Thanks for your EXCELLENT example of how technical certification
programs are no guarantee of fundamental technical understanding.
P.S. If you don't ask the right questions you will never get the right
answers.
Thanks for the useful input!
Please do not take this the wrong way, but I thought it was useful input. Perhaps not to you, but maybe to those who think that getting their MCSA will teach them all they need to know.
Some of the things you asked were extremely basic. I've never taken any of the certifications you list, but I thought they would cover the basics - especially after 3 of them (from 3 different vendors, I think?)
All that said, if you don't at least start asking, you will never find out. So I would not take this as an attack on you personally - lots of people answered took the time to answer your questions, asking not even a favor in return as payment. I would take it as a note to people with certifications or going for certifications that a cert != clue. It's probably a good place to start if you have no where else to turn, but just passing the test is not enough. (Did any of those certs have labs, or just multiple-guess tests?)