IT Technical Support Interview Questions

What is a BIOS?
Basic Input Output System

It is a separate component of the computer which loads the operating system and other necessary modules for the computer into memory

Hardware components of a desktop/laptop
Hardware components are the motherboard, processor, RAM, monitor, mouse, soundcard, keyboard, graphics, hard disk drive, power supply.

RAM vs ROM memory
RAM is the random access memory that is stored temporarily. ROM is the read-only memory which is permanent type of memory storage for important data (e.g. the BIOS)

Volume isn't working?
Check basic cables that aren't working. If not, check the sound drivers and the volume itself.

Things needed if someone calls and asks if computer is slow?
Check if the computer turns on slow, if it is slow with a specific application, then run against viruses, malware, etc, then check for available space in memory

What are device drivers?
Small programs stored on the hard drive that tell the computer how to communicate with a specific hardware device such as a printer, network card, or scanner. These drivers are installed on the hard drive when the OS is first installed, or when new hardware is added to the system. A device driver is written to work for a specific OS, such as Windows 8.1 or 7. In addition, a 32-bit OS requires 32-bit drivers, and a 64-bit OS requires 64-bit drivers.

What are the latest processors?
Intel® Core™ i9-11900 Processor (16M Cache, up to 5.20 GHz)

Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)
A Windows error that occurs in kernel mode, is displayed against a blue screen, and causes the system to halt. The error might be caused by problems with devices, device drivers, or a corrupted Windows installation. also called a stop error. The computer can be restarted in safe mode.

Lights present on a modem
Power Light - indicate if its on | Link Light - Check if the modem is connected to the ISP | Data Light - Check if there is data | Connectivity Light - checks if modem connected to computer

What does '?' indicate in device manager?
It means the driver is not properly installed

What is a MX record and A Record?
'A' record is a record that determines which IP address belongs to the domain. It can be used by the MX record which contains the host name of the computer(s) that handle the emails for a domain and a prioritization code.

Troubleshooting issue process?
Fact gathering to diagnosis to solution - Gather all relevant facts. Then I use common solutions, and if that doesn't work, use additional resources to find the solution. Once a solution is found, I test to ensure everything is okay!"

What does USB stand for and how's it used?
Short for Universal Serial Bus, an external bus standard that supports data transfer rates of 12 Mbps.

Pros and cons of imaging software
Pros: - Create exact duplicates - Deliver hard drive images over network to one or many systems simultaneously - Resize individual partitions of many file systems of which the utility has intimate knowledge | Cons: Can be expensive - Can take a long time on large disks since lack of - intimate knowledge of files systems cause block by block of source hard disk on image - Can provide little detection or recovery from errors during deployment

Partitions?
Dividing the hard disk into smaller portions to allow for space management. Each partition can be considered a disk to contain files

Common ports on computer?
Common ports are PS/2 ports, for keyboard and mouse. USBports. Sound ports.LAN or Ethernet ports. VGA ports.

What does DHCP stand for?
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol - allows network devices to have different IP addresses when connected to the network

What are the DHCP steps?

1. DHCPDiscover 2. DHCPOffer 3. DHCP Request 4. DHCPACK

Domain name service?
translates domain names into IP addresses

Identify a few Firewalls.
There is the network layer and the application layer - Network Layer - Makes decisions based on source and destination address - Application layer - Hosts run on proxy servers which allow no traffic between networks

What happens when url is typed in bar?
The first thing that happens is a Domain Name Server (DNS) matches the URL to an IP address. Then the browser sends an HTTP request to the server and the server sends back an HTTP response.

Active Directory
A service that is used in managing a domain to allow for a single point of administration for all shared resources on a network, including files, peripheral devices, databases, Web sites, users, and services.

Scope and super scope
Scope consists of an IP address like gateway IP, subnet mask, DNS server IP

ipconfig
The utility used to display TCP/IP addressing and domain name information in the Windows client operating systems.

Connecting two computers without using switches?
Cross cables

What is a domain?
A collection of computers defined by the administrator of a Server network that share a common directory/database

System infected by a virus, recovering data?
re-install another system, install latest anti-virus software and OS with latest patches. Before starting the system, connect infected HDD as a secondary drive then scan and clean infected hard drive. Once done you can copy files

What are the types of operating system or OS?
NOS, SOS - Networking Operating System - Simple Operating Systems

RAS server
Remote Access Server. It allows operating the tool or information that typically resides on a network or IT devices through software and hardware, like connecting to printer or file. Mostly used for mobile users on the networtk

What is a VPN?
A direct private network that creates a "private tunnel" within the Internet to connect to the corporate server

What is IAS Server?
Internet Authentication Service - for many types of network access like wireless, authenticating switch and remote access dial-up they perform accounting and auditing, centralized connection authentication and authorization

ping command
One of the most commonly used command-line commands. It can check IP connectivity between two network devices. Multiple platforms (for example, routers, switches, and hosts) support the ping command.

What is clustering?
When 1 or more computers work together as a single system by sharing resources

What is a group?
A group is a collection of the user account

Benefits of a child domain?
Low network traffic, low admin overhead, security boundary

What is advanced routing?
A set of rules that determine the path of data packets

Hub vs Switch
Different types of network equipment that connect devices. Hubs are used in smaller networks, whereas Switches are for larger networks

What is an IP address?
a sequence of numbers that uniquely identifies each computer or device connected to a network

What is a default gateway?
A default gateway serves as an access point or IP router that a networked computer uses to send information to a computer in another network or the internet.

What is SMART?
Self-Monitoring Analysis Reporting Technology(your hard drive will warn you in advance and report problems before your hard drive fails)

Newest server OS?
Windows Server 2019

Most popular type of wired topology?
Star topology - switch

BSoD (Blue Screen of Death) - analyze?
Infamous error screen that appears when Windows encounters an unrecoverable error. You can analyze errors using windbg

What is a CODEC used for?
mostly audio/video decoding