gistfile1.txt

You should understand these at least in concept:

command line tools:

These are commands for windows you can run from a command line (start>run>cmd or command

1) Ping - ping IP-Address or ping name
This will send a small packet to the server you specify and come back with either an up or down response

2) tracert - tracert servername or IP
this is pronounced trace route and will show you how many hops, or steps exist between your server and where you are connecting (steps are basically hubs and routers).

3) telnet - telnet servername portnumber
this is kind of like ping, but it axctually connects to a server on whatever port you specify (network port).  Useful for telling if a server is accessible over a firewall via the port you list.

4) netstat - netstat -anob (you can also list each argument seperate....netstat -a or -b will just list that argument
this lists all of the network ports the server you are on is connected to.  Useful if an application won't conenct to a port because it is in use.  netstat will show you what is using it.

Network technologies:

5) DNS - Domain Name Server.  DNS Servers exist in networks and have lists of IP addresses and computer names and the connections between them.  when you ping mike.computer.com, a DNS server tells you what the IP address is.  Same if you ping 1.2.3.4.  They use forward and reverse lookups to get the IP's or names.  These exist all over the world for things like google.com or whatever, so normal users can browse the web.  Makes it easy to remember google.com instead of its IP address.  For most cases, you are talking about a companies DNS servers on their network.  These servers know my PC name and its IP address.  When you do ipconfig /flushdns you are telling your server/workstation to forget everything it knows from DNs and ask again.  If it has old outdated info cached, this will help.

6) WINS - Not used much, but it is like the old version of DNS.  DNS is much better.  No one sues WINS anymore.  Just know what it is (inferior name lookup).

7) a hosts file.  go to start>run and type drivers (then enter).  Open the etc folder and open the hosts file (with notepad).  the hosts file lists IP's and names that override DNS (or maybe are not in DNS).  It serves as basically a band aid for DNS issues (or in cases where DNS does not exist).

8) IP address - I assume you know this, but it is basically a computer's address.  They are 4 octets seperated by 3 periods.  10.1.2.34.  they are all unique UNLESS they are private IP's  tis is when there is 1 public IP on a router, but behind it, Network Address Translation (NAT'ing) actually sends out the proper packets to more than 1 server.  It's a nice way to split up your allocated IP addressed.

Backup terms:

9) Full, Differential and Incremental:  A full backup is what it sounds like.  It backus up the whole content (content is what you define to back up).  A differential backups up ALL changes since the full.  An Incremental backups up changes since the last backup.  If you run a full, then an Inc, then a Diff, the diff will back up all changes since the Full (as if the Inc never ran).  Diffs are natually larger than Incs.  However, if you want to restore the data, you'd have to restore each Inc after the full.  For a diff, you just restore the Full and latest diff.  It's a trade off.  One does less backup but longer restores and the other is the opposite.

10) Library - these are generally tape or disk.  A disk Library is basically a bunch of fancy hard drives.  A Tape library is like a fancy ZIP drive or something similar.

That is a good place to start.  Assuming network plus covers the first 8, I would get that book and go for it.  even if nothing pans out here, you'll have a good cert and some knowledge