CompTIA Exam Prep - ITF+, A+, Network+, Security+, CySA+

The A+ exam expects you to know the remote access tools, what each is for, which port it uses, and the security practices around them. Microsoft Remote Assistance is one member of a family, and it has largely been replaced by Quick Assist. The tools Tool Port Use RDP — Remote Desktop Protocol TCP 3389 Full remote session, usually unattended Quick Assist HTTPS 443 Attended help; user shares their session Remote Assistance (MSRA) TCP 3389 / dynamic Legacy attended help via an invitation file VNC TCP 5900 Cross-platform screen sharing SSH TCP 22 Encrypted command line Telnet TCP 23 Unencrypted command line — do not use Third-party (TeamViewer, AnyDesk, Splashtop) 443 Cross-network support through firewalls Three ports are near-certain exam content: RDP 3389, VNC 5900, SSH 22. Telnet's 23 is worth knowing so you can identify it as the wrong answer — it sends credentials in plaintext, and SSH replaces it. Attended versus unattended The distinction that decides which tool f...

NTFS is the default file system for Windows and the only one that supports its security features. The A+ exam tests it on three fronts: how it compares with FAT32 and exFAT, how permissions work, and the security features that depend on it. NTFS, FAT32 and exFAT Feature NTFS FAT32 exFAT Max file size 16 TB+ 4 GB 16 EB Max volume size 256 TB+ 32 GB (Windows format) 128 PB Permissions Yes No No Encryption (EFS) Yes No No Journaling Yes No No Compression Yes No No macOS support Read only Read/write Read/write Two exam answers fall out of this table. The 4 GB FAT32 file size limit is why a large video will not copy to a FAT32 drive. And exFAT is the answer for cross-platform external drives with large files, because macOS can write to it while NTFS is read-only on macOS without third-party software. NTFS permissions versus share permissions The most testable part of NTFS, and the source of endless real-world confusion. NTFS permissions apply whether the file is accessed l...

APFS is the default file system on macOS, iOS, iPadOS and watchOS. For the A+ exam it appears in two places: knowing which file system belongs to which operating system, and knowing what APFS does that its predecessor did not. Why it replaced HFS+ HFS+ dates from 1998, when storage meant spinning platters and a few gigabytes. It was extended repeatedly but its assumptions were wrong for flash storage: it had no native snapshots, weak crash protection, and second-granularity timestamps. APFS arrived in 2017 designed for SSDs from the start. Feature HFS+ APFS Designed for Hard drives Flash and SSD Snapshots No Yes Copy-on-write No Yes Space sharing Fixed partitions Containers share free space Encryption Bolt-on (FileVault) Native, multi-key Timestamps 1 second 1 nanosecond Containers and volumes The structural change most worth understanding. On HFS+ you partitioned a disk and each partition had a fixed size; running one out of space while another sat half empty meant repart...