unit 1 and 2 revision

unit 1 and 2 revision

1. Networks

   • WPAN
     • (WIRELESS PERSONAL AREA NETWORKS)
     • ALLOWS YOU TO PAIR DEVICES TOGETHER OVER A SHORT RANGE
   • WAN
     • (WIDE AREA NETWORK)
     • WHEN NETWORKS ARE CONNECTED OVER A LARGE GEOGRAPHICAL AREA
   • LAN
     • (LOCAL AREA NETWORK)
     • WHEN DEVICES CONNECT OVER A SMALL GEOGRAPHICAL AREA

2. CONNECTION TYPES

   • WI-FI
     • USED TO CONNECT PORTABLE DEVICES TO A LAN
     • CAN BE HACKED BY UNAUTHORISED USERS
   • ETHERNET
     • FASTER DATA TRANSFER SPEED
     • CABLES ARE MORE EXPENSIVE
   • BLUETOOTH
     • MULTIPUL DEVICES CAN BE PAIRED WITH BLUETOOTH
     • HAS A SHORT RANGE

3. NETWORK SECURITY

   • FIREWALL
     • STOPS UNAUTHORISED USERS FROM ACCESSING YOUR COMPUTING SYSTEM
     • CONTROLS WHICH PROGRAMS CAN SEND OR RECEIVE DATA PACKETS FROM YOU COMPUTER OR NETWORK
   • PASSWORD
     • PASSWORDS HELP STOP UNAUTHORISED USERS FROM ENTERING YOUR ACOUNT / PROFILE
     • IT SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST 8 CHARACTERS WITH A MIX OF UPPER AND LOWER CASE LETTERS, NUMBERS AND SYMBALS
   • ANTIVIRUS
     • STOPS MALWARE FROM SPREADING TO OTHER FILES OR NETWORKS
     • SCANS YOUR COMPUTER FOR MALWARE
   • ENCRYPTION
     • SCRAMBLES DATA PACKETS BY USING A CIPHER
     • THIS IS SO UNAUTHORISED USERS CAN'T READ THEM

4. NETWORK THREATS

   • PHISHING
   • UNAUTHORISED USERS (HACKERS)
   • VIRUSES
   • THREATS

5. COMPUTER HARDWARE

   • RAM
     • HOLDS ON TO INSTRUCTION
     • (RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY)
   • CPU
     • CARRIES OUT INSTRUCTIONS
     • (CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT)
   • SECONDARY STORAGE
     • STORES PROGRAMS
   • VIRTUAL MEMORY
     • WHEN RAM IS FULL THE LESS FREQUENTLY USED FILES ARE STORED IN VIRTUAL MEMORY

6. PERFORMANCE UPGRADES

   • INCREASING RAM WILL ALLOW YOU TO OPEN MORE PROGRAMS WITHOUT AFFECTING THE PERFORMANCE
   • UPGRADING YOUR COMPUTER AND USING A SOLID STATE HARD DRIVE INSTEAD OF MAGNETIC HARD DRIVE WILL MAKE IT HAVE A FASTER READ / WRITE SPEEDWHICH WILL ALLOW YOUR PROGRAMS AND DATA LOAD AND SAVE FASTER
   • UPGRADING TO A CPU WITH MORE CORES MEANS THAT MORE INSTRUCTIONS CAN BE PROCESSED AT ONCE