Technician Standards and Practices

Question 1

Which specific computer components require special care when handling to protect your safety?

Answer 1

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Question 2

What is the proper way to lift heavy objects?

Answer 2

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Question 3

How can ESD be a hazard to electronic computer components?

Answer 3

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Question 4

What is the difference between a static-shielding bag and a static-resistant bag?

Answer 4

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Question 5

What steps can you take to reduce ESD if you do not have the proper equipment handy?

Answer 5

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Question 6

What is the MSDS? When would the information it provides be important?

Answer 6

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Question 7

Primary responsibility?

Answer 7

Your safety and safety of others:

• Make sure grounding pin on 110 device is intact.
• Never work on device until it is powered down and unlplugged (or battery is out)
• wall power is 115V at 60 cycles, can stop heart
• capacitors in power supplies and CRT monitors and laptop LCDs can retain lethal power

Question 8

when not to wear ESD bracelet?

Answer 8

around high voltage

Question 9

minimum fire protection?

Answer 9

class C fire extinguisher, made for electrical fires

Question 10

msds

Answer 10

material safety data sheet; proper disposal

Question 11

peripherals

Answer 11

crt: discharge high voltage first; power supplies are ield replaceable; laser printers, optical drive, fiber optic cable will allblind you; don’t inhale toner; fuser rollers are hot;

Question 12

ESD that can damage components in V, that can be felt

Answer 12

100V or less, feel it at 3000V

Question 13

reduce risk of ESD

Answer 13

• touch computer case
• static mat/floor mat
• don’t touch component leads
• store components in static-shielded bag (grey) (pink and blue less protective)
• avoid plastic and styrofoam
• maintain humidity (humidity keeps air insulating, 70%+)

Question 14

environmental concerns

Answer 14

• local disposal laws
• notebook batteries nicad nimh lih
• cathode ray tube monitors (chemicals+lethal charge)
• PC system
• printer cartridges
• cleaning solutions (denatured alcohol)

Question 15

Basic forensics procedures

Answer 15

gathering legal evidence found on electronic devices
Identify, preserve, recover, and analyze.
Legally defensible audit trail.

Question 16

Legal standards for computer evidence

Answer 16

• Authentic
• Reliably obtained
• Admissible

Question 17

Gathering

Answer 17

• Live system (getting the info could destroy it)
• static image taken from live system
  1) acquire info
  2) analyze
  3) create report

Question 18

Forensics:

Acquire evidence

Answer 18

Take custody of system; document state (photos); interview witnesses; capture volatile data (cpu registers, cache, system ram, network connections, running processes—all of these only last nanoseconds to few seconds at most)

Question 19

order of volatility

Answer 19

try to capture most volatile data first

Question 20

obtaining HDD info

Answer 20

mirror drive; evidence-grade copy; may use hashes for authenticity

Question 21

Analyzing evidence

Answer 21

volatile data
disk image (browser cache/cookies; page file/swap file)
any available video recordings
Sans Investigative Forensic Toolkit (free)
EnCase, FTK, Cofee

Question 22

Reporting findings

Answer 22

• well-written, self-contained document (lawyer)
• describes incident, response, findings

also track hours/expenses

Question 23

tools

Answer 23

screwdriver (jeweler’s); pliers; 3-prong extender; Integrated Circuit insertion/extraction tool; extension magnet; volt meter or multimeter (voltage, ohms, current, capacitance, continuity) (power supply tester is a specific one); Fox and Hound: tone generator + wand taht lets you trace from rj45 jack to wall closet!
cable tester- test continuity in network cable
loopback plug, attaches to physical components
know-good equipment (to replace potentially bad to check whether it is or not)
[don’t skimp]

Question 24

maintenance

incl cleaning supply

Answer 24

70-74 degrees
40-70 % humidity
separate/redundant cooling
frequently clean
protect from EMI (fiber optic immune)
RFI disrupts wireless (2.4 GHz particularly susceptible; solve by going to 5GHz)
magnetic fields

compressed air, lint free cloth, isopropyl/denatured alcohol, antistatic vacuum

Question 25

trick of power strips

Answer 25

only protect against surges, not dips/brownouts!

Question 26

what is a UPS

Answer 26

Uninterrupted Power Supply
protects against power dips, may also have power conditioning to prevent spikes
has a management cable (serial or USB) to let system shut down cleanly

“The day you decide to purchase a UPS is the day AFTER you’ve lost your data to a power outage”

Question 27

types of UPS

Answer 27

Online UPS (best and most caro): best protection but often replacing battery
Offline UPS: passes current along, tops off battery. until

Question 28

Don’t connect what to protected outlet on UPS?

Answer 28

laser printers

Question 29

Defin Surge, Spike, Sag, Brownout, Blackout

Answer 29

Over voltage for seconds, over voltage for milliseconds, under voltage for milliseconds, under voltage that lasts for seconds, complete power failure

Question 30

Troubleshooting Process

Answer 30

-Identify the symptoms and gather info (repro problem, look at error msgs, ask questions, don’t be in a hurry)
-look for recent changes/fixes
-back up system
-select probable causes, “don’t look for zebras”
-start with things that are easy to try
-verify cause
[escalate if you ID that it’s beyond your responsibility/ability. describe problem and ID steps you’ve taken, and why you’re passing it]
-action plan: identify consequences to prevent ill-timed downtime, e.g.
-fix and test, then ensure satisfaction
-document solution. useful for future problems, similar and otherwise, for you and others