OSI Model

7 layers: Application, Presentation, Session, Transport, Network, Data, Physical

Remember with: All People Seem To Need Data Processing

or backwards Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizza Away

The Windows 9x/Me Registry consists of two binary files called SYSTEM.DAT and
USER.DAT. These two files hold virtually every setting that runs the Windows
operating system.

Wide SCSI permits up to 16 devices per chain, including the controller. Each device
must have a unique ID number within the chain. See the device and/or the device
documentation for ID settings. The ends of each SCSI chain must be terminated
properly, including the controller if necessary.

A couple of the most important concepts in hard drive technology are Cylinders,
Heads, Sectors per track, clusters, and LBA (Logical Block Addressing). Cylinders
reference consecutive rings of space on the circular drive. Heads are the actual
devices on the arms that read the data on the drive. A single Sector can contain at
most 512 bytes of data, so the sectors are grouped into Sectors per Track (Cylinder)
to make data storage more efficient

USB 2.0 has a transfer rate up to 480 Mbps and the cable length is up to 5 Meters.

USB 1.1 12 Mbps

DMA (Direct Memory Access) is the method where the CPU is relieved of certain
data transfer functions by allowing peripherals to directly access the system
memory. In a system with DMA there are typically two 8237 chips with 7 DMA
channels to move data directly to the memory addresses. Due to certain inherent
limitations, the practice of DMA has grown into what is now known as Bus
Mastering.

The drive letters A: and B: are reserved for the floppy drives. The first floppy gets
the letter A: and the second gets the letter B:, if installed. Hard drives are the next
priority, start with the letter C:, and can continue to Z: if necessary. CD-ROM drives
by default get the next drive letter after the last installed hard drive.

Network Operating System architecture can take one of three approaches:

Client/Server - typically Novell systems, which have a secure, high quality dedicated
server.

Peer-to-Peer - classically Windows Workgroups. These networks are limited in

number, with security and maintenance issues rising proportionally with the size of
the network.
Domain Based - typically Windows servers which use Domain Controllers and Active
Directory, etc. as server software.

NetBEUI - An older IBM network protocol that does not lend itself well to routing.

IPX/SPX - Typically associated with Novell Netware.

TCP/IP - The most popular, and the default protocol for the Internet

Remembering IRQs
Here are some tips and tricks to remembering IRQs. Please provide your feedback
so the final version can be blogged or linked from Tips section of website. Special
thanks to Spy.. I stole some of the initial tips from his post :-)

IRQ 0 System timer........like your watch it's round

IRQ 1 Keyboard............first thing you touch when you sit down

IRQ 2 Cascades to 9

Note : You can remember the first three from the phrase Sue Keeps

Cats , with S, K and C representing System, Keyboard and Cascades.

IRQ 3 Com 2&4.......IRQ 3 ( Odd Number) goes to Com2 and Com4 (even Numbers)

IRQ 4 Com1 & Com3.....IRQ 4 (even number) gos to Com1 and Com3 (odd numbers)

IRQ 5 NIC..like the nickel is 5 cents or LPT2(local printer2)

IRQ 6 Floppy Drive.........6 letters...F is the 6th letter for the alphabet (or 6 letters in
the word Floppy)

IRQ 7 LPT1........lucky number 7.....if you are lucky to have a printer (or 7 letters in
the word Printer)

IRQ 8 Clock..........8o'clock........time for prime time TV shows start (or 8 looks like
hour glass that represents clock)

IRQ 9 Redirects to 2

IRQ 10 Available

IRQ 11 Available

IRQ 12 Mouse (PS2[mouse] and IRQ 12 both end with digit 2)

IRQ 13 Maths CoProcessor (13 is unlucky for sum)

IRQ 14 Primary IDE controller.......it's first

IRQ 15 Secondary IDE controller....it's second

Another way to remember this is the naughty mneumonic: Sam Keeps Colorful
Condoms Carefully (and) Lovingly For Patricia. They Caress Almost All Monday
Mornings Passionately (and) Sensually.

Lack of better mneumonic is regretted. Your suggestions and comments are

welcome.

This maps to:

00 Sam -- System Timer

01 Keeps -- Keyboard

02 Colorful -- Cascades to 9

03 Condoms -- Com 2, 4

04 Carfully -- Com 1, 3

(and)

05 Lovingly -- (LPT2 or NIC)

06 For -- Floppy

07 Patricia -- Printer (LPT1)

08 They -- Time ( Real time clock )

09 Caress -- Cascaded IRQ2

10 Almost -- Available

11 All -- Available

12 Monday -- Mouse

13 Mornings -- Math Coprocesso

14 Passionately -- Primary Controller

(and)

15 Sensually -- Secondary Controller

You may need to know the I/O address for IRQ 3 & 4.
IRQ 3...Com 2 2F8

...........Com 4 2E8

IRQ 4...Com 1 3F8

...........Com 3 3E8

Essentially remember the addresses for COM 1-4 and LPT 1 and 2:

COM1: 3F8

COM2: 2F8

COM3: 3E8

COM4: 2E8

LPT1: 378

LPT2: 278

Here is a little tip for memorizing I/Os for COM 1-4 and LPT 1 and 2:
Just remember this single code: 323232-FFEE77
Then put the first set of numbers in a column.
3
2
3
2
3
2
Now put the second set in a column to the right.
3F
2F
3E
2E
37
27
Now add the number 8 to each one
3F8
2F8
3E8
2E8
378
278

In order, those are the addresses for COM 1-4 and LPT 1 and 2.
COM1: 3F8
COM2: 2F8
COM3: 3E8
COM4: 2E8
LPT1: 378
LPT2: 278

Laser Printing Process

Here is one for remembering laser printing process:

Clean-Charge-Write-Develop-Transfer-Fuse

Clean-Cows-Won't-Dance-The-Fandango

Another one:

Can Chris Write Down The Facts ?

Printer Table

Types of Printers

Print
Description
er

Impa
Daisy Wheel or Dot Matrix (9 or 24 pins)
ct

Inkjet Spray ink on paper

Write with a laser. Also called Electrographic

Laser
Printer (EP)

IP addressing

Network Normal
Address Range Comments
Type Mask

For very large

Class A 001.x.x.x to 126.x.x.x 255.0.0.0
networks

128.1.x.x to For medium size

Class B 255.255.0.0
191.254.x.x networks

Class C 192.0.1.x to 255.255.25 For small networks

 223.255.254.x 5.0

224.x.x.x to
Class D
239.255.255.255

240.x.x.x to
Class E
247.255.255.255

Registry Hives
The Registry Hives

1. HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT - a collection of settings for file, program, and class

associations.

2. HKEY_CURRENT_USER - stores settings for the current logged-in user.

3. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE - stores settings for devices and hardware on the

computer.

4. HKEY_USERS - stores settings for all the users who have accounts on the
machine.

5. HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG - more detailed settings for the hardware on the

computer, as currently loaded.

6. HKEY_DYN_DATA(Not present in Windows 2k or XP) - Registry data stored in RAM

to speed up system configuration.

Devices
Repeaters -A repeater connects two segments of your network cable. It re times
and regenerates the signals to proper amplitudes and sends them to the other
segments. When talking about, ethernet topology, you are probably talking about
using a hub as a repeater. Repeaters require a small amount of time to regenerate
the signal. This can cause a propagation delay which can affect network
communication when there are several repeaters in a row. Many network
architectures limit the number of repeaters that can be used in a row. Repeaters
work only at the physical layer of the OSI network model.

Routers -A router is used to route data packets between two networks. It reads the
information in each packet to tell where it is going. If it is destined for an immediate
network it has access to, it will strip the outer packet (IP packet for example),
readdress the packet to the proper ethernet address, and transmit it on that
network. If it is destined for another network and must be sent to another router, it
will re-package the outer packet to be received by the next router and send it to the
next router. Routing occurs at the network layer of the OSI model.

Bridges -A bridge reads the outermost section of data on the data packet, to tell
where the message is going. It reduces the traffic on other network segments, since
it does not send all packets. Bridges can be programmed to reject packets from
particular networks. Bridging occurs at the data link layer of the OSI model, which
means the bridge cannot read IP addresses, but only the outermost hardware
address of the packet.

Physical
10Base2 - Uses Thinnet coaxial cable. Uses a BNC connector and bus topology
requiring a terminator at each end of the cable.

10BaseT - Uses Unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cable. Uses star topology. Shielded
twisted pair (STP) is not part of the 10BaseT specification.

100BaseT - Also known as fast ethernet. Uses RJ-45 connectors. Topology is star.
Uses CSMA/CD media access. Minimum length between nodes is 2.5 meters.

ISA - Industry Standard Architecture internal computer bus. Used when the original
8088 8bit microprocessor based personal computers were produced. (16 bit).

PCI - Peripheral Component Interconnect internal computer bus. The popular

expansion bus of choice. It is significantly faster than EISA. This is a 32bit bus with
plug and play capability from Intel

FAT Table

Windows 3.1 works with FAT 16

Windows 95 Build 950 and 950a works with FAT 16

Windows 95 Build 950b and 950c works with FAT 32 and FAT 16

Windows 98 works with FAT 32 and FAT 16

Windows NT 4 works with NTFS and FAT 16

works with NTFS, FAT 32 and

Windows 2000/NT 5
FAT 16

• 9x Systems - Windows 95, Windows 98,

Windows ME
• NT Systems - Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000,
Windows XP

Boot Option Hot Keys

Boot Option Hot Keys

Operating
Key Result
System

F4 Boot to previous OS

F5 Safe Mode

Windows 98 F6 Safe Mode with Networking

(9x)
F8 Forces a ScanDisk

Left
Advanced Boot Options
CTRL

F5, F8 Hopeless

Spaceb At correct time, permits 'Last Known Good

Windows NT ar Configuration'

All
Hopeless; verify per installation
others

Windows
2000, F5, F8 Advanced Boot Options
Windows XP

HOT KEYS

ALT+TAB Switch between open items

ALT+ENT View properties for the

ER selected item
CTRL+ES
Display the Start menu
C

Creates bootlog.txt while

win /b
booting.

Quick Windows & OS FACTS

NTFS 5.0 was introduced with Windows 2000, and added encryption, mount points,
disk quotas, and dynamic disks.

The Windows NT Family does not use these files (IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, CONFIG.SYS,
COMMAND.COM, or AUTOEXEC.BAT).

Things To Know

Win NT/2000/XP boot files and their there role in the boot process (NTLDR,
BOOT.INI, etc)

Also Win 9x IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS AND WIN.COM files

How to access the Device Manager in Win.9x and Win 2000/XP

How to install a network printer in Win.9x and Win 2000/XP

Dual boot systems and the BOOTSEC.DOS file

How to startup in safe mode in Win.9x and Win 2000/XP

The ERD disk and how to create one

When and how to use ASR process in Win XP

TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, HTML, NWLINK, FTP, PING, TRACERT

The Windows Registry consists of two binary files called SYSTEM.DAT and
USER.DAT. These two files hold virtually every setting that runs the Windows
operating system.

Wide SCSI permits up to 16 devices per chain, including the controller. Each device
must have a unique ID number within the chain. See the device and/or the device
documentation for ID settings. The ends of each SCSI chain must be terminated
properly, including the controller if necessary.

A couple of the most important concepts in hard drive technology are Cylinders,
Heads, Sectors per track, clusters, and LBA (Logical Block Addressing). Cylinders
reference consecutive rings of space on the circular drive. Heads are the actual
devices on the arms that read the data on the drive. A single Sector can contain at
most 512 bytes of data, so the sectors are grouped into Sectors per Track (Cylinder)
to make data storage more efficient

USB 2.0 has a transfer rate up to 480 Mbps and the cable length is up to 5 Meters.

DMA (Direct Memory Access) is the method where the CPU is relieved of certain
data transfer functions by allowing peripherals to directly access the system
memory. In a system with DMA there are typically two 8237 chips with 7 DMA
channels to move data directly to the memory addresses. Due to certain inherent
limitations, the practice of DMA has grown into what is now known as Bus
Mastering.

The drive letters A: and B: are reserved for the floppy drives. The first floppy gets
the letter A: and the second gets the letter B:, if installed. Hard drives are the next
priority, start with the letter C:, and can continue to Z: if necessary. CD-ROM drives
by default get the next drive letter after the last installed hard drive.

NetBEUI - An older IBM network protocol that does not lend itself well to routing.

IPX/SPX - Typically associated with Novell Netware.

TCP/IP - The most popular, and the default protocol for the Internet

Network Operating System architecture can take one of three approaches:

Client/Server - typically Novell systems, which have a secure, high quality dedicated
server.

Peer-to-Peer - classically Windows Workgroups. These networks are limited in

number, with security and maintenance issues rising proportionally with the size of
the network.

Domain Based - typically Windows servers which use Domain Controllers and Active
Directory, etc. as server software.

RAM Memory Packages

RAM Memory Packages

Packa
Extension Features
ge

Combined 8 DRAM chips on a single card, 8

SIPP Single Inline Pin Package
bits wide

SIMM Single Inline Memory Eliminated pins, introduced banking, 30 or 72

 Module pin flavors

DIMM Dual Inline Memory Module 168 pins per stick

RAMBUS, must be installed

RIMM 184 pin form factor
in pairs

RAID

RAID Levels

Lev
Description Details
el

Striped disk array

RAID The several disks operate in parallel for faster data
with no fault
0 transfer rates.
tolerance.

Creates duplicate copies of data that is split between

RAID Mirroring and disks. Mirroring writes from a single controller to two
1 duplexing drives. Duplexing uses two separate controllers to write to
two different hard drives. Increased access speeds.

Spreads files across several disks; uses large amount of

RAID Data striping
disk space as overhead to maintain parity (error
2 w/error recovery
checking.) Not typically used on PCs.

RAID Parallel transfer - Uses less hard drive space for error checking, but data
3 parity striping transfer is more time consuming and less efficient.

Independent data Interleaves drives to make them appear as one large

RAID
disks - shared drive. There is only one parity drive that is shared. Low
4
parity disk overhead high maintenance fault tolerance.

Independent data
RAID Popular system where parity is spread across the disks to
disks - distributed
5 create accuracy and redundancy.
parity blocks

Uses extra disks as well as asynchronous and cached data

RAID
Similar to RAID5 transmission for guaranteed fault tolerance. Could be
6
called 'Super Raid5'.
Types of Expansion Slots

Types of Expansion Slots

Bus
Slot Notes
Size

ISA
8 or 16-
(Industry Standard Slowest slot used today
bit
Architecture)

MCA 16 or 32-
Expensive, fast, dead technology
(Micro-Channel Architecture) bit

Enhanced ISA 32-bit Compatible with ISA Slots

VL-Bus Bus Mastering, uses ISA slots with special

32-bit
(VESA Local Bus) connectors

PCI
Bus Mastering, uses PCI slots, has a unique
(Peripheral Component 32-bit
additional bus
Interconnect)

Bus Mastering, uses PCI slots, has a unique

PCI-2 64-bit
additional bus