Networking based Interview Questions

1. What is an IP address?
2. What is a subnet mask?
3. What is ARP?
4. What is ARP Cache Poisoning?
5. What is the ANDing process?
6. What is a default gateway? What happens if I don't have one?
7. Can a workstation computer be configured to browse the
8. Internet and yet NOT have a default gateway?
9. What is a subnet?
10. What is APIPA?
11. What is an RFC? Name a few if possible (not necessarily the
12. numbers, just the ideas behind them)
13. What is RFC 1918?
14. What is CIDR?
15. You have the following Network ID: 192.115.103.64/27. What is the IP range for your network?
16. You have the following Network ID: 131.112.0.0. You need at least 500 hosts per network. How many networks can you create? What subnet mask will you use?
17. You need to view at network traffic. What will you use? Name a few tools.
18. How do I know the path that a packet takes to the destination?
19. What does the ping 192.168.0.1 -l 1000 -n 100 command do?
20. What is DHCP? What are the benefits and drawbacks of using it?
21. Describe the steps taken by the client and DHCP server in order to obtain an IP address.
22. What is the DHCPNACK and when do I get one? Name 2 scenarios.
23. What ports are used by DHCP and the DHCP clients?
24. Describe the process of installing a DHCP server in an AD infrastructure.
25. What is DHCPINFORM?
26. Describe the integration between DHCP and DNS.
27. What options in DHCP do you regularly use for an MS network?
28. What are User Classes and Vendor Classes in DHCP?
29. How do I configure a client machine to use a specific User Class?
30. What is the BOOTP protocol used for, where might you find it in Windows network infrastructure?
31. DNS zones – describe the differences between the 4 types.
32. DNS record types – describe the most important ones.
33. Describe the process of working with an external domain name.
34. Describe the importance of DNS to AD.
35. Describe a few methods of finding an MX record for a remote domain on the Internet.
36. What does "Disable Recursion" in DNS mean?
37. What could cause the Forwarders and Root Hints to be grayed out?
38. What is a "Single Label domain name" and what sort of issues can it cause?
39. What is the "in-addr.arpa" zone used for?
40. What are the requirements from DNS to support AD?
41. How do you manually create SRV records in DNS?
42. Name 3 benefits of using AD-integrated zones.
43. What are the benefits of using Windows 2003 DNS when using AD-integrated zones?
44. You installed a new AD domain and the new (and first) DC has not registered its SRV records in DNS. Name a few possible causes.
45. What are the benefits and scenarios of using Stub zones?
46. What are the benefits and scenarios of using Conditional Forwarding?
47. What are the differences between Windows Clustering, Network Load Balancing and Round Robin, and scenarios for each use?
48. How do I work with the Host name cache on a client computer?
49. How do I clear the DNS cache on the DNS server?
50. What is the 224.0.1.24 address used for?
51. What is WINS and when do we use it?
52. Can you have a Microsoft-based network without any WINS server on it? What are the "considerations" regarding not using WINS?
53. Describe the differences between WINS push and pull replications.
54. What is the difference between tombstoning a WINS record and simply deleting it?
55. Name the NetBIOS names you might expect from a Windows 2003 DC that is registered in WINS.
56. Describe the role of the routing table on a host and on a router.
57. What are routing protocols? Why do we need them? Name a few.
58. What are router interfaces? What types can they be?
59. In Windows 2003 routing, what are the interface filters?
60. What is NAT?
61. What is the real difference between NAT and PAT?
62. How do you configure NAT on Windows 2003?
63. How do you allow inbound traffic for specific hosts on Windows 2003 NAT?
64. What is VPN? What types of VPN does Windows 2000 and beyond work with natively?
65. What is IAS? In what scenarios do we use it?
66. What's the difference between Mixed mode and Native mode in AD when dealing with RRAS?
67. What is the "RAS and IAS" group in AD?
68. What are Conditions and Profile in RRAS Policies?
69. What types or authentication can a Windows 2003 based RRAS work with?
70. How does SSL work?
71. How does IPSec work?
72. How do I deploy IPSec for a large number of computers?
73. What types of authentication can IPSec use?
74. What is PFS (Perfect Forward Secrecy) in IPSec?
75. How do I monitor IPSec?
76. Looking at IPSec-encrypted traffic with a sniffer. What packet
types do I see?
77. What can you do with NETSH?
78. How do I look at the open ports on my machine?

Microsoft Outlook - Keyboard Short cuts

Here are a list of shortcuts to help you move faster in Microsoft Outlook:
Alt + . (period) Open the Address Book with the To field selected

Alt + A Open the Action drop-down menu

Alt + B Open the Address Book with the BCC field selected

Alt + C Select message recipients for CC field

Alt + D Switch to Daily calendar view

Alt + E Open the Edit drop-down menu
Alt + F Open the File drop-down menu

Alt + G Open the Go drop-down menu

Alt + H Open the Help drop-down menu

Alt + I Open the Find tool bar / Open the Insert drop-down menu

Alt + J Move to the Subject field

Alt + K Check names in the To, CC, or BCC field against the Address Book
(cursor must be in the corresponding message header field)

Alt + L Reply All

Alt + M Switch to Monthly calendar view

Alt + N Open the Accounts drop-down menu

Alt + O Open the Format drop-down menu / Switch to Today calendar view

Alt + P Open the Message Options dialog box

Alt + R Reply / Switch to Work Week Calendar view

Alt + S Send

Alt + T Open the Tools drop-down menu
Alt + V Open the View drop-down menu

Alt + W Forward an item / Switch to Weekly calendar view

Alt + Y Switch to Daily calendar view

Ctrl + 1 Go to Mail

Ctrl + 2 Go to Calendar

Ctrl + 3 Go to Contacts

Ctrl + 4 Go to Tasks

Ctrl + 5 Go to Notes

Ctrl + 6 Go to Folder List

Ctrl + 7 Go to Shortcuts

Ctrl + 8 Go to Journal

Ctrl + A Select all

Ctrl + B Bold when editing a rich text message

Ctrl + C Copy

Ctrl + D Delete an item (message, task, contact, etc.)

Ctrl + E Activate the Find drop-down menu / Center Align when editing a rich
text message

Ctrl + F Forward

Ctrl + J Open a new Journal Entry from the selected item (message, task,
contact, etc.)

Ctrl + K Check names in the To, CC, or BCC field against the Address Book
(cursor must be in the corresponding message header field)

Ctrl + M Send/Receive all

Ctrl + O Open

Ctrl + P Print

Ctrl + Q Mark the selected message Read

Ctrl + R Reply

Ctrl + S Save a draft message

Ctrl + T Tab

Ctrl + U Mark the selected message Unread

Ctrl + V Paste

Ctrl + X Cut

Ctrl + Y Go to Folder

Ctrl + Z Undo

Ctrl + Backspace Delete the previous word

Ctrl + End Move to the end

Ctrl + Home Move to the beginning

Ctrl + Shift + A Open a new Appointment

Ctrl + Shift + B Open the Address Book

Ctrl + Shift + C Create a new Contact

Ctrl + Shift + E Open a new folder

Ctrl + Shift + F Open the Advanced Find window

Ctrl + Shift + G Flag message for follow up

Ctrl + Shift + J Open a new Journal Entry

Ctrl + Shift + K Open a new Task

Ctrl + Shift + L Open a new Distribution List

Ctrl + Shift + M Open a new Message

Ctrl + Shift + N Open a new Note

Ctrl + Shift + O Switch to the Outbox

Ctrl + Shift + P Open the New Search Folder window

Ctrl + Shift + Q Open a new Meeting Request

Ctrl + Shift + R Reply All

Ctrl + Shift + S Open a new Discussion

Ctrl + Shift + U Open a new Task Request

Ctrl + Shift + Y Copy a Folder

Shift + Tab Select the previous message header button or field

F1 Open Outlook Help

F3 Activate the Find toolbar

F4 Open the Find window

F7 Spellcheck

F9 Send and receive all

F10 Select File from the Outlook toolbar button

F11 Activate the "Find a contact" dialog box

F12 Save As

Alt + F4 Close the active window

Desktop Engineer - IT Interview Questions

What is Active Directory?
A central component of the Windows platform, Active Directory directory service provides the means to manage the identities and relationships that make up network environments. For example we can create, manage and administrator users, computers and printers in the network from active directory.

2) What is DNS? Why it is used? What is "forward lookup" and "reverse lookup" in DNS? What are A records and mx records?
DNS is domain naming service and is used for resolving names to IP address and IP addresses to names. The computer understands only numbers while we can easily remember names. So to make it easier for us what we do is we assign names to computers and websites. When we use these names (Like yahoo.com) the computer uses DNS to convert to IP address (number) and it executes our request.

Forward lookup: Converting names to IP address is called forward lookup.

Reverse lookup: Resolving IP address to names is called reverse lookup.

'A' record: Its called host record and it has the mapping of a name to IP address. This is the record in DNS with the help of which DNS can find out the IP address of a name.

'MX' Record: its called mail exchanger record. Its the record needed to locate the mail servers in the network. This record is also found in DNS.

3) What id DHCP? Why it is used? What are scopes and super scopes?

DHCP: Dynamic host configuration protocol. Its used to allocate IP addresses to large number of PCs in a network environment. This makes the IP management very easy.

Scope: Scope contains IP address like subnet mask, gateway IP, DNS server IP and exclusion range which a client can use to communicate with the other PCs in the network.

Superscope: When we combine two or more scopes together its called super scope.

4) What are the types of LAN cables used? What is a cross cable?
Types of LAN cables that are in use are "Cat 5" and "Cat 6". "Cat 5" can support 100 Mbps of speed and "CAT 6" can support 1Gbps of speed.

Cross cable: Its used to connect same type of devices without using a switch/hub so that they can communicate.

5) What is the difference between a normal LAN cable and cross cable? What could be the maximum length of the LAN cable?
The way the paired wires are connected to the connector (RJ45) is different
in cross cable and normal LAN cable.
The theoretical length is 100 meters but after 80 meters you may see drop in speed due to loss of signal.

6) What would you use to connect two computers without using switches?
Cross cable.

7) What is IPCONFIG command? Why it is used?
IPCONFIG command is used to display the IP information assigned to a computer. From the output we can find out the IP address, DNS IP address, gateway IP address assigned to that computer.

8) What is APIPA IP address? Or what IP address is assigned to the computer when the DHCP server is not available?
When DHCP server is not available the Windows client computer assigns an automatic IP address to itself so that it can communicate with the network computers. This ip address is called APIPA. ITs in the range of 169.254.X.X.
APIPA stands for Automatic private IP addressing. Its in the range of 169.254.X.X.

9) What is a DOMAIN? What is the difference between a domain and a workgroup? 
Domain is created when we install Active Directory. It's a security boundary which is used to manage computers inside the boundary. Domain can be used to centrally administrator computers and we can govern them using common policies called group policies.
We can't do the same with workgroup.

10) Do you know how to configure outlook 2000 and outlook 2003 for a user?
Please visit the link below to find out how to configure outlook 2000 and outlook 2003. http://www.it.cmich.edu/quickguides/qg_outlook2003_server.asp 

11) What is a PST file and what is the difference between a PST file and OST file? What file is used by outlook express?
PST file is used to store the mails locally when using outlook 2000 or 2003. OST file is used when we use outlook in cached exchanged mode. Outlook express used odb file.

12) What is BSOD? What do you do when you get blue screen in a computer? How do you troubleshoot it?
BSOD stands for blue screen of Death. when there is a hardware or OS fault due to which the windows OS can run it give a blue screen with a code. Best way to resolve it is to boot the computer is "Last known good configuration".
If this doesn't work than boot the computer in safe mode. If it boots up than the problems with one of the devices or drivers.

13) What is RIS? What is Imaging/ghosting?
RIS stands for remote installation services. You save the installed image on a windows server and then we use RIS to install the configured on in the new hardware. We can use it to deploy both server and client OS. Imaging or ghosting also does the same job of capturing an installed image and then install it on a new hardware when there is a need. We go for RIS or imaging/ghosting because installing OS every time using a CD can be a very time consuming task. So to save that time we can go for RIS/Ghosting/imaging.

14) What is VPN and how to configure it?
VPN stands for Virtual private network. VPN is used to connect to the corporate network to access the resources like mail and files in the LAN. VPN can be configured using the steps mentioned in the KB: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/305550

15) Your computer slowly drops out of network. A reboot of the computer
fixes the problem. What to do to resolve this issue?
Update the network card driver.

16) Your system is infected with Virus? How to recover the data?
Install another system. Install the OS with the lates patches, Antivirus with latest updates. Connect the infected HDD as secondary drive in the system. Once done scan and clean the secondary HDD. Once done copy the files to the new system.

17) How to join a system to the domain? What type of user can add a system to the domain?
Please visit the article below and read "Adding the Workstation to the Domain" http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windowsserver2003/technologi /directory/

18) What is the difference between a switch and a hub?
Switch sends the traffic to the port to which its meant for. Hub sends the traffic to all the ports.

19) What is a router? Why we use it?
Router is a switch which uses routing protocols to process and send the traffic. It also receives the traffic and sends it across but it uses the routing protocols to do so.

20) What are manageable and non manageable switches?
Switches which can be administered are called manageable switches. For example we can create VLAN for on such switch. On no manageable switches we can't do so.

How to connect Hotmail to outlook 2010

Below steps demonstrate the easy way to connect Hotmail with the Outlook 2010.

> Download Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector 64 bit setup from the below Link
http://office.microsoft.com/en-in/outlook-help/use-an-outlook-com-account-in-outlook-HA010354935.aspx

> Close MS Outlook application and installed the downloaded binary file.
> After finishing this installation, Re-open the Hotmail and there you will get a pop up to enter the Hotmail credentials to connect the Outlook with Hotmail.
> Finally you will see the Hotmail account mailbox into your Outlook account.

Hope you have enjoyed this Tip :)

Enable tabs in GMail

Inbox tabs and category labels

Your messages are classified into categories such as Promotions, Social and Updates. You can choose to use categories as inbox tabs, and as labels. These categories make it easy to focus on messages that are important to you and read messages of the same type all at once.

- GMail Settings>Configure Inbox> Select tab to enable (Primary, Social, Promotions, Updates, Forums)

Your messages are automatically categorized into the following optional tabs:

Primary	Messages from friends and family, as well as any other messages that don’t appear in other tabs.
Promotions	Your deals, offers, and other promotional emails.
Social	Messages from social networks, media-sharing sites, online dating services, gaming platforms, and other social websites.
Updates	Notifications such as confirmations, receipts, bills, and statements.
Forums	Messages from online groups, discussion boards, and mailing lists.

Show or hide tabs

1. Click the + icon to the right of your tabs.
   
2. Use the checkboxes to show or hide each tab.
3. Click Save.

If you hide a tab, messages in that category will appear in your Primary tab instead.