I was reading an online exam cram book, and got pissed at how inadequate some of their crap was… and decided to waste 15 min firing off this e-mail. All said and done, it made me feel better so I guess it wasn’t a total waste of time….
After all, they ASKED for my feedback!
Happy whatever’s day,
—–Original Message—–
From: Byarlay, Wayne A.
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 4:41 PM
To: feedback@quepublishing.com
Subject: Feedback on “Citrix CCA MetaFrame Presentation Server 3.0 and 4.0 Exam Cram”
In this book, in Practice Exam 1, Question 40 states:
“40. On which layer of the OSI model would you place the ICA protocol?
1.Session layer
2. Transport layer
3. Application layer
4. Presentation layer
5. Network layer.”
Then, in the Answer Key:
“Answer D is correct. The ICA protocol is a Presentation layer protocol on the OSI model. Answers A, B, C, and E are incorrect because they are not the correct layer where the ICA protocol should be placed.”
This explanation is inadequate. It is inadequate because it is not adequate.
I am annoyed by this. I am annoyed by this because I am not NOT annoyed by this.
A better explanation would take a few moments of research and due diligence. This explanation sounds like a freshman English 101 attempt to fill white space.
Let me offer you a better explanation that I will spend exactly 10 minutes to research:
I am not sure why Session is not the correct answer. To me, it could possibly fall under this category. Perhaps because presentation handles data compression, and ICA is a compressed protocol? But what serves as the Session layer, if ICA is the Presentation? Hmmmm. If this were a classroom, I would probably raise my hand, to the chagrin of my fellow trainees.
Transport is not correct because ICA travels over the TCP protocol, which is a Transport Protocol. It would have to somehow ride between the TCP packets, being handled by routers, via some other addressing method than the IP address. ICA does not do this.
Network Layer – No, this is too low. If ICA were a network layer protocol, it would be working alongside the IP of TCP/IP, being pushed around a method other than a packet-switched network, such as Novell’s lousy IPX, which thankfully died a thousand deaths (But probably still lurks in some deep, dark corners of the networking world).
There, in 10 minutes, I have produced an explanation which I feel is much more adequate and professional than the answer provided by Todd Mathers, Elias Khnaser.
