Desktop Support Engineer Description

A desktop support engineer's job is to solve technical problems of a computer user. His/Her job is to make the user comfortable. As the uses of computer grows, the positions requiring desktop support engineer will grow.

A new Desktop support engineer's job requires assembling and installation of desktops, keeping all the systems up to date with patches and security fixes.

The other duties of a desktop engineer is that when a new software or any other new IT regulations comes in the working of the company, they have to train the end-user.

The normal routine here is that the software department of the company makes an application that will further make the day-to-day operations of the company easier and faster. The other a company can do is that they will buy an official enterprise version of the software and let the user to work on this. For both of this a team of Desktop support engineers will act as a bridge between the users and the new software.

As the company will invest a huge amount of money into this, the company wants that the aim of it must get achieved. The job of a Desktop support engineer here is to first get trained and then train the entire users of the company.

One thing that various multinational companies follow is a keep a meeting of new employees and let them know the various operations of the company. This type of meeting may be called, say "New Employees Meeting" OR "New Employee Training" Or "New Employee Discussion" etc. This type of meeting generally is comprised by each department's representative giving a brief about their operations. As a team of Desktop support engineers, you might have to give a brief when there are some new employees.

This will need good communication skills and a lot of patience. The job of a Desktop support engineer is complex at times - or relaxed at times. The meaning is that, imagine, suddenly that the entire network of computers is down. There should be an immediate and well-informed decision. On the other hand, if every thing is going smoothly then you would probably be on Facebook.

Likewise, the CEO or MD of the company may have some problem with his laptop, the next minute you would probably be talking and trying to solve the problems of the person who is on the highest position of the company. So, excellent communications and sound technical knowledge is a must to constantly thrive and move to higher positions.

Lastly, you should always update yourself with new technologies.

Desktop Support Engineer Jobs

The number of vacancies in this sector is increasing and jobs are growing in an unprecedented way. The positions of a Desktop support engineer are divided in 3 levels viz. Level 1 (L1), Level 2 (L2), Level 3 (L3). L1 being the entry-level position and L3, the highest level engineer.

Level 1 (Trainee) engineers will perform basic jobs such as installing operating system, helping out users, and other easier jobs such as assembling a computer.

Level 2 (Sr. Desktop Engineer) are involved in keeping the computer network up to date with essential security patches, interact with various vendors, and perform small tasks on the Server.

Level 3 (System Administrator) is the lead engineer and is responsible for everything that is related to computers. System Administrator mainly involves performing tasks on the Server, interact with other department for any changes or if the entire network is being updated with critical changes.

As computers are omnipresent, your job could be in any sector. Like you could be working in the retail sector or working in a large hospital. Because of this, many businesses call for contracts to large or medium-sized Information Technology companies. Many a times, you will be employed by such a company (For example, Wipro) and will work for the third-party (For example, Reliance).

Girls are also increasing in this profession, but are probably only involved in Helpdesk support. After they gain experience and technical certifications they can move to higher positions such as Systems Administrator or System Engineer.

Desktop Support Engineer Salary

As with every profession, Salary will be depend on your experience, educational qualifications, attitude, the company's policies, and your capability. One other factor in the Information Technology sector is international vendor-specific IT certifications. Certifications like CCNA, MCSE etc.

Desktop engineers are called by many names such as Desktop support specialist, Technical support engineer, Help Desk support, Customer support engineer.

Below are the approximate annual salary that you will get in various countries. All the below data is courtesy Payscale.com

But as I said, salary depends on many factors, keep this only as a reference.

Interview questions for desktop support engineer

I launch IE and I get a message telling me that my Active X controls are disabled. How do I re enable them? ---> Follow on question ----> If the button to customise the Active X control is greyed out, why may this be?*Where do you enter the details for automatic config scripts in IE?*My Excel starts up, starts loading the Plug-ins and freezes. how would you go about fixing this?*If my Blackberry stopped recieveing emails, how would you go about resolving this?*What percentage of importance would you say customer service skills and technical skills have?*How else (other than joining a PC to the domain) can I get the machine name in the Domainmy PST is corrupt and can not be repaired, what do you do?

Name another way of joining a PC to domain?

A manager can not print to network printer but all other users can, what do you do?

Whats the printer registry file name?

Printers.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}

Name 5 reasons why a user might not be able to logon to the network?

Explain how DHCP works?

A user has a laptop that runs fast on the network (at work) but slow at home? Explain what could be the problem?

Explain how to share outlook calenders and the type of permissions you need to assign.

A user can log on to the network but has no internet connection?explain what could be the problem.

A users application on their desktop is not working, explain what you would do to resolve this problem

What is the difference between a UNC and drive mapping?

How do you import external data into a Excel spreadsheet?

What is a mail merge and how does it work?

Explain what TCP/IP is and how it works?

Laptop Questions

1) A user operating his laptop from home finds it very slow, but when using the laptop at the office is very fast. What could the possible reasons be while it was slow at home?

2) A Manager takes his laptop abroad and operates it with no problem using his mobile. Once he gets back the UK his modem no longer works. What could the possible reasons for this be?

What could be the cause of an error stating that NTLDR is missing when trying to boot?

What is the file extension for an Excel Add-in file?

What is the difference between a .PST file and a .OST file?

How would you obtain the MAC address from a machine?

A blackberry user is abroad and is not receiving e-mails, he notices that he has gprs in lowercase on his device. What can be done to fix this problem?

Name 5 reasons why a user might not be able to logon to the network?

Explain how DHCP works?

A user has a laptop that runs fast on the network (at work) but slow at home? Explain what could be the problem?

Explain how to share outlook calenders and the type of permissions you need to assign.

A user can log on to the network but has no internet connection?explain what could be the problem.

A users application on their desktop is not working, explain what you would do to resolve this problem

What is the difference between a UNC and drive mapping?

How do you import external data into a Excel spreadsheet?

What is a mail merge and how does it work?

Explain what TCP/IP is and how it works?

In word how would you alter auto recovery to save every 5 mins instead of every 10 ?Answer: Tools / Other / Save

If a customers blackberry stopped syncing their calendar wirelessly, what would you do?

If a customer deleted a mail from his blackberry, but it did delete from his mailbox, how would you resolve this?

The deputy equities manager demands access to a legal shared drive, as he does not have the correct permissions, it is late at night and you are the only one left in the office what would you do?Follow on: if the decision makers are unreachable, what would you do? if the deputy equity manager tells you a multi-million pound contract depends on him getting access to this shared drive, what would you do ? if he then gets the equities manager who starts shouting at you and threatening to get you the sack, what would you do ?

Interview Questions for L2 Engineer in Infrastructure Management Companies Infrastructure management companies in India Like HCL, WIPRO, TCS, Microland, HP, EDS, MPHASIS, IBM, etc. Een other companies ask the below questions when recruiting a windows professional for L2 level.=====================================================================These questions would help in the interviews conducted for positions open in Infrastructure management companies for the post of WINTEL L2 positions.

These are common questions which are always asked. ===================================================================

1. How to check AD configured properly?Ans: Check NTDS and SYSVOL shared folder at %systemroot%windows\.

2. How to transfer global catalog to another domain?Ans: We can not transfer the global catalog; we can only remove the global catalog from one server and enable other server as a global catalog.

3. How to configure global catalog server?Ans: Go to Active directory site and services and expand till your desire server’s NTDS settings and then right click; property and check mark the Global catalog check box.

4. What are the fsmo roles and it gets down what will impact?Ans: Flexible Single Master Operation, There are five roles.Domain Naming Master (Forest wide role)Schema Master (Forest wide role)PDC Emulator (Domain wide role)RID Master (Domain wide role)Infrastructure Master (Domain wide role)

5. What is the RID pool?Ans: RID Master provides the RID (Relative Identifier) pool to Domain controller of the Domain. When an object is create in a domain, a Unique SID (Security ID) is assigned to it which consisting of a RID (Unique ID) and a SID (Common ID for all Object), A RID pool contain 500 RIDs.

6. How to check FSMO roles running on which server? Ans: By using “DCdiag /test:Knowsofroleholders /v” command.ii) Type “Netdom query fsmo”

7. How to transfer FSMO role one domain controller to another domain controller command prompt and GUI?Ans: Go to Startà Run à dsa.mscà go the property of users and computers and transfer the RID, PDC, and Infrastructure roles.Go to Start à Runà à go to the property of the active directory domain and trust and transfer the Domain naming master role

For transferring schema master role, first we have to register the schema master by using “regsvr32 schmgmt.dll” command in run. Than Go start à Runà MMCàAdd Active directory schema and transfer the schema master role.

8. What is AD data base file and log file where it stored is and what is the use of log file?Ans: AD Data base is NTDS.DIT and its location is %system root%\windows\NTDS\ntds.dit. AD Log files are EDB.log ,EDB.chk and REG.log and the location of there files are %system root%\windows\NTDS\ntds.dit.

9. How to recover corrupted AD data base file?

10. Is it possible to rename domain name in windows 2003?Ans: Yes, We can rename the domain name in windows 2003.

11. What are the two types of replication?Ans: Inter-site replication, Intra-site replication.

12. What are the protocols used in replication?13. What is default time for replication?Ans: KCC (Knowledge Consistency Checker) is the algorithm and the two protocols used are RPC over IP and SMTP over IP. They replicate in every 15 min.

14. What is the difference between the two types of replication i.e. intrasite and intersite? Intersite replication is for replication with in the site and Intra-site replication is for the replication between the sites.

15. What are replication partition and tell about partition?Ans: FSMO role PartitionSchema CN=Schema,CN=configuration, DC=Domain Naming Master CN=configuration,DC=PDC DC=RID DC=Infrastructure DC=Replication partitions are.Schema PartitionConfiguration Partition

Domain PartitionApplication Partition

16. Is application partition available in windows 2003?Ans: Yes, Windows 2003 contains application partition, mainly application partition contains the application information like: DNS

17. What is the DNS?Ans: Domain Naming System.Used to resolve the host name (FQDN) name to IP Address and Vice Versa

18. What are types of DNS and zones?(i)Primary DNS zone(ii)Secondary DNS zone(iii)Active directory integrated zone(IV)Stub zone

19. What is the authority’s record and is the use?20. What are records available in dns?Ans: Address records, Host Records, MX Records, and CNAME records.

21. Explain about SRV, MX and CNAME records?22. Where DNS file stored and data base of DNS?Ans: %SYSTEMROOT%\Windows\System32\DNS

23. How do configure DHCP Server and steps?24. How to reserve IP address?Ans: We can assign a particular IP address to the MAC address of a machine using IP reservation in DHCP.

25. Why do we need two subnets?To segment or restrict one type of traffic to one segment.

26. Two different subnet, how to configure it in single DHCP server?Two different scopes are created for two subnets.

27. What is the use of relay agent?A router drops the DHCP packet as its a broadcast packet. The relay agent helps in sending it over to the destined subnet.

28. What is the group policy?Ans: It is way to provide the desirable predefined environment to all users and it is centrally manageable.

29. My requirement is to need disable USB port, how will you do?Through Group policy.

30. How to take backup group policy?Ans: We can use GPMC (Group Policy Management Console), right click on the GPO and select backup and take backup on destination folder

31. You are administrator; my requirement is to configure active directory for four different locations. How will you plan it?Ans: Depending on the requirement I' ll configure one parent domain and three child domains, or One domain with four sites, or four different domains (least preferred).

32. What are the two type’s terminal servers?User mode and applciation mode.

33. What is the default security group, groups give explanations?Ans:

34. You are maintaining remote servers that u can take remote but you can’t to ping them, now how to troubleshoot?

35. What is use of Kerberos protocol?Ans: Kerberos protocol is an authentication protocol.

36. What is the version Kerberos protocol?Ans: We are using Kerberos V 5.0.

37. What is the authentication protocol in Windows NT?Ans:Windows NT supported two kinds of challenge/response authentication:LanManager (LM) challenge/responseWindows NT challenge/response (also known as NTLM challenge/response)

38. What are RAID levels?Ans: Main RAID levels are RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-5 and RAID-10.

39. Which RAID you will recommend and why?Ans: RAID-1 for O.S - mirroringRAID-5 for DATA partition- Stripe set with parity.

40. What are the different RAID1 and RAID 5?RAID-1:- In RAID-1 two hard disk are there and the data on one is mirrored to another. So even if one fails other one is there with the same data for service continuity. RAID-5: We can use minimum three hard disk and maximum depend upon RAID controller card, Data written on disk in stripes with distributed parity set.

41. What are the Different between and disk mirroring and disk duplex?42. What is the dynamic disk?43. What is disk striping?

44. What are the backup types?Ans: (i) Normal or full Backup(ii) Deferential Backup(iii)Incremental Backup(iv)Copy backup(v)Daily Backup

45. Which type backup reset archive bits?Ans:- The bit which have checked mark on that folder which have been normal backuped.

46. What is the use of DFS?Ans: Distributed File System, It is used for the fault tolerance because it makes the duplicate copy of every DFS root. Not only that the domain login process uses DFS to find out the nearest DC to login.

47. Do you know about FRS?Ans: File Replication Services.Example: Replication of SYSVOL folder.

48. What are difference between TCP and UDP protocol?Ans: TCP is a connection orientated protocol while UDP is not a connection orientated protocol.

49. What is different between HUB and Switch?Ans: HUB broadcast the data packet but Switches multicast the data packet into the network which reduces the collision of data packets.

50. Which layer working in router?Ans: One layer Three (Network layer)

51. You are going to migrate the domain how to plan?52. For project requirement you going to share 20 folders what is the step you will take?

53. Why is it requiring VLAN?Ans: To divide/restrict the traffic to one segment of the network.

54. Right required to transfer FSMO roles?Ans. logged-on user should be a member of the Enterprise Administrators group to transfer Schema master or Domain naming master roles, or a member of the Domain Administrators group of the domain where the PDC emulator, RID master and the Infrastructure master roles are being transferred.

55. Write down the command line to transfer all the FSMO roles to other server?Ans: Click Start, click Run, type ntdsutil in the Open box, and then click OKType roles, and then press ENTER.Type connections, and then press ENTER.Type connect to server servername, and then press ENTER, where servername is the name of the domain controller that you want to assign the FSMO role to.At the server connections prompt, type q, and then press ENTER.Type transfer role, where role is the role that you want to transfer. For example,To transfer the RID master role, type transfer schema masterTo transfer the RID master role, type transfer domain naming masterTo transfer the RID master role, type transfer rid masterTo transfer the RID master role, type transfer pdcTo transfer the RID master role, type transfer infrastructure master7. At the fsmo maintenance prompt, type q, and then press ENTER to gain access to the ntdsutil prompt.

56. Write down the command line to seize all the FSMO roles to a server?Ans:Click Start, click Run, type ntdsutil in the Open box, and then click OKType roles, and then press ENTER.Type connections, and then press ENTER.Type connect to server servername, and then press ENTER, where servername is the name of the domain controller that you want to assign the FSMO role to.At the server connections prompt, type q, and then press ENTER.Type seize role, where role is the role that you want to seize. For example,To seize the RID master role, type seize schema masterTo seize the RID master role, type seize domain naming masterTo seize the RID master role, type seize rid masterTo seize the RID master role, type seize pdcTo seize the RID master role, type seize infrastructure master.7. At the fsmo maintenance prompt, type q, and then press ENTER to gain access to the ntdsutil prompt.

57. Command for removing active directory?Ans: dcpromo /forceremoval

58. How to test whether a domain controller is also a global catalog server:

Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Active Directory Sites and Services.

Double-click Sites in the left pane, and then locate the appropriate site or click Default-first-site-name if no other sites are available.

Open the Servers folder, and then click the domain controller.

In the domain controller's folder, double-click NTDS Settings.

On the Action menu, click Properties.

On the General tab, view the Global Catalog check box to see if it is selected.

at 11:17

IP address 169.254...—Limited or no connectivity

APIPA address, no DHCP server

If you see a "limited or no connectivity" warning and a yellow exclamation mark in Device Manager, this only means that the computer's network port is set to automatically obtain an IP address through DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), but a DHCP server could not be found. Windows then generates an APIPA address in the range:

Class B: 169.254.0.0 - 169.254.255.255(Subnet mask: 255.255.0.0)