220-1101 Question 9
Single answerNear-field scanner featuresA field technician is helping users in a warehouse pair company smartphones with handheld barcode scanners. The phones include a near-field scanner feature, and management wants the fastest setup method with the lowest chance of pairing to the wrong device in a crowded area. Which action should the technician take?
- A
Hold the phone within a few centimeters of the scanner's NFC tag or pairing area to initiate pairing
- B
Search for the scanner over Bluetooth from 30 feet away and use near-field scanning only after the connection is established
- C
Enable the phone's infrared port and point it directly at the scanner to transfer the pairing information
- D
Connect the phone to the scanner's Wi-Fi network so the near-field scanner can read the device over the LAN
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The best answer is to place the phone very close to the scanner's NFC tag or designated pairing area. On A+ Core 1, candidates should recognize that near-field communication is a very short-range wireless technology designed for secure, convenient exchanges at close proximity. A practical use is tap-to-pair, where NFC exchanges enough information to identify the target device and may trigger Bluetooth pairing or device configuration. This short range is a key feature because it reduces unintended connections in environments with many nearby devices. CompTIA A+ objectives commonly expect familiarity with mobile device wireless features and distinctions among NFC, Bluetooth, infrared, and Wi-Fi. Manufacturer documentation for smartphones, payment terminals, and enterprise peripherals also consistently describes NFC as operating at close range rather than across a room or over a network.
- A. Correct.
Correct. Near-field communication works only at very short range, typically a few centimeters. This makes it useful for quick tap-to-pair or tap-to-configure tasks while reducing accidental connections to nearby devices. In a crowded warehouse, requiring close proximity helps ensure the technician pairs with the intended scanner.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Standard Bluetooth discovery can work over much longer distances than NFC and is more likely to show multiple nearby devices in a crowded environment. NFC is commonly used to simplify or initiate Bluetooth pairing, not as a feature that becomes useful only after a long-range Bluetooth connection is already made.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. Infrared requires line-of-sight and is a different technology from near-field communication. Modern smartphones used in enterprise environments typically rely on NFC for close-range pairing, not IR ports for this task. Choosing this option reflects confusion between short-range wireless technologies.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. NFC does not operate by reading devices over a Wi-Fi LAN. It is a close-range radio technology used for small data exchanges such as identification, authentication, or initiating another connection method. Joining a Wi-Fi network is unrelated to the phone's near-field scanner feature.