Building a P.C. The Right PC for the Job Memorize details about each specialized system. Consider different jobs & make sure the system matches the job specifications. Concentrate on RAM, storage, & graphic needs. NAS–Network Attached Storage; used for sharing files; Usually a “headless” set-up, meaning no peripherals needed, after the initial set-up. Boot From Everything Use an ISO image of bootable media to install operating systems. Download ISO files and burn them to optical media or thumb drives. Boot to the installation media to install operating systems. You can also boot from a network server using PXE. Installing Windows Check all pre-installation tasks before installing Windows. Research new hardware…

UNDERSTANDING PARTITIONING A partition is a logical electronic device readable by an Operating System. Partitions define the location of operating systems, swap files, and recover partitions. Partitions must be created & mounted. In Windows, partitions manifest as driver letter; in Linux/macOS, partitions manifest as folders (with slashes). Partitioning a hard drive is CRITICAL!!! MBR Partitioning MBR (Master Boot Record) is the oldest type of partition still in use today. MBR consisted of a boot loader, and up to four partitions, with one set as an active partition. If you need more than four partitions on a single drive, you create an extended partition and add logical drives to that partition.…

Printers & Multifunction Devices Laser Printers A laser hits the photosensitive drum (the cornerstone of laser printers) to create an image Memorize the laser printing process Laser printer maintenance means replacing the toner cartridge and applying maintenance kits. All laser printers have maintenance kits. These can help the printers last for years! Inkjet Printers (aka Bubblejet Printers) CYMK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, & Black) Inkjet printers use heat or mechanical process to push ink through the print heads to media. A multifunction device (MFD) includes a printer, scanner, copier and fax machine, all-in-one. Inkjet maintenance means running cleaning routines for the nozzles, plus some form of calibration. Impact Printers (aka DotMatrix)…

LOCAL AREA NETWORKING Intro to TCP/IP ARPANET formed (basis for Internet) TCP/IP adopted as protocol for ARPANET/the Internet IP addresses have four octets between 0-255 (a total of 256 options) Classful address scheme for locations & sublocations. Class A—6.x.x.x Only 1st number is locked millions of hosts Class B—172.16.x.x First 2 numbers are locked/set 65,534 hosts Class C—210.11.12.x First 3 numbers are locked/set) 254 hosts Network IDs and Subnet Masks Use Network & Sharing Center for setting up network information Set IP address, subnet mask, and gateway in Ethernet Properties Manual settings = static IP address Private IP Addresses: Class A—10.x.x.x Class B—172.16.x.x, 172.31.x.x Class C—192.168.x.x Special IP Addresses Class…

PHYSICAL NETWORKING Introduction to Networking LAN computers connect with Ethernet. (Local Area Network) Ethernet frames standardized as 1500 bytes A MAC address uniquely identifies a host on a LAN. (MAC-Media Access Control; a MAC is a 48-bit address; always manifested as 12 hexadecimal characters) Use ‘ipconfig’ (Windows) or ‘ifconfig’ (Linux) to view MAC. Example MAC address: xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx (the first 3 sets of pairs combined together are known as the OEM ID. Hubs vs. Switches Hubs repeat all traffic on LAN to all nodes (Hub = ‘dumb’ repeater) Switches filter traffic based on MAC address (Switch = smart repeater) Switches provide full bandwidth for all nodes Hexadecimal Hexadecimal (base 16) enables…