What is DNS?

DNS stands for Domain Naming Server, it is a standard of naming domains

in any operational environment (Windows,Linux,Solaris,Any
environment). It is a server which contains a database of all the domains
and all the servers which are associated with those domains.
Why it is Used?
Its a service dedicated to identify all the machines (domains & member
servers) in a network. To make this possible, every machine has to be
registered in the authoritative DNS server of that network. That means
every operational network should have a dedicated DNS server to enable
identification and communication between the machines.
How it works?
As i said, it is dedicatedly used for identification, in technical words
for “name resolution”. Every machine in a network has a dedicated IP
address & hostname as its identity. Whenever a machine tries to
communicate with another machine on the network it should first identify
the second machine, that means it should know the ip address of that
particular machine. After knowing the identity (i.e ip address), it will
directly communicates with the second machine. So to speak, a machine
should know the ip address of the another machine, with which its going to
communicate before it starts. Another question… Why the hostnames are
used, if the machine already have an identity in the terms of IP address?
Hostname is an English word which is useful for Human remembrance. It
is impossible for a human being to remember lots of IP addresses, but it is
possible to remember English names of the same hosts (as we configure the
hostnames generally with employee name or department name or location
name etc). For example we can remember www.yahoo.com but not its ip
address, because we are not having only one website on the internet. To
sum up Hostnames and IP addresses both are used to identification and
communication between two machines in a network. But machines are only
able to communicate with the IP addresses and which are impossible to
remember for Humans (Keep in mind machines never communicate with
hostnames). To solve this situation DNS was implemented. It basically
contains a database of host records in a network. A host record contains
“Hostname : IP address”, see the image below for better under standing.
Out Internet is purely depended on DNS, when we access a particular
website we will give its English name, when we press ENTER immediately
the machines starts finding the IP address of the website using the DNS
server configured on it. I will explain the name resolution process in
details. And one more thing about the DNS is, it is the only largest database
on the internet which changes every second. If this database goes down by
a chance, we must remember all the ip addresses to access the internet.
hahaha it will not happen, why because we have so many backup solutions
already implemented.
DNS Records
There are so many records associated with a DNS Server. Name resolution
process does not happen in a proper way with out these records.
As you know the DNS server main purpose is to resolve the host names to
IP's and vice versa.

• A Record : Contains information about IP address. It is helpful in

resolving host names to IP addresses.
• PTR Record : Pointer record, contains information about host name. It
is helpful in resolving IP address to hostname.
• CNAME Record : Alias of A Record. It is helpful in giving multiple
names to a single host. Which means, the same host is able to provide
multiple services. In that case, for segregation of service and to
communicate with that service we need to give different names to
each service. Even though these services are hosted on a single server,
but we can send our request to the target service. CNAME record was
helpful in identifying and communicating with that service on that
server.
• MX Record : It is a record helpful in identifying the mail server in a
DNS domain (for that organization)
• NS Record : It is a record helpful in identifying the DNS server in a
DNS domain (for that organization)
• SRV Record : This record is created when we install a service which
is DNS dependent. It is automatically generated and will be associated
with a specific IP address. It is called as Service record.
• SOA Record : Start of Authority record, this is not a record associated
with any IP address. But it is associated with a number, which
determines the update number. What ever the update, when ever it is
done this number will be incremented.

OSI Layers

The Physical Layer represents your network card, cabeling, etc.

The Data Link Layer controls de physical layer and corrects any errors it
detects in transmission.

The Network Layer defines network topology and provides, among other
features, routing.

The Transport Layer is responsible for establishing, maintaining and

terminating communication with other network devices and ensures data
delivery.

The Session Layer manages flow control over the data beeing sent and
received. you can think of it as the synchronization layer.

The Presentation Layerprepares the data for the layers above and below it.
it makes sure the data beeing passed through is, let's call it, "universal" or
"platform independent".

The Application Layer represents the service making use of the network.
(usually the program the user is interacting with) Think telnet or ftp.

Why we use DNS and whats DNS do ?

DNS is used to resolve the names of websites into the IP addresses of the
web servers on which the site is hosted. Without DNS we would have had to
type the IP address of the website we wanted to visit, rather than it's Fully
Qualified Domain Name.

What DHCP do ?
dhcp provides a framework for passing configuration information to hosts on
a TCP/IP network. DHCP consists of two components: a protocol for
delivering host-specific configuration parameters from a DHCP server to a
host and a mechanism for allocation of network address to hosts.

Whats WINS do ?
WINS is a service run on Windows NT servers to provide Windows clients a
way to find other Windows computers. WINS (Windows Internet Naming
Service) resolves Windows network computer names (also known as
NetBIOS names) to Internet IP addresses, allowing Windows computers on
a network to easily find and communicate with each other.

Whats Proxy mean and why we use it ?

A server that sits between a client application, such as a Web browser, and a
real server. It intercepts all requests to the real server to see if it can fulfill
the requests itself. If not, it forwards the request to the real server. a)Improve
Performance b)Filter Requests

Whats the difference between ftp and smtp ?

Both are the networking protocols, we use FTP to transfer files and SMTP
for sending mails.

How to join computer in domain/network ?

This question is OS dependent.

How you will check ur network card working ?

Simply by accessing the network.

How to check system information / Ram/Processor etc in windows

2000 ?
By running msinfo32.exe ?

When a system not communacting on network or with any other system

whats the possiblities you will check? please list all possibilities.
Firstly, I will check the LAN cable.

When somebody not receiving any emails what the possibilities you will
check?
Check that the network you are connecting is in your reach and you can
make connection on concerned ports.

Whats the difference between Virus and Spyware ?

Virus usually spread by themselves while spyware don't.

How u check ur own ip address?

ipconfig on windows(NT plateform) winipcfg for win9x clients and ifconfig
on *nix.

How you check the ip addresses of all computers on network ?

(No sure about it) Use a program called angry ip scanner.

What is PING ? when we use it and why ?

 Ping is a utility to determine whether a specific IP address is accessible. It
works by sending a packet to the specified address and waiting for a reply.
PING is used primarily to troubleshoot network connections.
It is often believed that "Ping" is an abbreviation for Packet Internet Groper.

What is Trace route ?

Some Ports used specifically for some specific programs please list
some?
80 for HTTP,
21 for ftp,
25 forSMTP
110 for POP3

Windows admin interview questions

Describe how the DHCP lease is obtained.

It’s a four-step process consisting of (a) IP request, (b) IP offer, © IP selection

and (d) acknowledgement.

I can’t seem to access the Internet, don’t have any access to the corporate
network and on ipconfig my address is 169.254.*.*. What happened?

The 169.254.*.* netmask is assigned to Windows machines running

98/2000/XP if the DHCP server is not available. The name for the technology is
APIPA (Automatic Private Internet Protocol Addressing).

We’ve installed a new Windows-based DHCP server, however, the users do

not seem to be getting DHCP leases off of it.

The server must be authorized first with the Active Directory.

How can you force the client to give up the dhcp lease if you have access to
the client PC?

ipconfig /release

What authentication options do Windows 2000 Servers have for remote

clients?
PAP, SPAP, CHAP, MS-CHAP and EAP.

What are the networking protocol options for the Windows clients if for
some reason you do not want to use TCP/IP?

NWLink (Novell), NetBEUI, AppleTalk (Apple).

What is data link layer in the OSI reference model responsible for? Data
link layer is located above the physical layer, but below the network layer.

Taking raw data bits and packaging them into frames. The network layer will be
responsible for addressing the frames, while the physical layer is reponsible for
retrieving and sending raw data bits.

What is binding order?

The order by which the network protocols are used for client-server
communications. The most frequently used protocols should be at the top.

How do cryptography-based keys ensure the validity of data transferred

across the network?

Each IP packet is assigned a checksum, so if the checksums do not match on

both receiving and transmitting ends, the data was modified or corrupted.

Should we deploy IPSEC-based security or certificate-based security?

They are really two different technologies. IPSec secures the TCP/IP
communication and protects the integrity of the packets. Certificate-based
security ensures the validity of authenticated clients and servers.

What is LMHOSTS file?

It’s a file stored on a host machine that is used to resolve NetBIOS to specific
IP addresses.

What’s the difference between forward lookup and reverse lookup in

DNS?

Forward lookup is name-to-address, the reverse lookup is address-to-name.

How can you recover a file encrypted using EFS?;=

Use the domain recovery agent.

What is UTP?

UTP — Unshielded twisted pair 10BASE-T is the preferred Ethernet

medium of the 90s. It is based on a star topology and provides a number of
advantages over coaxial media:

It uses inexpensive, readily available copper phone wire. UTP wire is much
easier to install and debug than coax. UTP uses RG-45 connectors, which
are cheap and reliable.

What is a router? What is a gateway?

Routers are machines that direct a packet through the maze of networks that
stand between its source and destination. Normally a router is used for
internal networks while a gateway acts a door for the packet to reach the
‘outside’ of the internal network

What is Semaphore? What is deadlock?

Semaphore is a synchronization tool to solve critical-section problem, can be

used to control access to the critical section for a process or thread. The main
disadvantage (same of mutual-exclusion) is require busy waiting. It will
create problems in a multiprogramming system, where a single CPU is
shared among many processes.

Busy waiting wastes CPU cycles.

Deadlock is a situation when two or more processes are waiting indefinitely

for an event that can be caused by only one of the waiting processes. The
implementation of a semaphore with a waiting queue may result in this
situation.

What is Virtual Memory?

Virtual memory is a technique that allows the execution of processes that
may not be completely in memory. A separation of user logical memory
from physical memory allows an extremely large virtual memory to be
provided for programmers when only a smaller physical memory is
available. It is commonly implemented by demand paging. A demand
paging system is similar to a paging system with swapping. Processes reside
on secondary memory (which is usually a disk). When we want to execute a
process, we swap it into memory.

Port Numbers

15 – Netstat

21 – FTP

23 – Telnet

25 – SMTP

42 – WINS

53 – DNS

67 – Bootp

68 – DHCP

80 – HTTP

88 – Kerberos

101 – HOSTNAME

110 – POP3

119 – NNTP

123 – NTP (Network time protocol)

139 – NetBIOS

161 – SNMP

180 – RIS
389 – LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol)

443 – HTTPS (HTTP over SSL/TLS)

520 – RIP

3389 – Terminal services (RDP)

443 – SSL (https) (http protocol over TLS/SSL)

220 – IMAP3

Tell about yourself?

Abrar Ahmed, born and brought up in Chennai. I worked in Origin ITFS.
My client place is TCS – Eserve where I was working as helpdesk and
remote support eng. I had completed my UG in Ams Engineering College; I
did my graduation in ECE. I stay with my family, my father is retired
personnel was working in TNEB. I am hard worker, but I believe to do work
with smarter way. I appreciate sincere and hard working people and also
enjoy leaning new things from others.

My Hobbies are playing Cricket, PC games, listening to music, facebook,

watching tv and movies, roaming out with friends.

About Beryl Project

I was very much happy to involved in this project; I hope this was the one of
the huge desktop and network Migration project. The main concept of this
project is that removing of Citi licensed operating system and application
from the local user desktop and deploy the TCS Licensed OS and
Applications and make the users to work on the VDI Environment for Citi
and on local for TCS. This project comes under three process i.e.,
Application testing, Desktop Migration and then Network Migration. My
role was in the desktop migration, Application testing was done by the other
process after the testing got over successfully they will intimate us to
migrate.

In Desktop Migration we are doing three processes one is Pre-Migration,

Migration and Post-Migration. In Pre-migration, taking the information of
user system and the model of the pc, and will inform the network team to
change the port for the particular ip and desk location. Then will check
whether any EFS is there in the user profile, if contains it is decrypted on the
user login while the user is available or else the user will provide EFS key to
decrypt the data. Here we are doing swapping of hard disk, just removing the
old Citi Build hard disk from the system and putting the new hard disk that
contains TCS Build. Build is nothing but the OS. For this before doing
migration itself we are deploying the Image of TCS Build in the new hard
disk based on the PC Models.

During Migration, connecting the TCS Build hard disk which is deployed
already as primary and Citi build hard disk ie old hard disk as secondary and
start the pc to run on the TCS Build, for restoring the user Backup from old
hard disk to new. Till the backup got restore, assign the tcs ip, gateway and
Dns to the system. After the backup got restore will remove the seconday
hard disk and run the system in TCS Build. When the port got migrated will
give the hostname and add the system to the domain.

In Post-Migration, installing the Citrix Client version 11.2.5.2 to the user pc

and check that the user can able to login and work on the citrix. Configuring
MS Outlook and Lotus notes on the local system, Installing and configuring
the network printers and scanners, and so on…

Finally the old Citi hard disk is put for wipe to erase the confidential data
from the hard disk and the wipe logs are gathered and send to the Mumbai
team. And use the wiped hard disk for deploying the TCS image use that
hard disk for other migrations.
HP d 530
HP dc 7100
Hp dc 7600
HP DC 7700
HP DC 7800 SFF
HP DC 7800 USDT
HP DC 7900
COMPAQ D51S
HP DC 5100
HP DC 5150
HP DC 5500