Hardware, Software, Systems & Networks

Exam Review Questions

If our exam was open book and six hours long, it would look something like this (without the
pointers). Our actual exam is two hours long and closed book, so the questions will be more focused
than these but covering the same topics. Also be prepared for the exam questions ask you to
integrate some of these smaller questions into a more comprehensive answer.
General:

Be able to describe two key characteristics (e.g., ISO layer, purpose, function, key packet
information, etc.) of each of these protocols
TCP
UDP
IP
ICMP
ARP
Be able to describe the purpose and basic operation of these protocols
DNS
DHCP (client and server)
SMTP (transport and submission)
IMAP (imaps)
HTTP (https)
LDAP (ldaps)

Be familiar with the purpose (not the syntax) of these commands

mount
ifconfig
route
netstat
ping
dig

For the questions below, answers/pointers are in a separate file

1. Identify and briefly describe each of the essential steps for preparing a new boot disk for use on
a system. Which steps have to be done for every disk?
2. What key parameters need to match in order for software compiled for one linux distribution to
work on another distribution? When do you need to compile your own rather than taking a
binary package from a repository?
3. In the Unix/Linux operating system, what do we expect to find in /etc? What is the most
important thing we expect to find in /var?
4. Explain the similarities and differences between /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow.
5. Where are the system-wide rules for logging specified? What is the difference between a log
level and facility?
6. Explain the general scheme for file permissions in the Unix/Linux operating system, including
how they are expressed as numbers.
7. Normally /tmp has special permissions drwxrwxrwt . What does this allow? What other
directory commonly has these permissions? Why?

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8. In bash shell scripts, what do > and >> do? What does | do?
9. In bash shell scripts, what happens when I end a command with >/dev/null 2>&1
10. What is the purpose of having a user account like "nobody" or "postfix" with no password?
11. What is the difference between a TCP/UDP port and a switch/router port?
12. Can a network administrator choose just any port number for a service? Why or why not?
13. What is port forwarding?
14. DHCP uses a four-phase process to grant a lease for IP connection settings to a DHCP client.
The first phase involves sending out a DHCPDISCOVER message. Using two or three sentences,
state the reason for sending this message out as a broadcast message, rather than a normal
unicast message.
15. What common parameters can a DHCP server set for a client?
16. Why is a "rogue" (unauthorised. unofficial) DHCP server on a subnet problematic? What
steps can be taken to resolve the problem?
17. Describe the purpose of ARP, and the basic methods it uses to do its job.
18. Describe the effect of ARP "cache poisoning".
19. Describe the purpose of DNS, the standard port and protocols it uses.
20. Describe the effect of DNS "cache poisoning".
21. Which of these files can be used instead of the DNS to map a hostname and aliases to an IP
address? (a) /etc/HOSTNAME (b) /etc/hosts (c) /etc/resolv.conf (d) /var/hostlist (e) another file
not listed. Justify your answer; assume the paths are correct
22. What is a DNS CNAME record?
23. What can Dovecot and Squirrelmail use LDAP for?
24. What are the key directives for configuring a webserver? Aside from the name, which
configuration parameters are changed to define a webserver "virtualhost"?
25. How does a DNS CNAME record relate to a webserver "virtualhost"?
26. What is the difference between using the SMTP port vs. the Submission port for mail?
27. Why should system administrators be concerned about broadcast traffic? How is the
“broadcast domain” defined?
28. What is the difference between a packet sniffer and a packet filter? How are they used by
network administrators?
29. What does ACL stand for? What is the relationship between ACLs and firewalls?
30. Briefly define and relate: security policy, acceptable use policy, security mechanisms, and
security procedures. In your description, include the associated organisational roles: who is
responsible for them, and how can we audit/verify their effectiveness.
31. What do xinetd, tcpwrap, and iptables have in common? List two characteristics of each one
that makes them different from the others.
32. Describe two key similarities and one key difference between using stunnel and OpenVPN to
provide secure network communications.
33. What is the effect of forcing users to change their password frequently? How is this a
tradeoff between security and user experience?

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34. Why do some distributions (like Ubuntu) insist that root access is available only through
sudo? Reflect on the two sides to this issue.
35. What are the four basic rules for troubleshooting configurations?
36. What are the three Ps that are most commonly the cause of problems with service
configuration?
37. Alice tried to start a service but it gave her the message “Cannot run - Could not write to
/var/run: Access Denied”. What should she do?
38. Bob tried to start a service but it gives him the message “Exiting – could not load shared
library libres.so.0”. What three things should he do (in the proper order)?
39. Aside from google, stackexchange and stackoverflow, what are the two best ways to get help
with a command?
40. Describe in steps how you would troubleshoot the following alleged failures of services on
your network. Include the names of tools you would use, and how you would use them.
a) The web service is totally unresponsive
b) Can’t access a particular external network