Problems due to faulty RAM can be difficult to diagnose. If a system’s RAM has gone bad the user can experience program crashes, spontaneous reboots, sudden system freezes, BSODs (Blue Screens of Death), corrupt data, and more. The problem is those symptoms could also be caused by a bad CPU. Or a bad motherboard. Or [...]

Perhaps you’re familiar with the How Stuff Works series of books. They cover topics from military hardware to the mundane, explaining how they work in full page, full color graphics. They are like picture books for adults, and they’re great for visual learners. Success brought sequels, some of which focused on topics that would be [...]

I was rather surprised when during a discussion on security one of my students referenced the attack on Morgan Hill (a city just south of San Jose). Not knowing about it, I Googled around a bit and was frankly shocked—not just by the attack, but by how underreported it went. Some party or parties with [...]

I’ve just posted a network speed table to help you memorize the speeds of all the various connections. CompTIA is fond of asking a question on the A+ test involving a scenario where a given minimum bandwith is listed, and you must know which connection would be fast enough to meet their criteria. Thus, I’ve listed [...]

I’ve added a guide to the 7 layer OSI model, which will help illustrate how various pieces of hardware and software interact with each other. Networking is covered in domain 4.0 of CompTIA’s 220-701 A+ Essentials test and domain 3.0 of CompTIA’s 220-702 A+ Practical Application test. Most A+ courseware does a pretty good job [...]