware address called a MAC address. A hub is known as a repeater because when a packet of data, or frame, is sent through the hub, it is repeated to each and every computer on the network.This means that if a 1 GB video is sent to one computer through the hub, the file will also be sent to all of the other computers on the hub. This is very inefficient for bandwidth management. "Hubs have two major drawbacks," says Ben deGonzague, a deployment engineer with TopCoder Software, a Glastonbury, Conn.-based software engineering firm. "First, network bandwidth is consumed as each and every frame is sent to all devices on a network. Second, your network is only as fast as the slowest device. Hubs have become obsolete with switching-based networks."A switch-based network is one that utilizes switches instead of hubs. A switch is a major upgrade to a hub. Instead of sending all network data to each and every network node, the switch will analyze the MAC address and determine where to send the data. Network bandwidth is not wasted by sending every frame to every port.So when a switch receives data for a file, if it was addressed to one computer it will only be sent there. The other computers on the network wouldn't know about it. This means that the network is now much more efficient, but it's also a step toward being more secure: "Since switches can segregate traffic from different nodes," says deGonzague, "this makes it more difficult for anyone to capture packets on your network.

What is a router?
While switches connect multiple computers, a router is required to connect multiple networks, like your LAN to the Internet. Routers work by storing large tables of

networks and addresses, then using algorithms to determine the shortest routes to individual addresses within those networks. In this way efficient routers not only facilitate intra-network communications, but also play a role in overall network performance. delivering the information faster.While many consumers are familiar with small routers from companies like Linksys, which can be purchased for less than $50 at computer hardware stores, they shouldn't be confused with a proper router for business. "A typical router at home will connect your cable modem or DSL network to your internal network. This is just connecting two different networks. Routers for businesses on the other hand might have to connect several different networks," says deGonzague. Small business routers from vendors like Cisco often include management software, enabling IT staff to better manage network stability and, ultimately, performance.
Posted by Chandan Patralekh at 02:18 2 comments

Friday, 25 January 2008

How to Become a Desktop Engineer

Interview Questions =================== A) Tell me something about yourself. Tell about your eductaion, place you belong to, some struggle in life which shows that you have positive attitude and will to fight the odds. B) Technical Questions: 1) What is Active Directory? A central component of the Windows platform, Active Directory directory service provides the means to manage the identities and relationships that make up network environments. For example we can create, manage and administor users, computers and printers in the network from active directory. 2) What is DNS? Why it is used? What is "forward lookup" and "reverse lookup" in DNS? What are A records and mx records? DNS is domain naming service and is used for resolving names to IP address and IP addresses to names. The computer understands only numbers while we can easily remember names. So to make it easier for us what we do is we assign names to computers and websites. When we use these names (Like yahoo.com) the computer uses DNS to convert to IP address (number) and it executes our request. Forward lookup: Converting names to IP address is called forward lookup. Reverse lookup: Resolving IP address to names is called reverse lookup. 'A' record: Its called host record and it has the mapping of a name to IP address. This is the record in DNS with the help of which DNS can find out the IP address of a name. 'MX' Record: its called mail exchanger record. Its the record needed to locate the mail servers in the network. This record is also found in DNS.

3) What id DHCP? Why it is used? What are scopes and super scopes? DHCP: Dynamic host configuration protocol. Its used to allocate IP addresses to large number of PCs in a network environment. This makes the IP management very easy. Scope: Scope contains IP address like subnet mask, gateway IP, DNS server IP and exclusion range which a client can use to communicate with the other PCs in the network. Superscope: When we combine two or more scopes together its called super scope. 4) What are the types of LAN cables used? What is a cross cable? Types of LAN cables that are in use are "Cat 5" and "Cat 6". "Cat 5" can support 100 Mbps of speed and "CAT 6" can support 1Gbps of speed. Cross cable: Its used to connect same type of devices without using a switch/hub so that they can communicate. 5) What is the difference between a normal LAN cable and cross cable? What could be the maximum length of the LAN cable? The way the paired wires are connected to the connector (RJ45) is different in cross cable and normal LAN cable. The theoritical length is 100 meters but after 80 meters you may see drop in speed due to loss of signal. 6) What would you use to connect two computers without using switches? Cross cable. 7) What is IPCONFIG command? Why it is used? IPCONFIG command is used to display the IP information assigned to a computer. Fromthe output we can find out the IP address, DNS IP address, gateway IP address assigned to that computer. 8) What is APIPA IP address? Or what IP address is assigned to the computer when the DHCP server is not available? When DHCP server is not available the Windows client computer assignes an automatic IP address to itself so that it can communicate with the network cmputers. This ip address is called APIPA. ITs in the range of 169.254.X.X. APIPA stands for Automatic private IP addressing. Its in the range of 169.254.X.X. 9) What is a DOMAIN? What is the difference between a domain and a workgroup? Domain is created when we install Active Directory. It's a security boundary which is used to manage computers inside the boundary. Domain can be used to centrally administor computers and we can govern them using common policies called group policies.

We can't do the same with workgroup. 10) Do you know how to configure outlook 2000 and outlook 2003 for a user? Please visit the link below to find out how to configure outlook 2000 and outlook 2003.http://www.it.cmich.edu/quickguides/qg_outlook2003_server.asp 11) What is a PST file and what is the difference between a PST file and OST file? What file is used by outlook express? PST file is used to store the mails locally when using outlook 2000 or 2003. OST file is used when we use outlook in cached exchanged mode. Outlook express useds odb file. 12) What is BSOD? What do you do when you get blue screen in a computer? How do you troubleshoot it? BSOD stands for blue screen of Death. when there is a hardware or OS fault due to which the windows OS can run it give a blue screen with a code. Best way to resolve it is to boot the computer is "LAst known good configuration". If this doesn't work than boot the computer in safe mode. If it boots up than the problemis with one of the devices or drivers. 13) What is RIS? What is Imaging/ghosting? RIS stands for remote installation services. You save the installed image on a windows server and then we use RIS to install the configured on in the new hardware. We can use it to deploy both server and client OS. Imaging or ghosting also does the same job of capturing an installed image and then install it on a new hardware when there is a need. We go for RIS or iamging/ghosting because installing OS everytime using a CD can be a very time consuming task. So to save that time we can go for RIS/Ghosting/imaging. 14) What is VPN and how to configure it? VPN stands for Virtual private network. VPN is used to connect to the corporate network to access the resources like mail and files in the LAN. VPN can be configured using the stepsmentioned in the KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305550 15) Your computer slowly drops out of network. A reboot of the computer fixes the problem. What to do to resolve this issue? Update the network card driver. 16) Your system is infected with Virus? How to recover the data? Install another system. Insall the OS with the lates pathces, Antivirus with latest updates. Connect the infected HDD as secondary drive in the system. Once done scan

and clean the secondary HDD. Once done copy the files to the new system. 17) How to join a system to the domain? What type of user can add a system to the domain? Please visit the article below and read "Adding the Workstation to the Domain" http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/technologies/d irectory/activedirectory/stepbystep/domxppro.mspx 18) What is the difference between a switch and a hub? Switch sends the traffic to the port to which its meant for. Hub sends the traffic to all the ports. 19) What is a router? Why we use it? Router is a switch which uses routing protocols to process and send the traffic. It also receives the traffic and sends it across but it uses the routing protocols to do so. 20) What are manageable and non manageable switches? Switches which can be administered are calledmanageable switches. For example we can create VLAN for on such switch. On no manageable swiches we can't do so.