CTP Skill Center

Today was a continuation of our bench marking tasks of SATA drives that we need in order to replace the failing ones in the class and lab computers. Most of the hard drive we use nowadays use a SATA (Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) interface to connect to the computers’ bus. The PATA (Parallel ATA) is rapidly becoming obsolete.

Similar to different versions of USB, SATA also has different versions which support different data transfer speeds. SATA 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 theoretically have 1.5 GBps, 3 GBps and 6 GBps speeds respectively. One must always consider if the port or interface can support the transfer rate of the device to be connected to assure optimized performance while avoiding ‘bottlenecks’.

We have identified 5 computers from the class and the lab area that need to be replaced. Working in groups we tested out the replacement hard drives and identified the most promising ones using our bench marking tool. This required us to research how to service and open the brand and model of the class computers in order to gain access to the SATA and power cables and attach them to our replacement hard disk to perform the tests. I found one with a good performance which I installed as the primary or C: drive replacing the old ‘failing’ one. I started the imaging process with Acronis TrueImage but did not have enough time to finish.

Alex also shared a video of how to get into Safe Mode in Windows 10. Safe Mode boots into the Windows OS with a minimal set of drivers. This serves as a diagnostic tool to eliminate the cause of a fault in the OS, driver or hardware. I tried out two of the three methods in the video.

Today we worked on cashiering and we learned to do a blog post on the student website. We also learned how to edit a post.

Today was a continuation of the lab assignment we did yesterday with a twist. Alex asked us to benchmark all the classroom computers as well as the lab area. The purpose of which was to find out which hard drive is failing in the computers so that we can replace them with ones that are good. Afterwards, we segregated promising hard disks from the lab area which we are going as replacements. This was a group effort which everybody participated in. We put the information in a google sheet. When we were done, Alex showed us how to color code the information using conditional formatting with the use of color scales.

Alex also discussed the difference speeds for USB 2.0, 3.0 and 3.1 being 480 Mbps (60 MBps), 5 Gbs (625 MBps) and 10 Gbps (1250 MBps) respectively. However, these are ideal speeds which must be confused with the actual transfer rate which depends on the port and the device used.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/google-releases-chrome-extension-that-alerts-to-breached-passwords/

Today Alex introduced a Chrome extension that is used for Malware and unwanted ads when web browsing called Ublock Origin. This is useful tool since it works in the background filtering the sites one visits. Occasionally I fall victim to false download links whenever I am looking for free diagnostic tools and this can help.

Our lab assignment for today was trying out tools called CrystalDiskInfo and CrystalDiskMark. One is a Self Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) and the other one is used for bench marking. We went used them on different computers and laptops with different hard disks and compared their disk performance. Their is a remarkable difference between a standard hard disk and a solid state drive (SSD). The same can be said when comparing USB 2.0 and USB 3.0.

Our employment services exercise for today was to send an email requesting an informational interview from a professional in the field we are interested in. One might tend to think it is an easy task. However, for one who does not have a lot of professional contacts or a limited networking sphere – it can be tasking. Finding a contact email for a hiring manager or an agency is simple but professional emails are harder to come by. I think it took me more than an hour to find someone to contact.

We also watched a video about how to use a Linkedin account and how to create a professional profile. Currently, I have simple Linkedin profile and the video suggests some useful tips in sprucing it up.

Today we had our 2nd quiz which concentrated on terminologies and concepts involving Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP). I think everybody did pretty good.

Time surely flies and it’s now a month since we started the CTT. Alex did a review involving everybody in a question and answer of things that were discussed this month. It jarred memories and reinforced what we learned in class as well as in a practical sense through the lab assignments.

We also had an introduction to some basic ports representing services like port 80 (Hypertext Transport Protocol), 22 (Secure Shell), 25 (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), 53 (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), 443 (HTTP Secure), etc.

Today we revisited some of our past lab assignments to see if we were able to complete the objectives. I added the Graphics Workstation in the BIOS lab assignment and went into its’ UEFI console which was cool.

We were also asked to provision three new phones. I partnered with two classmates Frank and Jimmy and so was able to provision two phones. The phones were of different makes so they had different factory resets and username and passwords. Interestingly, one was a POE phone and the other was not so we had to use the DC adaptor for it.

Finally, with Alexs’ help we were able to set-up an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) for the phones. This was done by recording a response whenever someone calls the Direct Inward Dialing (DID) number of CTP. Both Allen and Frank had a try with recording the response.

We started class today by testing a networking tool called Nmap – a network scanner. However, it should be used with caution and must only be tested within ones’ own network because it is an intrusive tool which must not be used haphazardly especially in the public space. So we downloaded the Nmap program and installed it via the site. Using the command prompt and navigating to the folder c:\ Program Files (x86)\Nmap we entered nmap -sP 10.61.0.0/16. Nmap then pings the full range of IPs in the 10.61.0.0 network.

The output was interesting. It showed the devices that replied, their IP address, MAC address and the manufacturer information. Using a web browser I tried the IP address 10.61.0.99 which opened up the console for one of the IP cameras at CTP.

Afterwards, we finished the IP phone provisioning assignment.