2.8 Given a scenario, use networking tools.
Crimper: a tool used for attaching connectors to the ends of wires in coaxial, twisted pair, and
fiber cables. Commonly used for Ethernet (RJ-45 cables).
Cable stripper: a tool used for stripping the insulation/shielding from cables to expose the inner
wires. Commonly used to prepare cables before attaching the connectors.
WiFi analyzer: a tool used to analyze and optimize wireless networks. Provides information
such as signal strength, nearby networks, channel interference, etc. Also used for
troubleshooting, optimizing signal quality, and choosing the best channels for networks.
Toner probe: a pair of handheld tools used for identifying and tracing cables, and continuity
testing in a network. Also known as a cable or wire tracer. The toner is connected to one end of
a cable and sends a tone or signal through the cable to the probe. The probe detects the tone
and locates the corresponding cable in a bundle or at a remote location.
Punchdown tool: a tool used to terminate and connect twisted pair cables to a patch panel,
keystone jack, or other terminal blocks. The tool’s blade forces individual wires into terminals on
a punchdown block to ensure a secure connection.
Cable tester: a diagnostic tool used to verify the integrity of cables in a network. Commonly
used to check for correct wiring, continuity, and to identify potential faults; such as open or short
circuits, or crossed wires.
Loopback plug: a specialized connector/device used to create a loopback connection. This
connection allows for testing of a network interface or equipment by redirecting signals back to
the sending device. Loopback testing verifies the functionality of network ports, diagnoses
issues, and verifies that signals can follow a network path.
Network tap: a device used to monitor and capture traffic passing through a specific point in a
network. It copies and sends data to monitoring/analysis tools. This allows network admins to
analyze traffic, detect issues, and perform security-related tasks without disrupting the flow of
data. There are three types of network taps: passive (non-powered and non-intrusive), active
(powered and may impact the network), and virtual (software-based and non-intrusive).
3.1 Explain basic cable types and their connectors,
features, and purposes.
Network Cables
Copper Cables
● Cat 5
○
○
Up to 100 Mbps
100 meters/328 feet
● Cat 5e (enhanced)
○
○
Up to 1 Gbps
100 meters/328 feet
● Cat 6
○
○
1 to 10 Gbps
55 meters/180 feet for 10 Gbps, 100 meters/328 feet for 1 Gbps
● Cat 6a (augmented)
○
○
Up to 10 Gbps
100 meters/328 feet
● Coaxial
○
Cable broadband (internet, TV, data communication)
● UTP
○
○
○
○
Unshielded twisted pair
Most common twisted pair cabling
Cost effective
Susceptible to electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio-frequency
interference (RFI)
● STP
○
○
○
○
○
Shielded twisted pair
Adds additional protection against EMI and RFI with a grounding (drain)
wire connected to a metallic shield
Shielding can be around individual pairs or around the entire cable
Offers improved performance and signal integrity
Less cost effective than UTP and more challenging to install with added
bulk
● Direct Burial Cable (DBC)
○
○
○
Type of STP
Designed to resist environmental elements (moisture, dust, extreme
temperatures, etc.)
No conduit (protective tube or channel) needed
Plenum
●
●
Spaces above the ceiling or below the floor used for air circulation and HVAC
Plenum-Rated Cables
○ Have flame-retardant jackets made of low-smoke PVC or FEP
○ These cables are not as flexible or bendable as normal cables
Optical
● Fiber Characteristics
○
○
○
○
○
Data transmission by light
Immune to EMI and RFI
Very secure (no RF to tap or intercept)
Transmit data over a very long distance (much farther than copper)
Low latency
● Fiber Cable Components
○
○
○
○
○
○
Consists of the core, cladding, buffer coating, and outer jacket
LED sends light rays bouncing through the core, which has a high
reflective index, to a receiver
Cladding, which has a low reflective index, surrounds the core and
absorbs any light that hits it
The core and cladding are surrounded by a buffer coating for protection,
which is then surrounded by an outer jacket for additional protection
The ferrule holds the fiber in place and aligns it precisely for optimal light
transmission
■ Commonly made of ceramic, sometimes metal or other materials
■ A tiny hole in the center allows fiber to pass through
Uses ST (straight-tip), SC (subscriber connector), and LC (lucent/local
connector) as connectors
● Multimode Fiber (MMF)
○
○
○
○
○
○
Short-range communication (up to 2km)
Inexpensive light source (LED)
Larger core allows for multiple light waves (modes) to propagate, bounce,
and travel along multiple paths through the cable
Lower bandwidth and shorter reach
Used in LANs
Speeds up to 1 Gbps
● Single-mode Fiber (SMF)
○
○
○
○
○
Long-range communication (up to 100km)
Expensive light source (lasers)
Narrow core only allows for one mode of light to travel along a single path
Supports faster transmission rates over longer distances
Speeds in Tbps range
T568A/T568B
●
●
●
●
Two standards developed by ANSI/TIA/EIA for connecting RJ45 (8P8C)
connectors to UTP cables
Both are acceptable
Don’t have to follow a standard as long as the same pairings are used on either
end of the cable, although it would be simpler
Only specify colors; they aren’t associated with Ethernet crossovers
● T568A
○
Commonly used for horizontal cabling
Pin
Color
Pin
Color
1
White/green
2
Green
3
White/orange
4
Blue
5
White/blue
6
Orange
7
White/brown
8
Brown
● T568B
○
Commonly used by organizations
Pin
Color
Pin
Color
1
White/orange
2
Orange
3
White/green
4
Blue
5
White/blue
6
Green
7
White/brown
8
Brown
Peripheral Cables
USB
USB 1.1
●
●
Low speed: 1.5 Mbps over 3 meters
Full speed: 12 Mbps over 5 meters
USB 2.0
●
●
Known as Hi-Speed USB
480 Mbps over 5 meters
USB 3.0
●
●
●
●
●
Marketed as SuperSpeed USB
5 Gbps over ~3 meters (cable length not specified)
USB 3.0 is also known as USB 3.1 Gen 1 and USB 3.2 Gen 1
USB 3.1
○ Also known as USB 3.1 Gen 2 and USB 3.2 Gen 2
○ Marketed as SuperSpeed+
○ Max speed of 10 Gbps
USB 3.2
○ Also known as USB 3.2 Gen 1x2 and USB 3.2 Gen 2x2
■ Gen 1x2 has a max speed of 10 Gbps
● Uses two 3.2 Gen 1 lanes (5*2)
■ Gen 2x2 has a max speed of 20 Gbps
● Uses two 3.2 Gen 2 lanes (10*2)
○ Bandwidth doubles with USB-C by using an extra “lane” of communication
within the cable
Thunderbolt
●
●
●
●
●
Developed by Intel and Apple
High-speed serial connector
Data/video and power on the same cable
Daisy-chain up to 6 devices
Max cable length of 3 meters for copper cable, 60 meters for fiber cable
● Thunderbolt 1
○
○
○
2 channels; supports full-duplex communication
10 Gbps per channel; 20 Gbps total
Uses Mini DisplayPort connector
● Thunderbolt 2
○
○
20 Gbps
Uses Mini DisplayPort connector
● Thunderbolt 3
○
○
○
40 Gbps
Half the power consumption of Thunderbolt 2
Uses USB-C connector
Hard Drive Cables
SATA
●
●
●
●
Serial Advanced Technology Attachment
Dominant standard for connecting HDDs and optical drives
7 pins for data connector, 15 pins for power connector
Supports hot swapping (can install/uninstall without turning computer off)
● SATA 1
○
○
1 meter max distance
1.5 Gbps max speed
● SATA 2
○
○
1 meter
3 Gbps
● SATA 3
○
○
1 meter
6 Gbps
● SATA 3.2
○
○
○
1 meter
16 Gbps
Utilizes SATA, SATAe (Express), mSATA (mini-SATA), and M.2
connections
● eSATA
○
○
○
External version
2 meters
2.4 Gbps
SCSI
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
Small Computer Systems Interface
Pronounced “scuzzy”
Set of standards for connecting and transferring data between peripherals and
computers
Up to 16 devices in a daisy-chain (8 on narrow bus, 16 on wide bus)
Mostly replaced by SATA and USB
Parallel and serial connectivity
Used for HDDs, optical driver, scanners, etc.
Used extensively in virtual systems
Uses 50-pin Centronics and 25-, 50-, and 68-pin D-sub connectors
● SCSI ID
○
○
○
○
●
Each device requires a SCSI ID (integer)
0-7 for SCSI-1 and SCSI-2, 0-15 for SCSI-3
Lower IDs have higher priority
Logical unit numbers (LUN) are defined within each SCSI ID
■ Used to separate and reference individual drives in a storage
array or VM
The ends (“out” port) of the SCSI bus must be terminated, either with a physical
device or with software
○ Used to absorb and dissipate energy to prevent signal reflections and
interference
○ Only devices at the end of the bus require termination; any device
daisy-chained between the ends do not
● SAS
○
○
○
○
○
○
○
○
Serial Attached SCSI
Have no jumpers, terminators, or settings
Increased data transfer rates to keep up with modern storage devices
A move from parallel to serial, similar to the move from PATA to SATA
Point-to-point connection (no daisy-chaining)
No termination required as only one device is connected to the SAS
controller
Used to control and manage SCSI
Used in servers, data centers, and SANs
PATA
●
●
●
●
●
●
Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment
○ PATA, or simply “ATA”
○ Originates from IBM PC/AT
Originally called IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics); developed by WD
○ 2nd gen called EIDE (Enhanced IDE)
Speeds of 16 MBps to 133 MBps
Used for hard drives, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, etc.
PATA uses 40-pin connectors with 40-wire cables, EIDE uses 80-wire cables
(helps combat crosstalk with increased speeds)
Supports the connection of 2 devices (1 master, 1 slave)
○ The master device controls the communication on the cable
○ The slave device operates in coordination with the master device
○ Each device must be configured through jumper settings to designate
which device is the master and slave
■ Can use CS (cable select) to automatically configure the drives
based on their physical positions on the cable
■ 40-wire cables have Device 0 (master) in the middle and Device 1
(slave) at the end
■ 80-wire cables have Device 1 (slave) in the middle and Device 0
(master) at the end
3.2 Given a scenario, install the appropriate RAM.
RAM Types
DIMM
●
●
●
Dual inline memory module
Connectors are different on either side of the module
64-bit data width
● DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory)
○
○
○
○
The memory on the DIMM
Needs constant refreshing and power so the data doesn’t disappear
Random access to any data at any time
SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM)
■ syncs its operations with the system clock
■ DDR (double data rate) SDRAM improved upon the original SDR
(single data rate) SDRAM
● SDR transfers one bit of data per clock cycle, DDR
transfers two
■ Queues up one process while waiting for another
■ Old SDRAM operated at the same speed as the system clock
■ Modern SDRAM operates at a multiple of the system clock speed
■ No backward/forward compatibility: each type of DIMM has
different notch keys to ensure they’re not installed into other types
of slots
■ DDR3
●
●
●
●
●
800 to 2133 MHz
1.5V
Max capacity of 16GB per module
240-pin DIMM
Supports dual- or triple-channel architecture
■ DDR4
●
●
●
●
●
2133 to 3200 MHz
1.2V
Max capacity of 64GB per module
288-pin DIMM
Supports dual- or quad-channel
○ Uses point-to-point architecture to connect each
channel to a single module
■ DDR5
●
●
●
4800 to 8400+ MHz
1.1V
Max capacity of 512GB per module
●
●
288-pin DIMM
Supports dual- or quad-channel
○ SODIMM (Small Outline DIMM)
■
■
■
Used in laptops and mobile devices
Half the width of DIMM
Uses DDR3/4/5
Virtual RAM
●
●
●
●
●
●
Used when running low on memory
Temporarily stores unused app data in the hard drive or SSD
Managed automatically by the OS
Exists within the PAGEFILE.SYS file, which is in the root directory of the C drive
When the stored data is needed again, it swaps with other unused data in RAM
Called swap/page file (Windows) or swap space (Unix/Linux)
ECC (Error Correction Code RAM)
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
Detects and corrects errors
More sophisticated than parity
○ An 8-bit byte of data has a 9th “parity” bit
○ Can only detect errors
○ Odd parity ensures that the amount of ones in a byte is odd (i.e.
11010010 is even, so the parity bit acts as another 1)
○ Even parity is the opposite
○ Commonly used in servers
Adds an additional bit per byte like parity
Algorithms are used to detect and correct errors
Software in the memory controller uses the extra bits to detect and correct errors
Used in environments where data accuracy is critical (i.e. servers, enterprise
systems, workstations that handle sensitive data)
Able to identify multiple bit errors, but can’t correct them
Multi-Channel Memory
●
●
Utilizes multiple independent data channels between the memory controller and
memory modules
Increases overall data transfer rate and bandwidth between the processor and
memory
Dual-Channel Memory
●
●
Most common form for consumer systems
Two independent channels operate simultaneously, which allows for parallel data
transfer
●
●
Sold and installed in pairs
Increased bandwidth and improved performance over single-channel
Triple-Channel Memory
●
●
●
●
●
Three channels operate simultaneously
Sold and installed in sets of three
Must be installed in designated slots
Increased bandwidth and improved performance over dual-channel
More prevalent in high-end desktops and workstations in the DDR3 era, but has
since become less relevant
Quad-Channel Memory
●
●
●
●
●
Four channels operate independently and simultaneously
Significantly increased effective memory bandwidth
Sold and installed in sets of four
Quad-channel support is reliant upon the CPU or chipset
Often found in high-end desktops, workstations, and some servers
3.3 Given a scenario, select and install storage
devices.
Hard Drives
HDD
●
●
●
●
●
●
Hard disk drive
Non-volatile magnetic storage
Random access
Has moving parts: spinning platters, spindle in between platters, moving actuator
arm with a head that reads and writes data
○ Speeds are limited by mechanical components
○ Components can (and will) break
Speeds of 5400, 7200, 10K, 15K RPM
3.5” form factor
●
●
●
Solid state drive
Non-volatile memory
No moving parts
SSD
●
●
●
●
●
Very fast performance
Has three form factors: 2.5”, mSATA (micro-SATA), M.2
M.2 quickly replaced mSATA
SATA interface (except M.2)
Uses AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) to move data to RAM
○ SSDs can be faster than what SATA and AHCI provide, so the need for
NVMe is necessary
● NVMe (Non-volatile memory express)
○
○
○
○
Uses M.2 with significantly increased speeds over SATA
Can also use PCIe
■ 4 GBps+ when using NVMe PCIe x4
Different connector types: B key, M key, B&M key
Not all M.2 slots support NVMe; some still use AHCI
Drive Configurations
● RAID (Redundant array of independent/inexpensive disks)
○
○
○
Drives will eventually fail, so RAID is very useful for redundancy
RAID isn’t a backup, but merely a way to maintain uptime should a drive
fail
Uses different RAID levels; not all are redundant
■ RAID 0 - Striping
● Raid 0 = zero redundancy
● At least 2 drives in the array
● No parity
● Improved performance
● Each drive in the array are seen as one drive to the OS
● When data is written to a disk, the controller evenly writes
a portion (block) of data to each drive in the array, creating
a stripe
● No protection: if one drive fails, all data in the array is lost
■ RAID 1 - Mirroring
● Data are duplicated between two or more drives
● Very high disk utilization
● High redundancy; drive failure doesn’t impact the array
■ RAID 5 - Striping with distributed/interleaved parity
● Requires at least three drives
● Data are written in blocks on each drive, like RAID 0, but
each drive also has a parity block
● Data written are not the actual data, but the result of an
algorithm performed on data in other blocks
● Should a drive fail, the controller uses the surviving data
block and parity block to reconstruct the data
●
■
Once a failed drive is replaced, the data are rebuilt using
the same method to repopulate the new drive
● Read speeds will be slowed down by a failed drive, as it
needs the algorithm to produce the lost data
RAID 10 (1+0) - A stripe of mirrors
● Minimum of 4 identical drives paired into 2 mirrored sets
● Data is striped across the 2 sets as if they were each 1
drive in a RAID 0 array
● Provides the speed of striping and high redundancy of
mirroring
● Can tolerate multiple disk failures as long as the failed
disks are not a part of the same mirrored pair
● Rebuild times are quicker since the mirrored data can just
be copied over to a new drive without parity calculations
3.4 Given a scenario, install and configure
motherboards, central processing units (CPUs), and
add-on cards.
Motherboard Form Factors
ATX (Advanced Technology eXtended)
●
●
●
●
Developed by Intel in 1995
Most common form in PCs
20- or 24-pin power connectors; additional 4- and 8-pin connectors for CPUs that
require extra power
Form factors include full-size ATX (mATX), micro-ATX, flex-ATX, and mini-ATX
ITX (Information Technology eXtended)
●
●
●
●
Developed by VIA in 2001
Used in low-power CPUs (very small desktops)
Mini-ITX is compatible with bigger cases (has the same screw locations as ATX)
Form factors include full-size ITX, mini-ITX (mITX), nano-ITX, pico-ITX, and
mobile-ITX