Interview Questions

QUESTIONS ON TCP/IP

1. Explain range of TCP/IP classes
Answer :
CLASS A = 1 to 126
CLASS B = 128 to 191
CLASS C = 192 to 223
CLASS D = 224 to 239 (Multicasting)
CLASS E = 240 to 255 (Research)

2. What are Pvt. IP address ?
Answer : Pvt. IP are IPs which are not used in Internet or which are not routable in Internet. They are also called as non-routable IP's.

3. What are the range of Pvt. IP. ?
Answer :
Class A = 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255
Class B = 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255
Class C = 192.168.0.0. to 192.168.255.255

4. What is function of Router ?
Answer : Router is a device or PC which is used to connect two or more IP networks.

5. What is Default Gateway :
Answer : Default gateway is the address of router.

6. What is Subnet Mask ?
Answer : Subnet mask is used to differentiate Network ID and Host ID from a given IP
address.
The default subnet mask are as under
Class A = 255.0.0.0
Class B = 255.255.0.0
Class C = 255.255.255.0

7. What is Loop back address ?
Answer : The loop back address is 127.0.0.1. This address is used to check local TCP/IP suite or local machine.

8. What protocol is used by PING ?
Answer : Ping uses ICMP(Internet Control Management Protocol)

9. What is used of Tracert ?
Answer : Tracert is a to find path information between source and destination. It show no. of hops between source and destination. Tracert also uses ICMP protocol.

10. Difference between NetBEUI and TCP/IP
Answer :
TCP/IP NetBEUI
a. industry standard Microsoft property
b. IP address NO addressing
c. supports routing Non routable
d. Large network small network
e. more configuration no configuration

11. What is full form of PING ?
Answer : Packet Internet Network Gopher
Vision Infosystems (VIS) Interview Questions

BASICS OF NETWORKING

1. Difference between Switch and Hub
Switch HUB
a. Works at layer 2 works at layer 1
b. Uses MAC address for packet uses broadcast for packet forwarding
c. Does not required CSMA/CD requires CSMA/CD
d. Faster than HUB Slower than Switch
e. Full-duplex Half-duplex
f. high throughput low throughput

2. Explain AT&T color code for straight cable and cross cable
Answer :
Orange/white
orange
green/white
blue
blue/white
green
brown/white
brown

3. what is bandwidth of of CAT5 cable
Answer : 100 Mbps

4. What is the recommended CAT5 cable length between switch and PC ?
Answer : 100 meters

5. When to use cross cable and straight cable
Answer :
Similar device = cross cable
eg. switch to switch
PC to PC
Hub to HUB
Switch to HUB
PC to router
router to router
Un similar device = straight cable
eg. PC to switch
PC to HUB
Router to Switch

6. Which pins are used in CAT5 cables
Answer : pin no. 1,2,3,6
pin 1 = tx +
pin 2 = tx -
pin 3 = rx +
pin 6 = rx -

7. difference between domain and workgroup
Answer :
Domain Workgroup
a. centralized network model decentralized network
b. Domain is controlled by DC No centralized control
c. Centralized login Local login
d. centralized user database local user database
e. Easy and centralized management NA
f. good for large network good for small network

8. Different types of LAN topologies
Answer :
a. Bus topology = 10base2 (Thinnet)
= 10base5 (Thicknet)
b. Star topology = 10baseT (ethernet, 10 mbps)
= 100baseTx (fastethernet, 100 mbps)
= 100baseFX (fastethernet with Fibre)
= 1000baseTX (gigabit ethernet, 1000 mbps)
= 1000basefx (gigabit ethernet with fibre)
c. WAN toplogies = PSTN (Public switched telephone network)
= ISDN (Integrated switched digital network)
= Frame Relay
= Leased Line
= DSL (Digital subscriber line)
= ATM (Async Transfer Mode)

9. Explain in short about all 7 layers of OSI
Answer :
Application layer = user interface and application
Presentation layer = Data conversion and transformation
session layer = keep data of diff. application separately
transport layer = end to end connectivity using port numbers.
network layer = logical addressing like IP address.
Data link layer = Physical addressing like MAC address.
Physical layer = Physical transmission of data using 0's and 1's.

BASICS OF ACTIVE DIRECTORY

1. Define Active directory service
Answer : ADS is a new logical network model of windows 2000 and 2003 which
includes forest, trees, domain, etc.

2. What if forest. ?
Answer : forest is collection of single or multiple trees.

3. What is trees ?
Answer : Trees are collection of single or multiple domain arrange in hierarchy using child-parent relationship.

4. Which authentication protocol are supported by ADS ?
Answer : NTLM and Kerberos

5. What is Global Catalog ?
Answer : GC is a DC which maintains full copy of local domain partition and partial copy of entire forest.

6. What is function of LDAP ?
Answer : LDAP is a protocol used to query or access active directory database. It uses port 389.

7. What are the requirements for ADS >
Answer : a) Windows 2000/2003 Server Operating System
b) TCP/IP protocol and IP address
c) Network Card with Active state
d) NTFS partition

8. What is Sysvol ?
Answer : Sysvol(System Volume) a special folder located on NTFS partition of DC for storing domain public files like logon script, GPO templates, etc. The contents of sysvol folder are replicated to all DC in a domain.

FILESYSTEMS AND DISK MANAGEMENT

1) Difference between FAT32 and NTFS
Answer :
FAT32 NTFS
a. Supported by win9x,2000,2003,XP supported by NT,2000,2003,XP
b. Remote security Local security
c. NA compression and encryption
d. NA Hot Fixing
e. NA Shadow copy and Disk quota

2) Difference between Basic disk and dynamic disk
Answer :
Basic Disk Dynamic disk
a. partition are created volumes are created
b. can be converted to dynamic cannot be converted to basic
c. grouping of disk not allowed grouping of disk are allowed
d. No data redundancy data redundancy using RAID 1/5
e. partition table is at start partition table is at end

3. Explain about RAID-1
Answer :
a. Min. and max. 2 hard disk
b. If any one disk fails data can be recovered from other disk.
c. 50% space wastage.
d. no read/write performance improvement.
Vision Infosystems (VIS) Interview Questions
e. good for storing Operating system.

4. Explain about RAID-5
Answer :
a. data is stored in distributed format across all the disk
b. min 3 max. 32
c. if any one disk fails data can be recovered using parity.
d. parity space wastage eg. parity = total space \ no of disk.
e. good for storing data.

5. Can we convert FAT32 to NTFS? how ?
Answer : you can convert FAT32 partition to NTFS using convert.exe command.
Eg . convert /fs:ntfs

6. What is mounting ?
Answer : mounting is a process of assigning or mapping of the folder to a drive.

7. What is RAID ?
Answer : RAID is a technology of grouping disk in order to provide more space and redundancy. There are total 54 RAID method. Windows 2003 support RAID 0, 1 and 5.

8. What is difference between mirroring and duplexing ?
Answer : Mirroring requires single controller and duplexing requires two controllers.

DHCP, DNS and WINS

1. What is DNS ?
Answer : It is used to resolve FQDN to IP address.

2. Types of Zone in DNS ?
Answer : Forward Lookup - it is used to resolve FQDN to IP
Reverse lookup - it is used to resolve IP to FQDN

3. Types of DNS Zone ?
Answer :
Primary Zone :
Secondary Zone :
AD integrated Zone :
Stub Zone :

4. what is NSlookup ?
Answer : it is a tool used troubleshoot DNS related issues.

5 What is DHCP ?
Answer: DHCP is used to automatically provide IP address to client computers.

6. Explain DHCP 4 packets.
Answer :
Discover = client sends request for IP.
Offer = DHCP server send and Offer with IP address.
Request = if clients accepts the IP it sends a request to DHCP.
Ack = DHCP server sends ack for the same.

7. What is client reservation in DHCP ?
Answer : to reserve a specific IP for a specific machine or host.

8. What is WINS ?
Answer : It is used to resolve NetBIOS Computer name to IP address.

9. Which port number DHCP uses?
Answer : DHCP uses UDP port number 67 and 68.

Windows operating system differences

1. Difference between Windows NT and 2000
Answer :
Windows NT Windows 2000
a) Directory Service Active Directory Service
b) FAT16 and NTFS 4.0 FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS 5.0
c) Compression Compression, Encryption and Disk Quota
d) System Policy Group Policy
e) Local and Global Group Local, Global and Universal Group
f) No IPsec IPsec builtin
g) 40000 user limit 100000 user limit
h) NTLM authentication NTLM and Kerberos authentication
i) Basic disk Basic and Dynamic Disk

2. Difference between Windows NT and 2003
Answer :

Windows NT Windows 2003
a) Directory Service Active Directory Service
b) FAT16 and NTFS 4.0 FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS 5.0
c) Compression Compression, Encryption and Disk Quota
d) System Policy Group Policy
e) Local and Global Group Local, Global and Universal Group
f) No IPsec IPsec builtin
g) 40000 user limit 100000 user limit
h) NTLM authentication NTLM and Kerberos authentication
i) Basic disk Basic and Dynamic Disk
j) No Shadow Copy Shadow copy
k) ERD ASR

2. Difference between Windows 2000 Server and 2003 Server
Answer :
Windows 2000 Windows 2003
a) No Shadow copy Shadow Copy feature
b) No RPC over HTTP RPC over HTTP
c) 32 bit 32 bit and 64 bit
d) no Domain rename features domain rename feature
e) Terminal Service Remote desktop and assistance
f) ERD ASR
g) less command line tool more command line tools
h) No Stub DNS Stub DNS
i) IIS 5 IIS 6

3. Difference between Windows 2000 Prof and Windows XP prof
Answer :
Windows 2000 Prof Windows XP prof
a) ERD ASR
b) Terminal Service Remote Desktop and assistance
c) IE 5 IE 6
d) No Firewall Basic firewall
e) NO Alternate IP configuration
f) NO System restore
g) NO Driver rollback feature

4. Difference between Windows XP home and Windows XP prof
Answer :
Windows XP home Windows XP prof
a) no Remote desktop Yes
b) NO Offline folders
c) 1 processor 2 processor
d) workgroup member Workgroup and domain member
e) NO Encryption
f) NO GPO GPO
g) NO Roaming profile
h) no ASR ASR

5. Difference between Windows XP and Windows 98
Answer :
Windows XP Windows 98
a) Remote desktop NO
b) GPO NO
c) 2 processor 1 processor
d) NTLM & Kerberos NTLM authentication
e) Encryption NO
f) Disk Quota NO
g) FAT, FAT32 and NTFS FAT and FAT32
h) IE 5 IE 4

6. Difference between Windows 95 and Windows 98
Answer :
Windows 95 Windows 98
a) NO USB support YES
b) FAT 16 and FAT32 for R2 fAT16 and FAT32
c) Single monitor multiple monitor
d) NO Direct X
e) IE3 IE 4
f) NO APM (Adv. Power Management)

USERS AND GROUPS

1. Explain types of user ?
Answer : Users are of two types
a) Local User : Local users are used in workgroup environment and can logon to local machine.
b) Global Users : Global users are used in domain environment and can be created on DC and can login from any machine in a domain.

2. Explain types of group ?
Answer : Groups are divided into two categories
a) Security group : groups to which rights and permission can be assigned
b) Distribution group : groups used for assigning common properties like email address, etc. They are used by mailing software like exchange server.

3. Explain scope of group
Answer : the scope of groups are divided into 3 categories
Local Group : Local groups are used in workgroup environment
Domain Local Group : groups which cannot cross domain boundary are called as local group. they can access resources of local domain only.
Global group : groups which can cross domain boundary and can access resources of local as well of other domains. Global groups can contain global users and global groups from same domain only.
Universal Group : groups which can cross domain boundary and can access resources of local as well of other domains. Universal group can contains global users, universal groups from same and other domain too.

4. Can we convert domain local group to global group
Answer :

5. Can we convert Universal group to Global group
Answer :

6. Can we convert global group to universal group
Answer :

Backup and disaster recovery

1) Which tool is used to backup data or system state ?
Answer : NTBACKUP or any other third party software like veritas, etc.

2) what does system state backup includes ?
Answer : Sysvol, ADS database file, COM+ components, Registry and boot files.

3) Explain types of backup
Answer :
Full backup or normal backup : complete data is backup with archive bit is clear Incremental backup : only new data is backup for which archive bit is set and after backup archive bit is clear.
Differential backup :only new data is backup for which archive bit is set and after backup archive bit is not set.
Copy backup : complete data is backup with archive bit not cleared.
Daily backup : data is backup based on modified dates.

4) Which are the various method or media used for backup ?
Answer : Hard drive, Tape(DAT), DLT, LTO, etc.

5) Difference between Incremental backup and Differential backup ?
Answer : refer to question 3

6) Difference between Normal and Incremental Backup ?
Answer : Refer to question 3

BASIC NETWORKING CONCEPTS

1) What is Web Server ?
Answer : Web server is a server or application server which host or stores websites. Every web site should have a name like www.vision.com and IP address. Eg. IIS, Apache
server, etc.

2) What is mail server ?
Answer : Mail server is a software which maintains user mailboxes. eg : Exchange server, Lotus domino, etc.

3) What is mail client ?
Answer : A software used by client to access to mails stores on mail server. using mail client software you can send mail and receive mail. Eg : Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Lotus notes, etc.

4) What is Proxy server ?
Answer : It is a software used for sharing of internet connection. Eg. Wingate, Winproxy, Analog proxy, etc.

5) Port numbers for various application and services
Answer :
There are total 65536 ports available. Below are the list of some well-known ports.
LDAP : 389
Global catalog :
Kerberos : 88
DNS : 53
SMTP : 25
POP3 : 110
Telnet : 23
NNTP : 119
IMAP : 143
RPC : 135
HTTP : 80
HTTPS / SSL : 443
FTP : 21

6) What is firewall ?
Answer : It is a software used to provide security to your network by not allowing unauthorized access to your Internal network from External users. Eg : PIX firewall, Checkpoint firewall, etc.

USER MANAGEMENT

1) What is Logon script ?
Answer : Logon script is a bat file or script file which runs when a user logs on.

2) Where are logon script stored ?
Answer : They are stored in Sysvol folder of DC

3) What are the supported extensions for logon script ?
Answer : The common supported format for logon script .exe, .bat, .com, .vbs, etc.

4) Why logon script are used ?
Answer : Logon script are generally used to to automate task like mapping of drivers, home directory, printers, etc.

5) What are user profile ?
Answer : User profile are user common environment which contents settings like desktop, my docs, temp, outlook settings, IE settings, start menu, etc.

6) What are the different types of profile ?
Answer :
a) Local Profile : stored on local machine where the user log on. User get different profile when he logs on to different machine.
b) Roaming Profile : Stored in shared folder of server. User get same profile when he logs on to different machine. User can modify his profile.
c) Mandatory profile : Stored in shared folder of server. User get same profile when he logs on to different machine. User cannot modify his profile.

7) Difference between Roaming and Mandatory profile ?
Answer :
Roaming Profile : User can modify his profile
Mandatory Profile :User cannot modify his profile

8) Difference between Roaming and Local profile ?
Answer :
Local Profile Roaming Profile
a) stored on local machine stored on shared folder of server
b) user get different profile user get same profile on different
for different machine machine.
c) stored in C:\docs and settings Stored on shared folder of a server
d) These profile are automatically These profile is required to be
created when a user logs on to a configured as per requirement.
machine.

9) How to configure a user profile as mandatory ?
Answer : To configure a profile as mandatory we need to configure a profile as roaming and then rename the ntuser.dat to ntuser.man from the shared folder.

10) What are home directory ?
Answer : Home directory are user personal folder for storing personal data and automatically mounted as network drive when a user logs on to any machine in a domain. Home directory setting are configured using Active directory users and computer snap-in.

USING NET COMMANDS

1) How to map a remote shared folder using command prompt ?
Answer : use NET USE command
Eg NET USE x: \\10.0.0.1\data1

2) How to stop and start server using command line
Answer : use NET START to start a service and NET STOP to stop the service
Eg : NET STOP spooler
NET START spooler

3) How to configure sync. time using command line ?
Answer : use NET TIME command
Eg : NET TIME \\10.0.0.1 /set

4) How to send message to remote user, computer, etc. using command line ?
Answer : use NET SEND command
Eg : NET SEND 10.0.0.1 "how are u"

5) How to view shared folder or share a folder using command line
Answer : use NET SHARE command
Eg : NET SHARE - to view shared folder on local machine
NET SHARE temp=c:\data1 - to shared a folder with name temp

6) How to create/delete user using command line ?
Answer : use NET USER command
Eg : NET USER tommy 123 /add - created a user tommy with password 123
NET USER tommy /delete

7) How to create/delete grup using command line ?
Answer : use NET GROUP command (This command is used only on DC)
Eg : NET GROUP admins /add

8) How to create/delete local group using command line ?
Answer : use NET LOCALGROUP command
Eg : NET LOCALGROUP admins /add

MIXTURE QUESTION ON Windows

1) Which protocol is used by ADS for time sync. between PC's?
Answer : SNTP (Simple network time protocol)

2) What is RPC protocol ?
Answer : RPC stands for Remote Procedure Call. It uses port number 135. RPC is an inter-process communication technique that allows client and server software to communicate.

3) What is COM ?
Answer : Component Object Model (COM) is Microsoft's object-oriented programming model that defines how objects interact within a single application or between applications.

4) What is SNMP ?
Answer : SNMP stands for Simple Network Management Protocol). This protocol is used to monitor and manage network devices like Switches, Routers, Servers, etc. SNMP uses port UDP port number 161 and 162.

5) What is Network Monitor Agent ?
Answer : Network Monitor Agent is a packet capturing software. It is also called as sniffer.

6) What are the default share in Windows 2003 Server ?
Answer : The default share in Windows 2003 are
a) Admin$
b) All drives i.e. C$. D$ .etc
c) IPC$
d) Netlogon (Only on DC)
e) Sysvol (Only on DC)

7) How to create a hidden share in Windows ?
Answer : In share name of a folder Specify $ after the share name i.e. data$
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Basic IT Questions

Questions related to DHCP

Q. What is DHCP?
A. DHCP stands for "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol". DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) is a communications protocol that lets network administrators centrally manage and automate the assignment of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in an organization's network. DHCP assigns IP address to computers and other devices that are enabled as DHCP Clients. Deploying DHCP servers on the network automatically provides computers and other TCP/IP based network devices with valid IP addresses and the additional configuration parameters these devices need, called DHCP options, which allow them to connect to other network resources, such as DNS servers, WINS servers and routers. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) automatically assigns IP addresses and other network configuration information (subnet mask, broadcast address, etc) to computers on a network. A client configured for DHCP will send out a broadcast request to the DHCP server requesting an address. The DHCP server will then issue a "lease" and assign it to that client. The time period of a valid lease can be specified on the server. DHCP reduces the amount of time required to configure clients and allows one to move a computer to various networks and be configured with the appropriate IP address, gateway and subnet mask.

Q. Who Created It? How Was It Created?
A. DHCP was created by the Dynamic Host Configuration Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF; a volunteer organization which defines protocols for use on the Internet). As such, its definition is recorded in an Internet RFC and the Internet Activities Board (IAB) is asserting its status as to Internet Standardization. As of this writing (June 1998), DHCP is an Internet Draft Standard Protocol and is Elective. BOOTP is an Internet Draft Standard Protocol and is recommended.

Q. How DHCP Works?
A. DHCP uses a client-server model. The network administrator establishes one or more DHCP servers that maintain TCP/IP configuration information and provide it to clients. The server database includes the following:
Valid configuration parameters for all clients on the network.
Valid IP addresses maintained in a pool for assignment to clients, plus reserved addresses for manual assignment. Duration of a lease offered by the server. The lease defines the length of time for which the assigned IP address can be used. With a DHCP server installed and configured on your network, DHCP-enabled clients can obtain their IP address and related configuration parameters dynamically each time they start and join the network. DHCP servers provide this configuration in the form of an address-lease offer to requesting clients. A. With a DHCP server installed and configured on your network, DHCP-enabled clients can obtain their IP address and related configuration parameters dynamically each time they start and join the network. DHCP servers provide this configuration in the form of an address-lease offer to requesting clients. The DHCP client requests an IP address by broadcasting a DHCP Discover message to the local subnet. The client is offered an address when a DHCP server responds with a DHCP Offer message containing IP address and configuration information for lease to the client. If no DHCP server responds to the client request, the client
can proceed in two ways:
If it is a Windows 2000–based client, and IP auto-configuration has not been disabled, the client self-configures an IP address for its interface.
If the client is not a Windows 2000–based client, or IP auto-configuration has been disabled, the client network initialization fails. The client continues to resend DHCP Discover messages in the background (four times, every 5 minutes) until it receives a DHCP Offer message from a DHCP server. The client indicates acceptance of the offer by selecting the offered address and replying to the server with a DHCP Request message. The client is assigned the address and the DHCP server sends a DHCH ACK message, approving the lease. Other DHCP option information might be included in the message.
Once the client receives acknowledgment, it configures its TCP/IP properties using any DHCP option information in the reply, and joins the network. In rare cases, a DHCP server might return a negative acknowledgment to the client. This can happen if a client requests an invalid or duplicate address. If a client receives a negative acknowledgment (DHCP Nack), the client must begin the entire lease process again.
Figure 3-5. DHCP client/server protocol

Q. At what layer of OSI it functions?
A. DHCP works at Data link Layer. (Layer 2)

Q. What is DORA?
A. Finally, the chosen DHCP server sends the lease information (the IP address, potentially a subnet mask, DNS server, WINS server, WINS node type, domain name, and default gateway) to the workstation in a message called the DHCP ACK (data communications jargon for acknowledge). You can remember the four parts of a DHCP message by the mnemonic DORA - Discover, Offer, Request, and ACK.

Q. What is the default Lease Period in DHCP Client/Server communication?
A. The default lease is 8 days, after which a computer has to renew their use of the address they've been leased by your DHCP server.
There are certain situations however when you might want to lengthen this lease period to several weeks or months or even longer. These situations include (a) when you have a stable network where computers neither join or are removed or relocated; (b) when you have a large pool of available IP addresses to lease from; or (c) when your network is almost saturated with very little available bandwidth and you want to reduce DHCP traffic to increase available bandwidth (not by much, but sometimes every little bit helps).

Q. How does DHCP lease works?
A. The first time a DHCP-enabled client starts and attempts to join the network; it automatically follows an initialization process to obtain a lease from a DHCP server. Figure 4.2 shows the lease process.
Figure 4.2 DHCP Lease Process
The DHCP client requests an IP address by broadcasting a DHCP Discover message to the local subnet. The client is offered an address when a DHCP server responds with a DHCP Offer message containing IP address and configuration information for lease to the client. If no DHCP server responds to the client request, the client can proceed in two ways:
If it is a Windows 2000–based client, and IP auto-configuration has not been disabled, the client self-configures an IP address for its interface.
If the client is not a Windows 2000–based client, or IP auto-configuration has been disabled, the client network initialization fails. The client continues to resend DHCP Discover messages in the background (four times, every 5 minutes) until it receives a DHCP Offer message from a DHCP server. The client indicates acceptance of the offer by selecting the offered address and replying to the server with a DHCP Request message. The client is assigned the address and the DHCP server sends a DHCH ACK message, approving the lease. Other DHCP option information might be included in the message.
Once the client receives acknowledgment, it configures its TCP/IP properties using any DHCP option information in the reply, and joins the network. In rare cases, a DHCP server might return a negative acknowledgment to the client. This can happen if a client requests an invalid or duplicate address. If a client receives a negative acknowledgment (DHCP Nack), the client must begin the entire lease process again.

Q. How can you backup configuration file of DHCP server?
A. DHCP database backs itself up automatically every 60 minutes to the %SystemRoot%\System32\Dhcp\Backup\Jet directory. This interval can be changed:
Start the registry editor
Move to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\DHCPServer\Parameters\BackupInterval
Double click on Backup Interval and set to the number of minutes you want the backup to be performed. Click OK
Close the registry editor
Stop and restart the DHCP server service (Start - Settings - Control Panel - Services - DHCP Server - Start and Stop)
You could backup the %SystemRoot%\System32\Dhcp\Backup\Jet directory if you wish.

Q. Had you maintained/created any technical reference documentation on DHCP Server/Client?
A. Yes.

Q. What is TCP/IP port no. used for DHCP service?
A. DHCP uses the same two IANA assigned ports as BOOTP: 67/udp for the server side, and 68/udp for the client side.

Q. What is VLAN?
A. A virtual LAN, commonly known as a vLAN or as a VLAN, is a method of creating independent logical networks within a physical network. A VLAN consists of a network of computers that behave as if connected to the same wire - even though they may actually be physically connected to different segments of a LAN. Network administrators configure VLANs through software rather than hardware, which make them extremely flexible.

Q. How is it different than VLANs?
A. DHCP and VLANs, which are very different in concept, are sometimes cited as different solutions to the same problem. While they have a goal in common (easing moves of networked computers), VLANs represent a more revolutionary change to a LAN than DHCP. A DHCP server and forwarding agents can allow you to set things up so that you can unplug a client computer from one network or subnet and plug it into another and have it come alive immediately, it having been reconfigured automatically. In conjunction to Dynamic DNS, it could automatically be given its same name in its new place. VLAN-capable LAN equipment with dynamic VLAN assignment allows you to configure things so a client computer can be plugged into any port and have the same IP number (as well as name) and be on the same subnet. The VLAN-capable network either has its own configuration that lists which MAC addresses are to belong to each VLAN, or it makes the determination from the source IP address of the IP packets that the client computer sends. Some differences in the two approaches:
DHCP handles changes by reconfiguring the client while a VLAN-capable network handles it by reconfiguring the network port the client is moved to. DHCP dynamic reconfiguration requires a DHCP server, forwarding agent in each router, and DHCP capability in each client's TCP/IP support. The analogous capability in VLANs requires that all hubs throughout the network be VLAN-capable, supporting the same VLAN scheme. To this point VLAN support is proprietary with no vendor interoperability, but standards are being developed.
DHCP can configure a new client computer for you while a VLAN-capable network can't. DHCP is generally aimed at giving "easy moves" capability to networks that are divided into subnets on a geographical basis, or on separate networks. VLANs are generally aimed at allowing you to set up subnets on some basis other than geographical, e.g. instead of putting everyone in one office on the same subnet, putting each person on a subnet that has access to the servers that that person requires. There is an issue with trying to use DHCP (or BOOTP) and VLANs at the same time, in particular, with the scheme by which the VLAN-capable network determines the client's VLAN based upon the client computer's source IP address. Doing so assumes the client computer is already configured, which precludes the use of network to get the configuration information from a DHCP or BOOTP server.

Q. What is DHCP relay Agent?
A. DHCP Relay Agent component is a Bootstrap Protocol (BOOTP) relay agent that relays Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) messages between DHCP clients and DHCP servers on different IP networks.

Q. How does DHCP relay agent work?
A. A DHCP relay agent is an agent program or component responsible for relaying DHCP & BOOTP (Bootstrap Protocol) broadcast messages between a DHCP server and a client across an IP router.
A DHCP relay agent supports DHCP/BOOTP message relay as defined in RFC (Request for Comment) 1541 & 2131. The DHCP relay agent service is managed using Routing & Remote Service.

Q. DHCP User Class and Vendor Class Options?
A. DHCP provides support for a host of new features. The user-specified and vendor-specified DHCP options—features that let administrators assign separate options to clients with similar configuration requirements. For example, if DHCP-aware clients in your human resources (HR) department require a different default gateway or DNS server than the rest of your clients, you can configure DHCP Class IDs to distribute these options to HR clients. The options that Class IDs provide override any scope or global default options that the DHCP server typically assigns.

Q. Option Classes?
A. The two option class types: User Class and Vendor Class. User Classes assign DHCP options to a group of clients that require similar configuration; Vendor Classes typically assign vendor-specific options to clients that share a common vendor type. For example, with Vendor Classes you can assign all Dell computers DHCP options that are common to those machines. The purpose of option classes is to group DHCP options for similar clients within a DHCP scope.

Q. What is Super scope?
A. A range of IP addresses that span several subnets. The DHCP server can assign these addresses to clients that are on several subnets.
A. A super-scope is actually a collection of individual scopes. When you group different scopes together into a single super scope, you can do the following:
Place DHCP clients from multiple network IDs on the same physical segment Allow remote DCHP clients from multiple network IDs to obtain an address from a DHCP Server
Place multiple DHCP Servers on the same physical segment, with each DCHP Server being responsible for a different scope.
The super scope will allow the DHCP Server to answer requests from DHCP clients from different network IDs.

Q. What is Multicast?
A. A range of class D addresses from 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255 that can be assigned to computers when they ask for them. A multicast group is assigned to one IP address. Multicasting can be used to send messages to a group of computers at the same time with only one copy of the message. The Multicast Address Dynamic Client Allocation Protocol (MADCAP) is used to request a multicast address from a DHCP server.

Q. What is a DHCP lease?
A. A DHCP lease is the amount of time that the DHCP server grants to the DHCP client permission to use a particular IP address. A typical server allows its administrator to set the lease time.

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Questions related to WSUS?

Q. What is WSUS?
A. It is Microsoft Software Update Server, and it is designed to automate the
process of distributing Windows operating system patches.
It works by controlling the Automatic Updates applet already present on all
Windows machines. Instead of many machines at UVA all going to Microsoft's
website to download updates, the SUS server downloads all updates to an
ITC-owned server and workstations then look there for updates.

Q. What is the Minimum Free Disk Space required?
A. Minimum of 6 GB free disk space is recommended to store the WSUS content.

Q. How WSUS Works?
A. WSUS is an update component of Windows Server and offers an effective and
quick way to help keep systems up-to-date. WSUS provides a management
infrastructure consisting of the following:
Microsoft Update: The Microsoft Web site to which WSUS components connect for
updates of Microsoft products.
Windows Server Update Services server: The server component that is installed
on a computer running a Microsoft Windows 2000 Server with Service Pack 4
(SP4) or Windows Server 2003 operating system inside the corporate firewall.
WSUS server provides the features that administrators need to manage and
distribute updates through a Web-based tool, which can be accessed from
Internet Explorer on any Windows computer in the corporate network. In
addition, a WSUS server can be the update source for other WSUS servers.
Automatic Updates: The client computer component built into Microsoft Windows
Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000 with SP3 operating systems.
Automatic Updates enables both server and client computers to receive updates
from Microsoft Update or from a server running WSUS.

Q. What are the basic requirements (Hardware/Software) to implement the
Windows SUS server?
A. Server Hardware Requirements:
WSUS requires a single server for basic operation, although you can scale
your WSUS implementation to larger numbers of servers if you wish. For a
basic implementation of up to 500 users, hardware requirements, per
Microsoft, are:
1GHz CPU
1GB RAM
You also need a network card, and around free disk space (described below)
Server Software Requirements:
You need the following software components:
A supported Windows Server operating system - Windows Server 2003 is the
preferred OS, but Windows 2000 is also supported. WSUS is supported on all
editions of Windows Server 2003, but there are some restrictions of you use
the Web Edition (See [WUS Restrictions With2k3 Web].
IIS - WUS is operated via IIS, so your WUS Server needs to have IIS loaded.
You need at least IIS 5.0.
.NET Framework 1.1 SP1 - get this 7.982MB download from the Microsoft
download site. The .NET Framework 1.1 SP1 is delivered as a hot fix
installation file (see KB article KB867460 for details). This expands to 55.6
MB (58,335,654 bytes) on disk prior to installation. The installation of this
hot fix also stops IIS, and requires a reboot.
Background Intelligent Transfer Service 2.0 (BITS 2.0 English.zip) - this is
a new version of BITS, at present only available to beta testers, or those on
the OEP. This is a 1.34MB download.
WSUS Setup (WSUSSetup.exe) - Like BITS V2, this is available only to beta
testers or members of the OEP at present. This is download is over 100mb.
SQL Database server. For Windows Server 2003 MSDE is installed during setup.
For Windows 2000 it is not and MSDE or SQL server must be installed prior WUS
setup.
Server Disk Space Requirements:
WUS Server disk space requirements fall into three categories: the WUS
service, WUS updates and the WUS data base.
Microsoft recommends that you have at least 6GB free disk space to store WUS
content. At present, typical usage is around 1-2GB/language, although this
does depend on what updates you specify and is likely to grow over time. The
WSUS service installs (by default) into C:\Program Files\Update Services\.
This folder takes up 365MB (371MB on disk) after the initial installation.
The WSUS Database is managed by MDSE, and is installed by default into
C:\WSUS\MSSQL$WSUS. This folder takes up 216 MB after the initial install,
synchronize and with only 2 clients. The size of the DB grows as you add more
computers, and as you manage more updates.

Q. What is TCP/IP port no. used for Windows SUS services?
A. WSUS uses 8530 port.

Q. What is essential application used for WSUS database report?
A. WSUS database stores update information, event information about update
actions on client computers, and WSUS server settings.
Administrators have the following options for the WSUS database:
1. The Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (Windows) (WMSDE) database
that WSUS can install during setup on Windows Server 2003
2. An existing Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 database
3. An existing Microsoft Data Engine 2000 (MSDE) with Service Pack 3 (SP3) or
Later.

Q. What are essential settings required at the end of WSUS client?
A. On the client side we have to enable Automatic update from security
setting. Also we can enable automatic update from registry.
Registry Key:
KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\Type:
Reg_DWORD
0 - Disabled.
1 - Enable the Automatic Update client to use the SUS Server specified by the
"WUServer" value.
If you have domain login on client, then we also enable auto update on client
side through group policy.

Questions related to DNS?

Q. What is DNS?
A. DNS stands for Domain Naming System which provides name resolution for
TCP/IP network. In addition it is a distributed database and hierarchal
structure which ensures that each hostname is unique across a local and wide
area network.
A. DNS is the name resolution system of the Internet. Using DNS allows
clients to resolve names of hosts to IP addresses so that communication can
take place. DNS is the foundation upon which Active Directory is built.

Q. How DNS Works?
A. DNS uses a client/server model in which the DNS server maintains a static
database of domain names mapped to IP addresses. The DNS client, known as the
resolver, performs queries against the DNS servers. The bottom line? DNS
resolves domain names to IP address using these steps
Step 1: A client (or “resolver”) passes its request to its local name server.
For example, the URL term www.idgbooks.com typed into Internet Explorer is
passed to the DNS server identified in the client TCP/IP configuration. This
DNS server is known as the local name server.
Step 2: If, as often happens, the local name server is unable to resolve the
request, other name servers are queried so that the resolver may be
satisfied.
Step 3: If all else fails, the request is passed to more and more,
higher-level name servers until the query resolution process starts with
far-right term (for instance, com) or at the top of the DNS tree with root
name servers
Below is the Steps explained with the help of a chart.
Figure 8-5: How DNS works

Q. What is the TCP/IP port no. used for DNS services?
A. 53/TCP, UDP is used for DNS services.

Q. What are the basic requirements (Hardware/Software) to implement the
Windows DNS server?
A. Server Hardware Requirements:
Microsoft's suggested minimum hardware requirements (and some Microsoft
recommendations) for Windows Server 2003 (Standard) is listed here:
CPU speed: 133MHz (550MHz recommended)
RAM: 128MB (256MB recommended; 4GB maximum on Standard Server)
Disk space for setup: 1.5GB
CD-ROM drive: 12X
Monitor: Super VGA capable of providing 800 x 600 resolution

Q. Explain DNS Zones?
A. A zone is simply a contiguous section of the DNS namespace. Records for a
zone are stored and managed together. Often, sub-domains are split into
several zones to make manageability easier. For example,
support.microsoft.com and msdn.microsoft.com are separate zones, where
support and msdn are sub-domains within the Microsoft.com domain.

Q. Explain zone file?
A. The database in a DNS server that contains the translations (mappings)
between domain names and IP addresses. A zone file is made up of "resource
records," which are lines of text that define the forward lookup of domains
to IP, the reverse lookup of IP to domains as well as the names of DNS and
mail servers. Records for aliases and other related information.

Q. What is Primary DNS Zone?
A. A primary DNS server holds the "master copy" of the data for a zone, and
secondary servers have copies of this data which they synchronize with the
primary through zone transfers at intervals or when prompted by the primary.

Q. What is Standard Primary DNS Server?
A. Standard primary zone holds a master copy of a zone and can replicate it
to all configured secondary zones in standard text format. Any changes that
must be made to the zone are made on the copy stored on the primary.

Q. What is Active Directory Integrated DNS server?
A. Active Directory–integrated zones are available only on Windows 2000 and
2003 DNS servers in an Active Directory domain. The zone information is
contained within the Active Directory database and is replicated using Active
Directory replication. Active Directory–integrated zones provide an increased
level of replication flexibility as well as security. Active
Directory–integrated zones also operate in a multi-master arrangement because
they are hosted within Active Directory itself; this way, any DNS server
(domain controller) hosting the Active Directory–integrated zone can update
the zone data.

Q. What is Secondary DNS Zone?
A. A standard secondary zone holds a read-only copy of the zone information
in standard text format. Secondary zones are created to increase performance
and resilience of the DNS configuration. Information is transferred from the
primary zone to the secondary zones.

Q. What is STUB Zone?
A. Microsoft has introduced support for stub zones for the first time in
Windows Server 2003. A stub zone contains only those resource records that
are necessary to identify the authoritative DNS servers for that zone. Those
resource records include Name Server (NS), Start of Authority (SOA), and
possibly glue host (A) records. (Glue host records provide A record pointers
to ensure that the master zone has the correct name server information for
the stub zone.)

Q. Why Use Stub Zones?
A The idea behind stub zones is to speed up name resolution and reduce
network traffic. This is a benefit for every network where you are able to
use them.

Q. What is Forward Lookup?
A. Forward Lookup – resolves hostname to IP address. Forward Lookup zones
supply the main DNS mechanism for finding Hosts (A), Name Servers (NS) or
Service (_gc).

Q. What is Reverse Lookup?
A. Reverse Lookup – resolves IP address to hostname. I think of Reverse
Lookup as a hacker’s tool, they can PING a server's IP address and then they
use a Reverse Lookup query to discover the hostname. In truth, Reverse Lookup
is required by NSLookup, DNSLint and other utilities.

Q. What's the difference between a zone and a domain?
A. Although the two terms can seem as if they are used interchangeably, there
is a difference. A DNS domain is a segment of the DNS namespace. A zone, on
the other hand, can contain multiple contiguous domains.
For example, quepublishing.com is a DNS domain. It contains all the
information for that specific portion of the DNS namespace.
sales.quepublishing.com is another example of a domain, which is contiguous
with the quepublishing.com domain; in other words, the two domains "touch."
So, if you were to create a DNS forward lookup zone on your DNS server, it
could contain records for both domains. Zones allow for the logical grouping
and management of domains and resource records on your DNS servers.

Q. DNS resource records
A. DNS zone database is made up of a collection of resource records. Each
resource record specifies information about a particular object. For example,
address mapping (A) records map a host name to an IP address, and
reverse-lookup pointer (PTR) records map an IP address to a host name. The
server uses these records to answer queries for hosts in its zone. For more
information, use the table to view DNS resource records.
NS: Name server resource record specifies the authoritative DNS server for
the particular zone.
SOA: This resource record specifies the DNS server providing authoritative
information about the zone.
A: Standard hostname resource record contains hostname to IP Address mapping.
CNAME: This resource record allows you to use more than one name to point a
single host.
MX: This resource record is used by e-mail applications to locate a mail
server within a zone.
PTR: Used to map IP address to their associated hostnames. These records are
only used in reverse lookup zones.
SRV: This resource records is used to specify the location of specific
services in a domain.

Q. DNS with Active Directory?
A. Active Directory uses the same hierarchal naming convention as DNS.
Because of this, the client computer uses DNS servers to locate Active
Directory domain controllers and other Active Directory resources on the
network.
Without DNS, Active Directory couldn’t function, because client computers
wouldn’t be able to locate these domain controllers and resources.
Bottom line is, Active Directory is dependent on DNS. Active Directory can’t
be implemented until the DNS server service is installed.
Questions related to WINS?

Q. What is WINS?
A. WINS (Windows Internet Naming Service) resolves’ Windows network computer
names (also known as NetBIOS names) to Internet IP addresses, allowing
Windows computers on a network to easily find and communicate with each
other.

Q. How WINS Works?
A. By default, when a computer running Microsoft® Windows® 2000, Windows XP,
or a Windows Server 2003 operating system is configured with WINS server
addresses (either manually or through DHCP) for its name resolution, it uses
hybrid node (h-node) as its node type for NetBIOS name registration unless
another NetBIOS node type is configured. For NetBIOS name query and
resolution, it also uses h-node behavior, but with a few differences.
For NetBIOS name resolution, a WINS client typically performs the following
general sequence of steps to resolve a name:
1. Client checks to see if the name queried is its local NetBIOS computer
name, which it owns.
2. Client checks its local NetBIOS name cache of remote names. Any name
resolved for a remote client is placed in this cache where it remains for 10
minutes.
3. Client forwards the NetBIOS query to its configured primary WINS server.
If the primary WINS server fails to answer the query--either because it is
not available or because it does not have an entry for the name--the client
will try to contact other configured WINS servers in the order they are
listed and configured for its use.
4. Client broadcasts the NetBIOS query to the local subnet.
5. Client checks the Lmhosts file for a match to the query, if it is
configured to use the Lmhosts file.
6. Client tries the Hosts file and then a DNS server, if it is configured for
one

Q. What is the TCP/IP port no. used for WINS services?
A. 137

Q. What are the basic requirements (Hardware/Software) to implement the
Windows WINS server?
A. Hardware Requirement:
Pentium 4 - 2.8 GHz with 2 GB RAM
80 GB Hard drive/7200RPMRecommended hard drive division: 20 GB System
Partition and 60 GB Data partition
100 Mbps Network adaptor or better
Screen Resolution: - 1024 X 768 pixels, 256 colours (65,536 colours
recommended)
Software Requirement:
Windows® Server 2003 Standard Edition SP1 or higher installed.
Application Server Role installed:
Internet Information Server 6.0
ASP.NET

Q. What is Primary & Secondary WINS Server?
A. WINS servers can act as either a primary WINS server or a secondary WINS
server to a client. The difference between primary and secondary WINS servers
is simply the priority in which clients contact them. A primary WINS server
is the first server a client contacts to perform its NetBIOS name service
operations. A client contacts a secondary WINS server only when a primary
WINS server is unable to fulfill the request, for example if it is
unavailable when the client makes the request or unable to resolve a name for
the client.
If a primary WINS server fails to fulfill a request, the client makes the
same request of its secondary WINS server. If more than two WINS servers are
configured for the client, the client tries the additional secondary WINS
servers until the list is exhausted or one of the WINS servers successfully
responds to the request. After a client uses a secondary WINS server, it
periodically tries to switch back to its primary WINS server for future name
service requests.

Q. How does DNS relates with ADS?
A. Active Directory, which is an essential component of the Windows 2003
architecture, presents organizations with a directory service designed for
distributed computing environments. Active Directory allows organizations to
centrally manage and share information on network resources and users while
acting as the central authority for network security. In addition to
providing comprehensive directory services to a Windows environment, Active
Directory is designed to be a consolidation point for isolating, migrating,
centrally managing, and reducing the number of directories that companies
require.
You must have DNS to run Active Directory but don't need Active Directory to
run DNS in a Windows 2000/20003 environment. AD relies heavily on DNS.

Q. What is Host File?
A. The "Hosts" file in Windows and other operating systems is used to
associate host names with IP addresses. Host names are the www.yahoo.com
addresses that you see every day. IP addresses are numbers that mean the same
thing as the www words - the computers use the numbers to actually find the
sites, but we have words like www.yahoo.com so humans do not need to remember
the long strings of numbers when they want to visit a site.
We can put names and addresses into the Hosts file so your computer does not
have to ask a DNS server to translate the domain name into an IP number. This
speeds up access to the host site you want to see because your computer no
longer has to query other systems on the Internet for the address translation

Q. What is LM Host File?
A. A text file in a windows network that provides name resolution of NetBIOS
host names to IP addresses. The LMHOSTS files were the Windows counterpart to
the HOSTS files in UNIX, but have long since given way to the WINS naming
system. LM stands for "LAN Manager," the name of Microsoft's earlier network
operating system (NOS).

Q. What is Firewall? What are the essential settings are used in Firewall?
A. 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.
There are several types of firewall techniques; the 3 basic are as given
below:
Packets filter: Looks at each packet entering or leaving the network and
accepts or rejects it based on user-defined rules. Packet filtering is fairly
effective and transparent to users, but it is difficult to configure. In
addition, it is susceptible to IP spoofing.
Application gateway: Applies security mechanisms to specific applications,
such as FTP and Telnet servers. This is very effective, but can impose
performance degradation.
Circuit-level gateway: Applies security mechanisms when a TCP or UDP
connection is established. Once the connection has been made, packets can
flow between the hosts without further checking.
Proxy server: Intercepts all messages entering and leaving the network. The
proxy server effectively hides the true network addresses.

Q. What is Proxy server?
A. In an enterprise that uses the Internet, a proxy server is a server that
acts as an intermediary between a workstation user and the Internet so that
the enterprise can ensure security, administrative control, and caching
service. A proxy server is associated with or part of a gateway server that
separates the enterprise network from the outside network and a firewall
server that protects the enterprise network from outside intrusion.

Q. What is VPN?
A. VPN gives extremely secure connections between private networks linked
through the Internet. It allows remote computers to act as though they were
on the same secure, local network.
Q. What are the types of protocols used in VPN? A. There are two types of
protocols used in VPN those are PPTP & L2TP.
PPTP: Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) is a network protocol that
enables the secure transfer of data from a remote client to a private
enterprise server by creating a virtual private network (VPN) across
TCP/IP-based data networks. PPTP supports on-demand, multi-protocol, virtual
private networking over public networks, such as the Internet.
L2TP: Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol is an emerging Internet Engineering Task
Force (IETF) standard that combines the features of two existing tunneling
protocols: Cisco's Layer 2 Forwarding and Microsoft's Point-to-Point
Tunneling Protocol. L2TP is an extension to the Point-to-Point Protocol
(PPP).

Q. What is Terminal Services?
A. Terminal Services is a component of Microsoft Windows operating systems
(both client and server versions) that allows a user to access applications
or data stored on a remote computer over a network connection. Terminal
Services is Microsoft's take on server centric computing, which allows
individual users to access network resources easily.
Questions related to Active Directory?

Q. What is Directory Service?
A. Directory service is a software application that stores and organizes
information of networked computers, users, and network resources, and that
allows network administrators to manage users’ access the resources.

Q. What is Active Directory?
A. Active Directory is an implementation of LDAP directory services. Active
Directory allows administrators to assign enterprise-wide policies, deploy
programs to many computers, and apply critical updates to an entire
organization. Active Directory stores information and settings related to an
organization in a central, organized, accessible database. Active Directory
networks can vary from a small installation with a few hundred objects, to a
large installation with millions of objects.

Q. What is Active Directory Services?
A. Active Directory is a directory service used to store information about
the network resources across a domain.

Q. What are components of Active Directory (Hierarchy)?
A. Components of Active Directory are Domain, Forest, Tree, Organizational
Unit, Schema, Group Policy Objects and Global Catalog.

Q. What is Tree (Logical Component)?
A. Domain trees is a hierarchical grouping of one or more domains that share
a single DNS namespace & have one or more child domain and are connected by
transitive trust relationship. Example: ttsl.com is root and mah.ttsl.com is
child.

Q. What is Forest (Logical Component)?
A. A forest is a group of one or more domain trees which share a common
schema and global catalog. There is always at least one forest on a network,
and it is created when the first Active Directory (domain controller)
installed on a network.
This first domain in a forest, called the forest root domain, is special
because it holds the schema and controls domain naming for the entire forest.
It cannot be removed from the forest without removing the entire forest
itself. Also, no other domain can ever be created above the forest root
domain in the forest domain hierarchy.

Q. What is Domain (Logical Component)?
A. A Domain is a logical grouping of networked computers in which more than
one computer has shared resources. (Domains are the fundamental units that
make up Active Directory).

Q. What is OU (Logical Component)?
A. OU is administrative-level container object in ADS that organize users,
computers, groups and other organizational units together so that any
changes, security privileges or any other administrative tasks could be
accomplished more efficiently.

Q. What is Domain Controller (Physical Component)?
A. Domain Controllers are the physical storage location for the Active
Directory Services Database.

Q. What is Sites (Physical Component)?
A. A Site is a physical component of Active Directory that is used to define
and represent the physical topology of a network.

Q. What is Object?
A. Active Directory objects are the entities that make up a network. An
object is a distinct, named set of attributes that represents something
concrete, such as a user, a printer, or an application. For example, when we
create a user object, Active Directory assigns the globally unique identifier
(GUID), and we provide values for such attributes as the user's given name,
surname, the logon identifier, and so on.

Q. What is Schema?
A. The schema defines the type of objects and the attributes that each object
has. The schema is what defines a user account for example. A user account
must have a name, a password, and a unique SID. A user account can also have
many additional attributes, such as location, address, phone number, e-mail
addresses, terminal services profiles, and so on.

Q. What is Schema Class & Attributes?
A. Every directory object you create is an instance of an object class
contained in the schema. Each object class contains a list of associated
attributes that determine the information the object can contain. Classes and
attributes are defined independently, so that a single attribute can be
associated with multiple classes. All schema classes and attributes are
defined by the classSchema and attributeSchema objects, respectively.

Q. What is Global Catalog?
A Global catalog is a domain controller that stores a copy of all Active
Directory objects in a forest. The global catalog stores a full copy of all
objects in the directory for its host domain and a partial copy of all
objects for all other domains in the forest.

Q. What is Universal Group Membership Cache?
In a forest that has more than one domain, in sites that have domain users
but no global catalog server, Universal Group Membership Caching can be used
to enable caching of logon credentials so that the global catalog does not
have to be contacted for subsequent user logons.

Q. What is LDAP?
A. LDAP stands for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is a networking
protocol for querying and modifying directory services running over TCP/IP.
And the TCP port for LDAP is 389. LDAP Version 5.

Q. What are IIS services?
A. IIS services are used to publish web based applications.
What is TCP/IP port no for Global Catalog? 3268What is TCP/IP port no for
LDAP? 389 What is TCP/IP port no for RDP? 3389What is the TCP/IP port no for
SNMP? 161,162What is the TCP/IP port no for SMTP? 25What is the TCP/IP port
no for POP3? 110What is the TCP/IP port no for IMAP? 143What is the TCP/IP
port no for HTTP? 80What is the TCP/IP port no for HTTPS? 443
What is TCP/IP port no for TELNET? 23 Q. What are important operations roles
in Active Directory?
A. In a forest, there are at least five FSMO roles that are assigned to one
or more domain controllers. The five FSMO roles are:
•
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: Responsible for maintaining all inter-domain object
references. In other words, the infrastructure master informs certain objects
(such as groups) that other objects (such as users in another domain) have
been moved, changed, or otherwise modified. This update is needed only in a
multiple-domain environment.
•
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: Used whenever a domain contains non–Active Directory computers.
It acts as a Windows NT primary domain controller (PDC) for legacy client
operating systems, as well as for Windows NT backup domain controllers
(BDCs). The PDC emulator also processes password changes and receives
preferential treatment within the domain for password updates. If another
domain controller is unable to authenticate a user because of a bad password,
the request is forwarded to the PDC emulator. The PDC emulator performs this
additional (and important) operations master role whether or not there are
any BDCs in the domain.
You can transfer FSMO roles by using the Ntdsutil.exe command-line utility or
by using an MMC snap-in tool. Depending on the FSMO role that you want to
transfer, you can use one of the following three MMC snap-in tools:

Q. How can we view All FSMO roles using command prompt?
A. Ntdsutil.exe

Q. How can we transfer Schema Master Role?
A. Transfer the Schema Master Role
Use the Active Directory Schema Master snap-in to transfer the schema master
role. Before you can use this snap-in, you must register the Schmmgmt.dll
file. Register Schmmgmt.dll
1.
Click Start, and then click Run.
2.
Type regsvr32 schmmgmt.dll in the Open box, and then click OK.
3.
Click OK when you receive the message that the operation succeeded.
Transfer the Schema Master Role
1.
Click Start, click Run, type mmc in the Open box, and then click OK.
2.
On the File, menu click Add/Remove Snap-in.
3.
Click Add.
4.
Click Active Directory Schema, click Add, click Close, and then click OK.
5.
In the console tree, right-click Active Directory Schema, and then click
Change Domain Controller.
6.
Click Specify Name, type the name of the domain controller that will be the
new role holder, and then click OK.
7.
In the console tree, right-click Active Directory Schema, and then click
Operations Master.
8.
Click Change.
9.
Click OK to confirm that you want to transfer the role, and then click Close.

Q. How can we transfer Domain naming Master?
A. Transfer the Domain Naming Master Role
1.
Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory
Domains and Trusts.
2.
Right-click Active Directory Domains and Trusts, and then click Connect to
Domain Controller. NOTE: You must perform this step if you are not on the
domain controller to which you want to transfer the role. You do not have to
perform this step if you are already connected to the domain controller whose
role you want to transfer.
3.
Do one of the following:
4.
In the console tree, right-click Active Directory Domains and Trusts, and
then click Operations Master.
5.
Click Change.
6.
Click OK to confirm that you want to transfer the role, and then click Close.

Q. How can we transfer PDC Emulator, RID Master, Infrastructure Master?
A. Transfer the RID Master, PDC Emulator, and Infrastructure Master Roles
1.
Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory
Users and Computers.
2.
Right-click Active Directory Users and Computers, and then click Connect to
Domain Controller. NOTE: You must perform this step if you are not on the
domain controller to which you want to transfer the role. You do not have to
perform this step if you are already connected to the domain controller whose
role you want to transfer.
3.
Do one of the following:
4.
In the console tree, right-click Active Directory Users and Computers, point
to All Tasks, and then click Operations Master.
5.
Click the appropriate tab for the role that you want to transfer (RID, PDC,
or Infrastructure), and then click Change.
6.
Click OK to confirm that you want to transfer the role, and then click Close.

Q. What will happen if Schema Master fails?
A. No updates to the Active Directory schema will be possible. Since schema
updates are rare (usually done by certain applications and possibly an
Administrator adding an attribute to an object), then the malfunction of the
server holding the Schema Master role will not pose a critical problem.

Q. What will happen if Domain Naming Master fails?
A. Domain Naming Master must be available when adding or removing a domain
from the forest (i.e. running DCPROMO). If it is not, then the domain cannot
be added or removed. It is also needed when promoting or demoting a server
to/from a Domain Controller. Like the Schema Master, this functionality is
only used on occasion and is not critical unless you are modifying your
domain or forest structure.

Q. What will happen if RID Master fails?
A. RID Master provides RIDs for security principles (users, groups, computer
accounts). The failure of this FSMO server would have little impact unless
you are adding a very large number of users or groups.
Each DC in the domain has a pool of RIDs already, and a problem would occur
only if the DC you adding the users/groups on ran out of RIDs.

Q. What will happen if PDC Emulator fails?
A. The server holding the PDC emulator role will cause the most problems if
it is unavailable. This would be most noticeable in a mixed mode domain where
you are still running NT 4 BDCs and if you are using down-level clients (NT
and Win9x). Since the PDC emulator acts as a NT 4 PDC, then any actions that
depend on the PDC would be affected (User Manager for Domains, Server
Manager, changing passwords, browsing and BDC replication).
In a native mode domain the failure of the PDC emulator isn't as critical
because other domain controllers can assume most of the responsibilities of
the PDC emulator.

Q. What will happen if Infrastructure Master fails?
A. This FSMO server is only relevant in a multi-domain environment. If you
only have one domain, then the Infrastructure Master is irrelevant. Failure
of this server in a multi-domain environment would be a problem if you are
trying to add objects from one domain to another.

Q. What are the basic requirements (Hardware/Software) to implement the
Windows ADS server?
A. Minimum requirements:
Processor: Single 550 MHz PIII or comparable
Memory: 512 MB of RAM
Hard Disks: Two 9 GB - Mirrored
Network: 100 Megabit Ethernet
Systems: 2 Windows 2000 SP4 Servers- Redundancy
Recommended requirement Processor: Dual Intel Xeon or comparable
Memory: 1 GB of RAM
Hard Disks: Three 9 GB - RAID5
Network: 100 Megabit Ethernet
Systems: 2 Windows 2000 SP4 Servers- Redundancy
Desktop/Member Server Requirements:
Windows desktop OS should be at least Windows 2000 and have hardware to
support such to receive benefit from the GTAD service.
Windows member servers should be at the Windows 2000 level and have hardware
to support such.

Q. What is the difference between Intersite & Intrasite Replication?
A. There are two types of replication traffic in Active Directory, intrasite
and intersite. Intrasite replication traffic is between domain controllers
within the same site. Intersite replication traffic is between domain
controllers in different sites. The KCC tunes intrasite replication to
minimize replication latency, whereas it tunes intersite replication to
minimize bandwidth usage.
Intrasite
Intersite
Traffic is uncompressed.
Traffic is compressed (to save bandwidth).
Replication partners notify each other when changes must be replicated (to
reduce latency).
Replication partners do not notify each other (to save bandwidth).
Replication partners poll one another periodically.
Replication partners poll one another during scheduled intervals only.
RCP over IP transport only.
RCP over IP or SMTP over IP transports.
Replication connections can be created between any two domain controllers in
the same site.
Replication connections can only be created between bridgehead servers. A
bridgehead server is designated by the KCC. A bridgehead server is a domain
controller that has been designated to perform all intersite replication for
a particular site.

Q. What is GROUPS?
A. Groups are Active Directory (or local computer) objects that can contain
users, contacts, computers, and other groups. In Windows 2003, groups are
created in domains, using the Active Directory Users and Computers tool. You
can create groups in the root domain, in any other domain in the forest, in
any organizational unit, or in any container class object (such as the
default Users container). Like user and computer accounts, groups are Windows
2000 security principals; they are directory objects to which SID’s are
assigned at creation.

Q. What is Distribution Group? (Group Type)
A. These are used for non-security purposes by applications other than
Windows. One of the primary uses is within an e-mail.
As with user accounts, there are both local and domain-level groups. Local
groups are stored in a local computer’s security database and are intended to
control resource access on that computer. Domain groups are stored in Active
Directory and let you gather users and control resource access in a domain
and on domain controllers.

Q. What is Security Groups? (Group Type)
A. Security groups are used to group domain users into a single
administrative unit. Security groups can be assigned permissions and can also
be used as e-mail distribution lists. Users placed into a group inherit the
permissions assigned to the group for as long as they remain members of that
group. Windows itself uses only security groups.

Q. What is Global Group? (Group Scope)
A. This group’s permissions and rights exist in the group’s domain and
domains that have a trust relationship with the group’s domain. Global groups
may be given rights and permissions of local groups.

Q. What is Domain Local Group? (Group Scope)
A. Created on Active Directory controllers and are used manage access to
resources in the domain.

Q. What is Universal Group? (Group Scope)
A. Users from multiple domains that perform similar tasks or share resources
across the domains. Any group & user in any domain can be a member of the
universal group.

Q. What is GROUP Policy?
A. Group Policies are configuration settings applied to computers or users as
they are initialized. All Group Policy settings are contained in Group Policy
Objects (GPO’s) applied to Active Directory sites, domains, or organizational
units.
A. Group policy is an administrative tool for managing users’ settings and
computer setting across domain network.

Q. What is Group Policy Object?
A. Group Policy Object (GPO) is a collection of settings that define what a
system will look like and how it will behave for a defined group of users.

Q. What are three types of Group Policy Objects?
Q. How Group Policy Inheritance Work?
Q. What is LSDO?
A. LSDO - Local policies first, then Site based policies, then Domain level
policies, then OU polices, then nested OU polices (OUs within OUs). Group
polices cannot be linked to a specific user or group, only container objects.

Q. What is the difference between FAT, FAT32 & NTFS & what is it?
A. Following are Microsoft's Windows Glossary definitions for each of the 3
file systems:
File Allocation Table (FAT): A file system used by MS-DOS and other
Windows-based operating systems to organize and manage files. The file
allocation table (FAT) is a data structure that Windows creates when you
format a volume by using the FAT or FAT32 file systems. Windows stores
information about each file in the FAT so that it can retrieve the file
later.
FAT32: A derivative of the File Allocation Table (FAT) files system. FAT32
supports smaller cluster sizes and larger volumes than FAT, which results in
more efficient space allocation on FAT32 volumes.
NTFS: An advanced file system that provides performance, security,
reliability, and advanced features that are not found in any version of FAT.
For example, NTFS guarantees volume consistency by using standard transaction
logging and recovery techniques. If a system fails, NTFS uses its log file
and checkpoint information to restore the consistency of the file system. In
Windows 2000 and Windows XP, NTFS also provides advanced features such as
file and folder permissions, encryption, disk quotas, and compression.
NTFS File System:
NTFS is the best file system for large drives. Unlike FAT and FAT32,
performance with NTFS isn't corrupted as drive size increases.
One of the major security features in NTFS is encryption or, in other words,
the process of disguising a message or data in such a way as to hide its
substance.
Another feature in NTFS is disk quotas. It gives you the ability to monitor
and control the amount of disk space used by each user.
Using NTFS, you can keep access control on files and folders and support
limited accounts. In FAT and FAT32, all files and folders are accessible by
all users no matter what their account type is.
Domains can be used to tweak security options while keeping administration
simple.
Compression available in NTFS enables you to compress files, folders, or
whole drives when you're running out of disk space.
Removable media (such as tapes) are made more accessible through the Remote
Storage feature.
Recovery logging helps you restore information quickly if power failures or
other system problems occur.
In NTFS we can convert the file system through:
1. Back up all your data before formatting:
So you want to start with a 'clean' drive but can't afford losing your
precious files? Very simple. All you need to do is back up your files to an
external hard-drive or a partition other than the one you want to convert, or
burn the data onto CDs. After you're done you can format a drive with NTFS.
2. Use the convert command from command prompt:
This way, you don't need to back up. All files are preserved as they are.
However, I recommend a backup. You don't know what might go wrong and besides
what would you lose if you do back-up? When I converted to NTFS using
convert.exe, everything went smooth. Chances are your conversion will be
equally smooth.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a one-way conversion. Once you've converted to NTFS,
you can't go back to FAT or FAT32 unless you format the drive.
Open Command PromptStart All Programs Accessories Command PromptORStart Run
type "cmd" without quotes OK
Type "convert drive letter: /fs:ntfs" and press Enter. For example, type
"convert C: /fs:ntfs" (without quotes) if you want to convert drive C.
If you're asked whether you want to dismount the drive, agree.

Q. What are Permissions?
A. Permissions are a key component of the Windows Server 2003 security
architecture that you can use to manage the process of authorizing users,
groups, and computers to access objects on a network.

Q. What are types of Permissions?
Q. What is File Permission?
Q. What is Folder Permission?
Q. What is Share Permission?
Q. What is Moving/Copying Permissions?
Q. What is Special File Permission?
Q. What is Special Folder Permissions?
Q. What is Special Share Permissions? Q. What is Backup?
A. To copy files to a second medium (a disk or tape) as a precaution in case
the first medium fails.

Q. What are the types of Backup?
A. There are 5 types of backup in windows 2003 and are as follows: Copy,
Normal, Incremental, Daily and Differential.

Q. Difference between Incremental & Differential Backup?
A. Differential backup backs up only the files that changed since the last
full back. For example, suppose you do a full backup on Sunday. On Monday you
back up only the files that changed since Sunday, on Tuesday you back up only
the files that changed since Sunday, and so on until the next full backup.
Differential backups are quicker than full backups because so much less data
is being backed up. But the amount of data being backed up grows with each
differential backup until the next full back up. Differential backups are
more flexible than full backups, but still unwieldy to do more than about
once a day, especially as the next full backup approaches.
Incremental backups also back up only the changed data, but they only back up
the data that has changed since the last backup — be it a full or incremental
backup. They are sometimes called "differential incremental backups," while
differential backups are sometimes called "cumulative incremental backups."
Confused yet? Don't be.

Q. How can we take the backup for ADS?
A We can take the ADS backup through ntbackup and select the system state
backup.

Q. How to restore an ADS Backup?
A. Restoring Windows Server 2003 system state and system services
Tivoli Storage Manager supports the Microsoft Volume Shadow copy Service
(VSS) on Windows Server 2003. Tivoli Storage Manager uses VSS to restore all
system state components as a single object, to provide a consistent
point-in-time snapshot of the system state. You can restore all system
service components (the default) or individual components.
System state components include the following:
Active Directory (domain controller only)
Windows Server 2003 system volume
Certificate Server Database
COM+ database
Windows Registry
System and boot files
Attention: Restoring system state in a situation other than system recovery
is not recommended.
You must have administrative authority to restore System State information.
To restore the Windows Server 2003 system state using the GUI:
Click Restore from the GUI main window. The Restore window appears.
Expand the directory tree by clicking the plus sign +. To display files in a
folder, click the folder icon.
Locate the System State node in the directory tree. You can expand the System
State node to display the components.
Click the selection box next to the System State node to restore the entire
system state. You can restore the System State node only as a single entity
because of dependencies among the system state components. By default, all
components are selected; you cannot back up individual system state
components.
Click Restore. The Task List window displays the restore processing status.
On the command line, use the restore system state command to restore a backup
of a system state. See Restore System state for more information.
Considerations:
You can restore System State data to an alternate machine.
If you are upgrading from a Windows 2000 machine to a Windows Server 2003
machine, you cannot restore the Windows 2000 system objects that were backed
up to the server.
Your Windows Server 2003 client must be connected to a Tivoli Storage Manager
Version 5.2.0 or higher server.
If Active Directory is installed, you must be in Active Directory restore
mode.
See Performing a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 system recovery for
procedures on how to perform the following tasks:
Your operating system is still functioning, but a complete system restore is
required.
A complete recovery is required, including an operating system
re-installation.
System services components include the following:
Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)
Event logs
Removable Storage Management Database (RSM)
Cluster Database (cluster node only)
Remote Storage Service
Terminal Server Licensing
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)
Internet Information Services (IIS) metabase
DHCP database
Wins database
To restore the system services using the GUI:
Click Restore from the GUI main window. The Restore window appears.
Expand the directory tree by clicking the plus sign +. To display files in a
folder, click the folder icon.
Locate the System Services node in the directory tree. You can expand the
System Services node to display the components.
Click the selection box next to the system services component(s) that you
want to restore.
Click Restore. The Task List window displays the backup processing status.
On the command line, use the restore system services command to restore a
backup of the system services. See Restore System services for more
information.

Q. What is a Cluster?
A. A cluster is a group of independent computers that work together to run a
common set of applications and provide the image of a single system to the
client and application. The computers are physically connected by cables and
programmatically connected by cluster software. These connections allow
computers to use problem-solving features such as failover in Server clusters
and load balancing in Network Load Balancing (NLB) clusters.

Q. What is the definition for Additional Domain Controller?
A As name suggest its additional domain controller ...can play any of the
FSMO roles at any given instance and provide SRV services to clients

Q. What is Domain Controller?
A. A domain controller is a server in which Active Directory Service is
installed. Domain controllers are used to administer domain objects, such as
user accounts and groups.

Q. What is Proxy Server?
A. In an enterprise that uses the Internet, a proxy server is a server that
acts as an intermediary between a workstation user and the Internet so that
the enterprise can ensure security, administrative control, and caching
service. A proxy server is associated with or part of a gateway server that
separates the enterprise network from the outside network and a firewall
server that protects the enterprise network from outside intrusion.

Q. What is Basic Disk?
A. A standard disk with standard partitions (primary and extended).

Q. What is Dynamic Disk?
A. Disks that have dynamic mounting capability to add additional local or
remote partitions or directories to a disk drive. These are called dynamic
volumes. This is new with the Windows 2000 operating system and is not
supported by any other operating systems. Any volume that is on more than one
hard drive must be created with dynamic disks. A disk can only be converted
from dynamic to basic by first deleting all the volumes in the dynamic disk.

Q. What is RAID?
A. RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks). A collection of disk drives
that offers increased performance and fault tolerance. There are a number of
different RAID levels. The three most commonly used are 0, 1, and 5: Level 0:
striping without parity (spreading out blocks of each file across multiple
disks). Level 1: disk mirroring or duplexing. Level 2: bit-level striping
with parity Level 3: byte-level striping with dedicated parity.

Q. What is Simple Volume?
A. Simple volumes are the most common volumes and the type of volume that you
will create most often. If you are using a single disk configuration, a
simple volume is the only volume type that you can create.

Q. What is Spanned Volume?
A. Spanned volumes are created by combining disk space from two or more hard
disks. Spanned volumes can be created by using different amounts of space
from different hard disks. For example, a 10GB spanned volume can be created
from 6GB of unallocated space on hard drive 0, 3GB of unallocated space on
hard drive 1, and 1GB of space on hard drive 2. A spanned volume cannot be
extended, and there is no fault tolerance in using a spanned volume. If any
of the drives fail, the data on the volume is lost and must be restored from
backup (tape). Spanned volumes can be created from two physical disks and can
contain up to 32 physical disks.

Q. What is Mirrored Volume?
A. Mirrored volumes are created using two physical disks. A mirrored volume
requires same amount of unallocated space on each of the physical disk used.
When data is written to a mirrored volume, the data is written to disk and
then synchronized on the second disk. An exact copy of the data is available
on both physical disks.

Q. What is Stripped Volume?
A. A striped volume is created using a minimum of two and a maximum of 32
physical drives to create a single volume. A striped volume is created by
using an equal amount of unallocated space on all the physical disks.
The data is written across all physical disks in the volume in equal parts,
thereby creating a stripe pattern. When data is written to the volume, it is
divided into 64KB parts and each part is written to a separate disk. Chopping
the data into pieces allows each physical disk to be performing a write
operation at almost exactly the same time, thereby increasing speed
dramatically. When data is read, it is read in the same way, in 64KB blocks
at a time. Striped volumes provide the best read and write performance of all
the different types of volumes. A striped volume gets its name from how the
data is read and accessed on the drive.

Q. What is Raid-0?
A. RAID Level 0 is not redundant, hence does not truly fit the "RAID"
acronym. In level 0, data is split across drives, resulting in higher data
throughput. Since no redundant information is stored, performance is very
good, but the failure of any disk in the array results in data loss. This
level is commonly referred to as striping.

Q. What is RAID-1?
A. RAID Level 1 provides redundancy by writing all data to two or more
drives. The performance of a level 1 array tends to be faster on reads and
slower on writes compared to a single drive, but if either drive fails, no
data is lost. This is a good entry-level redundant system, since only two
drives are required; however, since one drive is used to store a duplicate of
the data, the cost per megabyte is high. This level is commonly referred to
as mirroring.

Q. What is RAID-5?
A. RAID Level 5 is similar to level 4, but distributes parity among the
drives. This can speed small writes in multiprocessing systems, since the
parity disk does not become a bottleneck. Because parity data must be skipped
on each drive during reads, however, the performance for reads tends to be
considerably lower than a level 4 array. The cost per megabyte is the same as
for level 4.
Question Related to TCP/IP?

Q. What is IP?
A. The Internet Protocol (IP) is a data-oriented protocol used for
communicating data across a packet-switched internet-work.
IP is a network layer protocol in the internet protocol suite and is
encapsulated in a data link layer protocol (e.g., Ethernet).

Q. What is TCP?
A. Transmission Control Protocol, and pronounced as separate letters. TCP is
one of the main protocols in TCP/IP networks. Whereas the IP protocol deals
only with packets, TCP enables two hosts to establish a connection and
exchange streams of data. TCP guarantees delivery of data and also guarantees
that packets will be delivered in the same order in which they were sent.

Q. What is UDP?
A. UDP, a connectionless protocol that, like TCP, runs on top of IP networks.
Unlike TCP/IP, UDP/IP provides very few error recovery services, offering
instead a direct way to send and receive datagram’s over an IP network. It's
used primarily for broadcasting messages over a network.

Q. What is range of TCP/IP in Class A?
A. 1 to 127

Q. What is range of TCP/IP in Class B?
A. 128 to 191

Q. What is range of TCP/IP in Class C?
A. 192 to 223

Q. What are reserved IP ranges in Class A?
A. 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255

Q. What are reserved IP ranges in Class B?
A. 172.16.0.0 to 172.16.255.255

Q. What are reserved IP ranges in Class C?
A. 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255

Q. What is default IP range is broadcast by DHCP server if no scope is
defined?
A. 255.255.255.255

Q. What is Loop back IP address?
A. 127.0.0.1

Q. How can we assign Static IP & dynamic IP using command prompt utility?
A.Yes. Through netsh command.

Q. What is Subnet Mask?
A. In computer networks, a subnetwork or subnet is a range of logical
addresses within the address space that is assigned to an organization.
Subnetting is a hierarchical partitioning of the network address space of an
organization (and of the network nodes of an autonomous system) into several
subnets

Q. What is Gateway?
A. A gateway is either hardware or software that acts as a bridge between two
networks so that data can be transferred between a numbers of computers.

Q. What is Routed Protocol?
A. Routed protocols are routed by routers which use routing protocols to
communicate to other routers using routing protocols that have routed
protocols.

Q. What is Routing Protocol?
A. Routing protocols distribute routing information throughout all routers on
a network. By knowing about all other routers connected to the network, each
router can determine the best path to use to deliver your traffic.

Q. What is OSI Layer? Describe Each.
A. OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) is a standard description or "reference
model" for how messages should be transmitted between any two points in a
telecommunication network. Its purpose is to guide product implementers so
that their products will consistently work with other products. The reference
model defines seven layers of functions that take place at each end of a
communication. Although OSI is not always strictly adhered to in terms of
keeping related functions together in a well-defined layer, many if not most
products involved in telecommunication make an attempt to describe themselves
in relation to the OSI model.
Layer 7: The application layer...This is the layer at which communication
partners are identified, quality of service is identified, user
authentication and privacy are considered, and any constraints on data syntax
are identified. (This layer is not the application itself, although some
applications may perform application layer functions.)
Layer 6: The presentation layer...This is a layer, usually part of an
operating system, that converts incoming and outgoing data from one
presentation format to another (for example, from a text stream into a popup
window with the newly arrived text). Sometimes called the syntax layer.
Layer 5: The session layer...This layer sets up, coordinates, and terminates
conversations, exchanges, and dialogs between the applications at each end.
It deals with session and connection coordination.
Layer 4: The transport layer...This layer manages the end-to-end control (for
example, determining whether all packets have arrived) and error-checking. It
ensures complete data transfer.
Layer 3: The network layer...This layer handles the routing of the data
(sending it in the right direction to the right destination on outgoing
transmissions and receiving incoming transmissions at the packet level). The
network layer does routing and forwarding.
Layer 2: The data-link layer...This layer provides synchronization for the
physical level and does bit-stuffing for strings of 1's in excess of 5. It
furnishes transmission protocol knowledge and management.
Layer 1: The physical layer...This layer conveys the bit stream through the
network at the electrical and mechanical level. It provides the hardware
means of sending and receiving data on a carrier.

Q. What is the difference between CIDR & VLSM?
A. BOTH are almost same with VLSM we can utilize the IP address space with
CIDR we can improve both address space utilization and routing scalability in
the internet. CIDR will be used in internet routers.
A. VLSM - Variable Length Subnet Masking. Several new methods of addressing
were created so that usage of IP space was more efficient. The first of these
methods is called Variable-Length Subnet Masking (VLSM). Sub-netting had long
been a way to better utilize address space. Subnets divide a single network
into smaller pieces. This is done by taking bits from the host portion of the
address to use in the creation of a “sub” network. For example, take the
class B network 147.208.0.0. The default network mask is 255.255.0.0, and the
last two octets contain the host portion of the address. To use this address
space more efficiently, we could take all eight bits of the third octet for
the subnet.
One drawback of sub-netting is that once the subnet mask has been chosen, the
number of hosts on each subnet is fixed. This makes it hard for network
administrators to assign IP space based on the actual number of hosts needed.
For example, assume that a company has been assigned 147.208.0.0 and has
decided to subnet this by using eight bits from the host portion of the
address. Assume that the address allocation policy is to assign one subnet
per department in an organization. This means that 254 addresses are assigned
to each department. Now, if one department only has 20 servers, then 234
addresses are wasted.
Using variable-length subnet masks (VLSM) improves on subnet masking. VLSM is
similar to traditional fixed-length subnet masking in that it also allows a
network to be subdivided into smaller pieces. The major difference between
the two is that VLSM allows different subnets to have subnet masks of
different lengths. For the example above, a department with 20 servers can be
allocated a subnet mask of 27 bits. This allows the subnet to have up to 30
usable hosts on it.
CIDR: - Classless Inter-Domain Routing. CIDR is also called super-netting.
It's an IP addressing scheme that replaces the older system based on classes
A, B, and C. With CIDR, a single IP address can be used to designate many
unique IP addresses. A CIDR IP address looks like a normal IP address except
that it ends with a slash followed by a number, called the IP prefix. For
example: 172.200.0.0/16.
The IP prefix specifies how many addresses are covered by the CIDR address,
with lower numbers covering more addresses. An IP prefix of /12, for example,
can be used to address 1,048,576 former Class C addresses.
CIDR addresses reduce the size of routing tables and make more IP addresses
available within organizations. Comparing CIDR to VLSM
CIDR and VLSM both allow a portion of the IP address space to be recursively
divided into subsequently smaller pieces. The difference is that with VLSM,
the recursion is performed on the address space previously assigned to an
organization and is invisible to the global Internet. CIDR, on the other
hand, permits the recursive allocation of an address block by an Internet
Registry to a high-level ISP, a mid-level ISP, a low-level ISP, and a private
organization’s network.

Q. What is Difference between Windows NT, Windows 2000 & Windows 2003?
A. The major difference between in NT, 2000 & 2003 are as follows:
1) In winnt server concept pdc and bdc but there is no concept in 2000.
2) In winnt server sam database r/w format in pdc and read only format in
bdc, but in 2000 domain and every domain controller sam database read/writer
format.
3) 2000 server can any time any moment become server or member of server
simple add/remove dcpromo. But in winnt you have to reinstall operating
system.
A) In 2000 we cannot rename domain whereas in 2003 we can rename Domain
B) In 2000 it supports of 8 processors and 64 GB RAM (In 2000 Advance Server)
whereas in 2003 supports up to 64 processors and max of 512GB RAM
C) 2000 Supports IIS 5.0 and 2003 Supports IIS6.0
D) 2000 doesn't support Dot net whereas 2003 Supports Microsoft .NET 2.0
E) 2000 has Server and Advance Server editions whereas 2003 has Standard,
Enterprise, Datacentre and Web server Editions.
F) 2000 doesn't have any 64 bit server operating system whereas 2003 has 64
bit server operating systems (Windows Server 2003 X64 STD and Enterprise
Edition)
G) 2000 has basic concept of DFS (Distributed File systems) with defined
roots whereas 2003 has Enhanced DFS support with multiple roots.
H) In 2000 there is complexality in administering Complex networks whereas
2003 is easy administration in all & Complex networks
I) in 2000 we can create 1 million users and in 2003 we can create 1 billion
users.
J) In 2003 we have concept of Volume shadow copy service which is used to
create hard disk snap shot which is used in Disaster recovery and 2000
doesn't have this service.
K) In 2000 we don't have end user policy management, whereas in 2003 we have
a End user policy management which is done in GPMC (Group policy management
console).
L) In 2000 we have cross domain trust relation ship and 2003 we have Cross
forest trust relationship.
M) 2000 Supports 4-node clustering and 2003 supports 8-node clustering.
N) 2003 has High HCL Support (Hardware Compatibility List) issued by
Microsoft
O) Code name of 2000 is Win NT 5.0 and Code name of 2003 is Win NT 5.1
P) 2003 has service called ADFS (Active Directory Federation Services) which
is used to communicate between branches with safe authentication.
Q) In 2003 their is improved storage management using service File Server
Resource Manager (FSRM)
R) 2003 has service called Windows Share point Services (It is an integrated
portfolio of collaboration and communication services designed to connect
people, information, processes, and systems both within and beyond the
organizational firewall.)
S) 2003 has Improved Print management compared to 2000 server
T) 2003 has telnet sessions available.
U) 2000 supports IPV4 whereas 2003 supports IPV4 and IPV6
In windows 2003 support SHADOW COPIES. A NEW TOOLTO RECOVER FILES
Window 2003 server includes IIS server in it. That is the biggest advantage
on top of better file system management
In 2003 server u can change the domain name at any time without rebuilding
the domain where as in 2000 u have to rebuild the entire domain to change the
domain name.
In windows 2000 support maximum 10 users’ access shared folder at a time
through network.
But in win2003 no limitation

Q. How can we restore Windows XP/Windows 2000?
A. If Windows XP starts
Log on to Windows as Administrator.
Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System
Tools, and then click System Restore. System Restore starts.
On the Welcome to System Restore page, click Restore my computer to an
earlier time (if it is not already selected), and then click Next.
On the Select a Restore Point page, click the most recent system checkpoint
in the on this list, click a restore point list, and then click Next. A
System Restore message may appear that lists configuration changes that
System Restore will make. Click OK.
On the Confirm Restore Point Selection page, click next. System Restore
restores the previous Windows XP configuration, and then restarts the
computer.
Log on to the computer as Administrator. The System Restore Restoration
Complete page appears.
Click OK.

Q. What is the difference between Windows XP Home Edition & Professional
Edition?
A. Windows XP Home Edition:
Contains basic support for security among multiple users.
Built-in support for peer-to-peer networking, but only for up to five
computers.
The backup utility is not installed by default, but is included on the CD.
Windows XP Professional Edition:
Includes extended support for security between multiple users on the same
machine.
Better support for peer-to-peer networking, plus support for joining a
"Windows NT domain."
The backup utility is installed by default.
The Professional edition includes the following components not found in the
Home edition:
Administrative Tools (in the Start Menu and Control Panel)
Automated System Recovery (ASR)
Boot Configuration Manager
DriverQuery
Group Policy Refresh Utility
Multi-lingual User Interface (MUI) add-on
NTFS Encryption Utilitiy
Offline Files and Folders
OpenFiles
Performance Log Manager
Remote Desktop
Scheduled Tasks Console
Security Template Utility
Taskkill
Tasklist
Telnet Administrator
Provides support for multi-processor systems (2 or 4 CPUs), Dynamic Disks,
Fax.

Q. What are transaction logs in Exchange?
A. Transaction logging is a robust disaster recovery mechanism that is
designed to reliably restore an Exchange database to a consistent state after
any sudden stop of the database.

Interview Questions

Saturday, July 3, 2010

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QUESTIONS ON TCP/IP