Geek Certs Blog

Today we introduce DNS (Domain Name System) and printer setup as it relates to XP Pro.

DNS is an important concept as it relates to networking. You use it all of the time, but might not be aware of how it really works. Let’s say that at home you use DSL and type www.google.com in your browser. Your browser, which does not know what this means, has to figure out which IP address is associated with these words, so it sends a network message to a server that can translate the name into an IP address. A domain name server answers your browser’s request for translation and provides the IP address that is associated with what you typed in your browser.

Check it out: click Start and then Run. Then, in the Open line, type command to enter DOS mode. From there, type ping www.google.com and then press Enter. The first line of response should be something like:

Pinging www.l.google.com [66.102.7.99] with 32 bytes of data

Notice how your computer figured out (or resolved) the IP address associated with the name you typed? This is DNS. Humans understand words and we can remember them. How often would you use Google without DNS?

As for printers, XP offers little improvement (in my view) over that offered in Windows 2000. Just be aware that you can access and install a printer installed on any PC (including servers), assuming you have permissions to do so (recall groups from a previous discussion). Let’s say that we have a server named Server1-2003 and the group Everyone has permission to use the printer that is shared off of this computer. You have a new Windows XP Pro (XPP) computer that needs to connect to this printer. All you need to do is click Start/Run and type:

\\server1-2003

In this case, your screen will now all of the objects (folders, files, printers, etc.) that you have permissions to see and/or access. If you right-click the printer to which you want to connect, a context-menu appears. Select Install and the printer will be installed on your PC. It’s that easy. Of course, you can use the Add Printer wizard, but this is much easier and is what we use in the real world!

In order to pass the Microsoft certification exam associated with XP Pro, you must be comfortable with how to install and configure printers. DNS is more of a server concept (and most of one server exam is associated with DNS - Microsoft exam 70-291), so it’s important to understand how it works because the 291 exam is hard!

The Microsoft exam for XP Pro is 70-270. You can Google this exam number and learn a lot about what it takes to pass it, including its core objectives. All certifying bodies publish objectives for their exams. The objectives tell you what will be on the exam, by subject. Click here for this exam’s objectives link.

No matter what type of Internet connection we have at home, it seems that we never have enough! For those of you playing games online, faster is always better. When we have a good connection to the Internet, such as DSL or Cable Modem, we consider this to be good bandwidth. This raises the question as to what Bandwidth is.

Before we define this, let’s set a small scenario. Assume that you have a DSL connection at your home and that you are using Qwest as your Internet Service Provider (or ISP). With this in mind, bandwidth can be defined as the amount of data that can be transmitted from your DSL modem to some router at Qwest in a measured amount of time. Let’s select one second as the time measurement since this is quite common. Let’s also define what data is. When we open our browser and type in the Internet address (strangely known as an URL or Uniform Resource Locator) to Yahoo in the browser’s address line, we are sending data to Yahoo’s server. Data is broken down into little pieces – or bits – of electricity. One piece of data might be broken down into millions of bits. You can also think of a bit as being a very small unit of electricity.

In this case, if we measured the number of bits sent by you and received by Qwest in one second, it would probably be somewhere around 384,000 bits per second. We can shorten this to 384 thousand (kilo) bits per second or 384 Kbps.

Let’s change this up for a moment and say that we have an outstanding DSL connection and that we have something like 24 phone lines grouped together (this actually happens). In this case, we would probably have bandwidth of 1,544,000 bits per second. We can shorten this to read 1.544 million (mega) bits per second or 1.544 Mbps. By the way, when the phone company groups 24 phone lines together, this is known as a T1. Businesses pay a few hundred dollars a month for this amount of bandwidth. It’s about 4 times faster than DSL!

So, now you know what 56 Kbps means. This is the fastest theoretical speed we can get when we use a dialup modem to connect to our ISP. Pretty slow, wouldn’t you say?

When you connect to a modem (which is usually installed inside your computer), you use a phone line because phone lines are used for the entire connection from your computer all the way to your ISP. If you use DSL or cable modem, you use a network cable to connect your computer to the DSL or cable modem (this is the equipment that is provided for you by your ISP). A network cable plugs itself into a network adapter (which is also usually installed inside your computer). A network adapter is also known as a network interface card or NIC.

A network cable is different than a phone line cable. The network cable has eight wires inside whereas a phone cable usually has four wires. We’ll talk more about those wires in another post. At the end of your phone cable you should see a clear, plastic jack. This jack has an official name – RJ11 – which means registered jack, #11. Your network cable jack also has a name – RJ45. The RJ45 jack is larger than the small RJ11 phone jack.

Wireless and wired networking works similarly from our viewpoint. Each provides connectivity and bandwidth so that we can all get on the Internet. The equipment differs, but the goal is the same.

Consider how much money that eBay saves (and is able to pass on to us through lower pricing) by not having the traditional ‘brick and mortar’ storefront, as it is called. The savings are tremendous. Of course, eBay makes money by charging sellers a percentage of their gross sales price.

Think about how different eBay is from Amazon (or other non-auction e-merchants). Amazon has to have some type of storefront. The question is, what type? Their store isn’t what you’re thinking of! Their store is a number of warehouses that keeps inventory in a ready-to-ship state. They keep just enough on-hand to meet demand over a short period of time. They figure out how much they need to stock (for each item) by looking at previous sales and then adding to that their guess – or forecast – of upcoming sales. If they guess correctly, they don’t have to pay excess insurance, storage (which includes heat, electricity, storage space), and interest expense (on the money they probably borrow to purchase inventory). They only pay these expenses on things they sell quickly. This process is known as JIT (just in time) inventory. You would learn about this in cost accounting.

When you purchase online, always use a credit card or PayPal. Never pay cash! If you do, you are on your own if a dispute arises. They have your money and you have a poor product or no product at all, and a complaint. I know what you’re thinking: ‘I’ll report them to the authorities, such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB).’ Well, you would need to hop in line because there are tens of thousands of fellow complainants in front of you. And guess what? The BBB only has a few people handling our complaints. So, unless you have a large, valid complaint, you’re out of luck.

However, if you purchase with a credit card or PayPal, then you have a buddy who will fight for you. And, if the online merchant is non-responsive, evasive, or can’t be found, they will almost always get your money back for you. All you need to usually do is complain within 90 days of the date of purchase. If you complain late, then you might lose your buddy. Check with your credit card company to make sure you know when your deadline is to file a complaint against a merchant.

Another important consideration is that every time you do anything that relates to money or your personal identity, check that the Web site’s URL begins with HTTPS before you enter your login name and password. This should ensure that your communication is encrypted and hidden from other Internet traffic. However, keep in mind that if the computer you use for these transactions is not secure, then using HTTPS doesn’t do you much good.

As a side note, you should consider using a number of logins and passwords, depending on the type of account to which you are logging into. For example, if you purchase from a secure vendor, use a certain login/password set for one or more vendors. If you log in to a site that is not secure, don’t use your secure login/password set on that site. Finally, use another login/password set for your bank and other financial institutions. This way, if one of the merchants is compromised, you will not suffer complete exposure when an identify thief gets one of your login/password sets.