In preparation to write my CompTIA A+ Certification....

[mips]

This thread just confirms how useless these certs are. I'm not trying to be nasty or burst any ones bubble but really?

[CharlesA]

Most techs know what the network's subnet. But where and how do they set this for a printer?

Depends if they are setting a static IP or using DHCP with a reservation. The static IP is configured on the printer, while a reservation is configured on the DHCP server.

This thread just confirms how useless these certs are. I'm not trying to be nasty or burst any ones bubble but really?

Indeed. All they do is prove you know some things, most of which could be found in a book or on the internet.

[lykwydchykyn]

All they do is prove you know some things

That's kind of the point of a certification, is it not?

[CharlesA]

That's kind of the point of a certification, is it not?

Depends on who you ask. Most of the time they are just Resume/CV food to impress people in HR.

Unless the format for the CompTIA certs has changed, it is all book knowledge, no practical experience needed in order to pass the exam.

[lykwydchykyn]

Depends on who you ask. Most of the time they are just Resume/CV food to impress people in HR.

Unless the format for the CompTIA certs has changed, it is all book knowledge, no practical experience needed in order to pass the exam.

Yeah, I won't disagree with that. But it at least demonstrates an ability to grasp and process basic technical concepts, so it's not entirely useless. I would not discourage someone from getting a certification if he was looking for work in IT.

[CharlesA]

Yeah, I won't disagree with that. But it at least demonstrates an ability to grasp and process basic technical concepts, so it's not entirely useless. I would not discourage someone from getting a certification if he was looking for work in IT.

Agreed. It is still something to get if you are going to be working in IT, even if it is just to say you are certified.

[Drone4four]

I’m not really sure what specifically mips was referring to with respect to his comment about how useless certs are based on what he read in this thread.

I have encountered three further points of clarification in the networking material.

#1
The 1st, 2nd, 3rd octets of an IP address is the network ID. The 4th octet is the host ID.
But devices are usually assigned two of these addresses: First, an IP address and second, a subnet mask. A device with a DHCP client installed on a host could receive, as an example, both of the following from a DHCP server:

192.168.1.41 (IP)
255.255.255.0 (subnet mask)

The network ID for the IP is 192.168.1 and the host ID is 41. The network ID for the subnet mask is 255.255.255 and the host Id is 0. Is this accurate?

The principle reason why devices on networks are usually assigned IPs and masks is because, so the internet’s architects reasoned, it would be mathematically impossible for every device to have a unique address because there are more devices than are available IP addresses:

(16,000,000×127)+(65,000×16,000)+(254×2,000,000) = 3,580,000,000

The multiplication in the first set of brackets represent Class A, the second set represents Class B and the third, Class C. Class D is multicast and E is reserved. CIDR and IETF in 1993 introduced IPv4, among other things, including subnet masking for the purposes of providing billions of additional address combinations to accommodate for the more than 3.5 billion devices/servers/gateways demanded by consumers, businesses and governments.

Is all that accurate?

#2
After installing an all-in-one printer/fax/copier, does it use an APIPA address until the network admin assign it a more permanent address using the gateway router’s firewall firmware? And please correct me if I am wrong, but most all-in-one printer/fax/copiers usually don’t have a DHCP client installed to use to exchange a lease agreement. This means that a network admin has to assign it a static IP. Is that accurate?

#3
Wikipedia says that IANA is responsible for the global coordination of the DNS Root, IP addressing, and other Internet protocol resources. *Is IANA the body (which would be many years ago now) that decided that FTP would use port 21, http use port 80, and irc port 194? *Is it also possible that Valve software, for their first multiplayer game they wrote (Half-Life) back in 1997, was told by IANA to use port 27015?


Some of you might be thinking, ‘why is this person asking CCNA/Network+ questions when he is preparing to write his A+ exams’? There are 3 chapters in both of my A+ texts devoted to networking. These chapters in particular I struggled with the most, compared to all the other chapters on PC repair and such. I am working on my weakest link by trying to understand these basic network concepts....

[Bandit]

@OP,
While I hope the best to you on your Cert. I have the A+ from CompTIA. I will say if you asking these questions 2 weeks form taking your exam. Your not going to pass unless your very lucky.. There is two parts to the exam and you must pass the first part before moving on to the second. I recommend you purchase one of the Sybex study guides and take the practice test it offers over and over. Other then those helpful thoughts, I am not allowed to assist you any further due to the regulations on the exams.. Good luck..

Joe..

[Drone4four]

@OP,
I will say if you asking these questions 2 weeks form taking your exam. Your not going to pass unless your very lucky.. There is two parts to the exam and you must pass the first part before moving on to the second. I recommend you purchase one of the Sybex study guides and take the practice test it offers over and over.

I initially planned to write my exam the first week of June (2 weeks ago). But nearing the end of May I began trying to answer the questions in the McGraw Hill (not Sybex) book titled, 'CompTIA A+ Certification Practice Exams' (there are 1000 of them in total). I was scoring about 50% correct. At that point in May I realized I had a lot of review and further reading to do. The half a dozen or so questions that I found confusing I copied out from this book and shared them in this forum for clarification. You are right, I wasn't ready to write my exam then. I have a lot more studying to do. I hope to write in the fall.

I am not allowed to assist you any further due to the regulations on the exams..

If you are not allowed to help me, are there other rules prohibiting the discussion I am having in this thread? What regulations specifically are you referring to?

[mips]

I’m not really sure what specifically mips was referring to with respect to his comment about how useless certs are based on what he read in this thread.

I'm referring to the fact that I've seen so many people with certs in my life that don't have a clue as to what's actually going on and asking the questions the OP asked should be general knowledge in a IT environment. It's not something you should have to study from a book, its something you should know. That test tells you absolutely zero about your knowledge.

I was forced to go on A+ training with about 60 colleagues many many years ago, we were correcting the lecturer, 3 days into the course we all left. I read through the books the morning before the exams I scored almost 100%, all my colleagues also passed with flying colours. The same goes for all the Cisco exams I did, my experience came in great but at the same time I had to deal with some new staff that did the same exams (CCNP) and they literally knew jack, they passed the exams but I would not give them anything but read level access on the network, that's how bad they were. Yet according to the certification they achieved they were competent to work on a live 10 000 router/switch network. I (and my team) had to do internal exams which were 10x harder than writing the Cisco exams and trust me I failed one of those. We had those internal exams every 6 months just to keep us on our toes. You cannot allow people that don't know what's going on onto a production network affecting millions of clients and the companies SLA's/bottom line.

The thing people don't realise is this field is very much about aptitude, you either get it or you don't in which case you follow a tick sheet to solve problems. There are plenty of people working in the field that simply do not have the aptitude and it's not something you can train them on. Simple things like logical reasoning, deduction, methodology etc do not come into play for a lot of people. They simply cannot function outside of a tick sheet.

EDIT: People should be mature and realise what they are good at. Me for example would love to be concert pianist or a great musician but I know that I suck at it. We all have certain ideals but we have to be realistic. If you grew up taking your toys apart 5 mins after getting them then you would probably end up in the science or engineering fields. I recall kids drawing awesome paintings in primary school while I drew stick figures. Do what you are good at and don't simply go work in a field where you don't have the aptitude because you think there is money in that field. Yes you could probably get by earning money but you will never rise to the top. Every year we have local salary surveys and you always see people biatching because they don't earn halve of what others in their field earn, it's simply because you are not good at what you do, the mere fact that you work in IT does not mean you measure up.