Computer Internet Questions and Answers

Answer: B

Correct answer: Access point

Coaxial cable, fibre and shielded twisted pair are all cabling used in Ethernet. An access point belongs to a wireless network, which is a different medium.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Webmail interface

A webmail interface keeps the messages on the provider's server and presents them through a browser, so the mail is reachable from any machine with a connection. A local mail program keeps them on one computer.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Malicious code that attaches itself to a program and spreads when that program runs

A virus is malicious code that attaches itself to a host program or file and spreads when that host is executed. It requires a host and human action to propagate - opening a file, running a program. The distinction from its relatives is worth being exact about, since the word is used loosely for all of them. A worm is self-replicating and spreads across a network without a host or user action, which is why worms have caused the fastest-spreading outbreaks. A Trojan disguises itself as legitimate software and does not replicate at all. Ransomware encrypts files and demands payment. Spyware gathers information covertly. The umbrella term for all of them is malware. Antivirus software detects them by known signatures and by heuristic analysis of suspicious behaviour, which is why signature updates matter and why entirely new malware can evade detection at first.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Digital subscriber line (DSL)

DSL uses the same copper pair as the telephone but transmits at frequencies above the voice band, so it is far faster than a dial-up modem and the line remains usable for calls. Cable and fibre are faster still but do not use the phone line.

Answer: D

Correct answer: Downloading a document

Bringing a file to your machine is downloading; sending one away from it is uploading. The direction is what the two words distinguish.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Packet

Data to be sent is divided into packets, each carrying the message content together with the addressing and control information the network needs. A header and trailer are parts of a packet rather than the whole.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Layer 4

Acknowledgements, sequence numbers and flow control are how a connection is made reliable, and reliability is the transport layer's responsibility - layer 4.

Answer: D

Correct answer: The Internet is the network; the Web is one service running on it

The Internet is the global network of interconnected computers - the physical and logical infrastructure. The World Wide Web is one service carried on it: a system of documents linked by hyperlinks, transferred by HTTP and identified by URLs. The distinction is easily shown by what else the Internet carries. Email, file transfer, video streaming, online games, voice calls and instant messaging all run over the Internet without being part of the Web at all. Email in particular is far older than the Web. The Internet has its origins in ARPANET in 1969 and became a network of networks through the adoption of TCP/IP in 1983. The Web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN around 1989 and released publicly in 1991. So the Internet is the road system and the Web is one kind of traffic on it. Using the two words interchangeably is common but imprecise.

Answer: A

Correct answer: DHCP

DHCP - Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol - leases an address to a host when it joins the network, along with the gateway and DNS settings it needs. IP carries the packets once the address is assigned.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Power cord

Connectivity is what joins a device to the resources it needs, in the way a power cord joins it to the supply - the point of the comparison is that both are links rather than things in themselves. The internet is one thing you may connect to, and a floppy disk and data are not connections at all.