Networks/Communications Quiz

1. A school has a local area network (LAN). When students work on the computers in their school,
they can save their work onto the hard drive on the network server or a USB flash memory drive
(memory stick). Some schools provide their students with USB drives at the beginning of the
school year.

(a) Identify two tasks performed by a network server apart from the storage of users’ files. [2 marks]

A network server assigns IP addresses to computer connect to the network and manages shared hardware, such as modems and printers.

(b) Describe one advantage and one disadvantage of schools providing their students with USB drives. [4 marks]

One advantage is that the students will always have their work available to them. They will no longer be able to use the excuse of the homework not printing or saving at home because they can just print it at school. The student’s work will also not be cluttering up the school computers making them slower. One disadvantage is the cost. USB drives are not cheap and if the school is providing every student with a USB the school will be shelling out a large amount of money on these USB drives. If the students lose or break the USB drives then the student no longer has one and the school is out that money they spent.

Explain two precautions that a student should take when using USB drives for saving important work. [4 marks]

A student should make sure they backup their work on another piece of equipment to ensure that if the USB device is lost or broken the data can still be recovered. The students should also make sure to safely remove hardware from the computer because otherwise the information on the device can be lost.

2. An author writes IT text books at home using his PC. He illustrates his work with many screen
shots and images obtained from web sites, showing readers how to carry out various actions.
He sends the images as bitmapped files. He sends his work to the publisher using his broadband
internet connection.

(a) Define the term bandwidth. [2 marks]

Bandwidth is the transmission capacity of an electronic communications device or system; the speed of data transfer.

(b) With reference to one benefit and one problem, explain why there may be advantages and disadvantages for an author when working from home instead of in the publisher’s office. [4 marks]

A problem with sending his work over the internet rather than having hard copies at the publisher’s office is that his work could be intercepted and someone else could publish it as their own. If the author worked at the publisher’s office then the author’s work could be put on a flash drive or onto a private computer to computer network to ensure safety of transportation of information. A benefit of working at home will allow an author to save all data on his/her computer or hard drives without anyone else having access.