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CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

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device that would operate unplugged, and what you purchased was what you

got. Upgrade a laptop? Connect to external devices? You had few if any

options, so you simply paid for a device that would be way behind the

technology curve within a year and functionally obsolete within two.

Portable computers today offer a few ways to enhance their capabilities.

Most feature external ports that enable you to add completely new functions,

such as attaching a scanner, mobile printer, or both. You can take advantage

of the latest wireless technology breakthrough simply by slipping a card into

the appropriate slot on the laptop.

I’ll first describe single-function ports, and then turn to networking

options. Next, I’ll cover card slots, and then finish with a discussion of

general-purpose ports.

Single-Function Ports

All portable computers come with one or more single-function ports. You’d

have a hard time finding a portable computing device that doesn’t have an

audio port, for example. Laptops often provide a video port for hooking up an

external monitor, though wireless screen sharing and screencasting are

gaining popularity as an alternative.

Ports work the same way on portable computers as they do on desktop

models. You plug in a device to a particular port and, as long as the operating

system has the proper drivers, you will have a functioning device when you

boot.

Audio

Portable computers have a standard 3.5-mm audio-out port and some have a

similarly sized microphone-in port (see Figure 23-8), though built-in

microphones are increasingly common. You can plug in headphones, regular

PC speakers, or even a nice surround sound set to enable the laptop to play

music just as well as a desktop computer can.

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