This practice exam covers basic computer networking, to include the installation and configuration of networks, media types, configuration types, and network security. Passing this exam will require knowledge in the Ethernet Protocol, IPv4, and some IPv6, MAC addressing, TCP/UDP, the OSI Layer, and various other protocols such as SNMP, SSH, FTP, SSL/TLS, and more.
1) A network device designed to manage the distribution of a network's workload between near-identical resources is called:
A Load Balancer is a network device that distributes workloads between different resources like servers, routers and switches. For example, a large website may use a Load Balancer and multiple identical web servers to prevent from overloading a single device.
This question is filed under objective 1, Network Architecture
In computing, load balancing refers to the process of distributing a set of tasks over a set of resources (computing units), with the aim of making their overall processing more efficient Load balancing techniques can optimize the response time for each task, avoiding unevenly overloading compute nodes while other compute nodes are left idle Load balancing is the subject of research in the field of parallel computers Two main approaches exist: static algorithms, which do not take into account the state of the different machines, and dynamic algorithms, which are usually more general and more efficient, but require exchanges of information between the different computing units, at the risk of a loss of efficiency… Read More
2) You want to further secure your WAP so that your neighbors in your apartment building can not identify it. Which of the following options would achieve this?
A WAP's (Wireless Access Point) name is known as an SSID. Disabling SSID Broadcast allows you to hide the name of your access point. This does not truly secure your WAP, it should be used in addition to encryption and access control.
This question is filed under objective 3, Network security
In IEEE 80211 wireless local area networking standards (including Wi-Fi), a service set (also known as extended service set or ESS) is a group of wireless network devices which are identified by the same SSID (service set identifier) SSIDs serve as "network names" and are typically natural language labels A service set forms a logical network -- that is operating with the same level 2 networking parameters -- they are on the same logical network segment (eg, IP subnet or VLAN) Basic service sets (BSS) are a subgroup of devices within a service set which are additionally also operating with the same physical layer medium access characteristics (i… Read More
3) 802.11 is a set of standards designed to implement what?
802.11 is a set of standards for wireless communications, for example 802.11a and 802.11n are both wireless networking standards.
This question is filed under objective 5, Industry standards, practices, and network theory
IEEE 80211 is part of the IEEE 802 set of local area network (LAN) protocols, and specifies the set of media access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) protocols for implementing wireless local area network (WLAN) Wi-Fi computer communication in various frequencies, including but not limited to 24 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz, and 60 GHz frequency bands They are the world's most widely used wireless computer networking standards, used in most home and office networks to allow laptops, printers, and smartphones to talk to each other and access the Internet without connecting wires They are created and maintained by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) LAN/MAN Standards Committee (IEEE 802)… Read More
4) A standard MAC Address consists of how many bits?
A Media Access Control (MAC) is a globally unique id assigned to a network device. It is physically 'engraved' into the network device by the manufacturer and is often called the hardware or physical address. It consists of 6 bytes which is 48 bits (6 * 8 = 48).
This question is filed under objective 5, Industry standards, practices, and network theory
A media access control address (MAC address) is a unique identifier assigned to a network interface controller (NIC) for use as a network address in communications within a network segment This use is common in most IEEE 802 networking technologies, including Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth Within the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) network model, MAC addresses are used in the medium access control protocol sublayer of the data link layer As typically represented, MAC addresses are recognizable as six groups of two hexadecimal digits, separated by hyphens, colons, or without a separator MAC addresses are primarily assigned by device manufacturers, and are therefore often referred to as the burned-in address, or as an Ethernet hardware… Read More
5) If you needed to attach an RJ-45 connector to a CAT-5e Ethernet cable, what tool would you use?
Both a punch down and crimp tools are used with ethernet cables, however a crimp tool is used to attach an RJ-45 connector.
This question is filed under objective 2, Network operations
A modular connector is a type of electrical connector for cords and cables of electronic devices and appliances, such in computer networking, telecommunication equipment, and audio headsets Modular connectors were originally developed for use on specific Bell System telephone sets in the 1960s, and similar types found use for simple interconnection of customer-provided telephone subscriber premises equipment to the telephone network The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandated in 1976 an interface registration system, in which they became known as registered jacks The convenience of prior existence for designers and ease of use led to a proliferation of modular connectors for many other applications… Read More
6) Which device could cause disruption in wireless network communications?
Microwave ovens often use frequencies on the 2.4ghz band, which means a WAP using 2.4ghz can be affected.
This question is filed under objective 2, Network operations
Microwave transmission is the transmission of information by microwave radio waves Although an experimental 40-mile (64 km) microwave telecommunication link across the English Channel was demonstrated in 1931, the development of radar in World War II provided the technology for practical exploitation of microwave communication In the 1950s, large transcontinental microwave relay networks, consisting of chains of repeater stations linked by line-of-sight beams of microwaves were built in Europe and America to relay long distance telephone traffic and television programs between cities Communication satellites which transferred data between ground stations by microwaves took over much long distance traffic in the 1960s… Read More
7) What kind of terminations would be used to create a crossover cable?
T568 is the technical name for the pin out of an RJ-45 cable. There are two types, T568A and T568B. A crossover cable has one of each end, while a straight through cable is the same on both ends. A straight through can be both T568B or T568A.
This question is filed under objective 1, Network Architecture
An Ethernet crossover cable is a crossover cable for Ethernet used to connect computing devices together directly It is most often used to connect two devices of the same type, eg two computers (via their network interface controllers) or two switches to each other By contrast, patch cables or straight through cables are used to connect devices of different types, such as a computer to a network switch or Ethernet hub Intentionally crossed wiring in the crossover cable connects the transmit signals at one end to the receive signals at the other end Many devices today support auto MDI-X capability, wherein a patch cable can be used in place of a crossover cable, or vice versa, and the receive and transmit signals are reconfigured… Read More
8) Which Windows command line utility will use ICMP echo/reply packets to test a connection to a remote host?
The Windows ping command uses ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) echo request to reach a target IP, then the host will reply with an ICMP Reply.
This question is filed under objective 4, Troubleshooting
Ping is a computer network administration software utility used to test the reachability of a host on an Internet Protocol (IP) network It is available for virtually all operating systems that have networking capability, including most embedded network administration software Ping measures the round-trip time for messages sent from the originating host to a destination computer that are echoed back to the source The name comes from active sonar terminology that sends a pulse of sound and listens for the echo to detect objects under waterPing operates by sending Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request packets to the target host and waiting for an ICMP echo reply… Read More
9) You have been asked to install a new switch onto the network. This switch does not have routing capabilities, which OSI Model layer does this switch belong to?
Switches communicate using MAC Addressing, which belongs to Layer 2 (Data Link Layer) of the OSI Model. Some switches come with routing capabilities and can use Layer 3 (Network Layer) to communicate, these are conveniently known as Layer 3 Switches.
This question is filed under objective 5, Industry standards, practices, and network theory
A network switch (also called switching hub, bridging hub, officially MAC bridge) is networking hardware that connects devices on a computer network by using packet switching to receive and forward data to the destination device A network switch is a multiport network bridge that uses MAC addresses to forward data at the data link layer (layer 2) of the OSI model Some switches can also forward data at the network layer (layer 3) by additionally incorporating routing functionality Such switches are commonly known as layer-3 switches or multilayer switchesSwitches for Ethernet are the most common form of network switch… Read More
10) True or False: It is possible for a CAT 5e cable to span a length of 200 meters without signal degradation or a device to amplify the signal.
CAT cables have a distance of 100 meters, after that the signal will diminish and cause errors. Routers, Switches, and other network devices amplify signals, and are required for CAT cables to extend long distances.
This question is filed under objective 1, Network Architecture
Category 5 cable (Cat 5) is a twisted pair cable for computer networks Since 2001, the variant commonly in use is the Category 5e specification (Cat 5e) The cable standard provides performance of up to 100 MHz and is suitable for most varieties of Ethernet over twisted pair up to 1000BASE-T (Gigabit Ethernet) Cat 5 is also used to carry other signals such as telephony and video This cable is commonly connected using punch-down blocks and modular connectors Most Category 5 cables are unshielded, relying on the balanced line twisted pair design and differential signaling for noise rejection … Read More
11) What type of filtering allows for blocking or allowing access to specific domain names?
URL Filtering will allow you to block or allow a certain domain name.
This question is filed under objective 3, Network security
A Uniform Resource Locator (URL), colloquially termed a web address, is a reference to a web resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), although many people use the two terms interchangeably URLs occur most commonly to reference web pages (http), but are also used for file transfer (ftp), email (mailto), database access (JDBC), and many other applications Most web browsers display the URL of a web page above the page in an address bar A typical URL could have the form http://www… Read More
12) An E1 line supports how many Mbps?
E1 lines carry signals over 32 channels at 64kbps. (64kb x 32 = 2048kb = 2mb)
This question is filed under objective 2, Network operations
The E-carrier is a member of the series of carrier systems developed for digital transmission of many simultaneous telephone calls by time-division multiplexing The European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) originally standardized the E-carrier system, which revised and improved the earlier American T-carrier technology, and this has now been adopted by the International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) It was widely adopted in almost all countries outside the US, Canada, and Japan E-carrier deployments have steadily been replaced by Ethernet as telecommunication networks transitions towards all IP … Read More
13) Which of the following options could be used to describe OSPF and RIP?
OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) and RIP (Routing Information Protocol) are routing protocols. They exchange information with connected routers, so that all routers can navigate packets across a network.
This question is filed under objective 2, Network operations
A routing protocol specifies how routers communicate with each other to distribute information that enables them to select routes between any two nodes on a computer network Routers perform the "traffic directing" functions on the Internet data packets are forwarded through the networks of the internet from router to router until they reach their destination computer Routing algorithms determine the specific choice of route Each router has a prior knowledge only of networks attached to it directly A routing protocol shares this information first among immediate neighbors, and then throughout the network This way, routers gain knowledge of the topology of the network… Read More
14) IPv6 addresses consist of how many bits?
IPv6 addresses are 128 bits long, represented in hexadecimal format.
This question is filed under objective 5, Industry standards, practices, and network theory
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the Internet IPv6 was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to deal with the long-anticipated problem of IPv4 address exhaustion IPv6 is intended to replace IPv4 In December 1998, IPv6 became a Draft Standard for the IETF, who subsequently ratified it as an Internet Standard on 14 July 2017Devices on the Internet are assigned a unique IP address for identification and location definition With the rapid growth of the Internet after commercialization in the 1990s, it became evident that far more… Read More
15) You need to run cable through the airspace between offices, what type of cable is required to do this safely?
Plenum cable is jacketed in a fire-retardant plastic jacket.
This question is filed under objective 1, Network Architecture
Plenum cable is electrical cable that is laid in the plenum spaces of buildings In the United States, plastics used in the construction of plenum cable are regulated under the National Fire Protection Association standard NFPA 90A: Standard for the Installation of Air Conditioning and Ventilating Systems All materials intended for use on wire and cables to be placed in plenum spaces are designed to meet rigorous fire safety test standards in accordance with NFPA 262 and outlined in NFPA 90A Plenum cable is jacketed with a fire-retardant plastic jacket of either a low-smoke polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or a fluorinated ethylene polymer (FEP)… Read More
16) Which of the following options is capable of detecting malicious activity on a single machine, but will not attempt to stop said activity?
HIDS (Host Intrusion Detection System) will detect an attack, but will not prevent or stop it. They will keep record of the attack, and can be set to notify an administrator that an attack has happened.
This question is filed under objective 3, Network security
An intrusion detection system (IDS) is a device or software application that monitors a network or systems for malicious activity or policy violations Any intrusion activity or violation is typically reported either to an administrator or collected centrally using a security information and event management (SIEM) system A SIEM system combines outputs from multiple sources and uses alarm filtering techniques to distinguish malicious activity from false alarmsIDS types range in scope from single computers to large networks The most common classifications are network intrusion detection systems (NIDS) and host-based intrusion detection systems (HIDS) A system that monitors important operating system files is an example of an HIDS, while a… Read More
17) Which communication medium is least susceptible to EMI?
Fiber-optic cabling is not affected by EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) because it uses light rather than electricity. Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) is a more convenient and cheaper option to reduce the effects of EMI, but it is still susceptible to EMI.
This question is filed under objective 1, Network Architecture
Fiber-optic communication is a method of transmitting information from one place to another by sending pulses of infrared light through an optical fiber The light forms an electromagnetic carrier wave that is modulated to carry information Fiber is preferred over electrical cabling when high bandwidth, long distance, or immunity to electromagnetic interference is required This type of communication can transmit voice, video, and telemetry through local area networks or across long distancesOptical fiber is used by many telecommunications companies to transmit telephone signals, Internet communication, and cable television signals Researchers at Bell Labs have reached internet speeds of over 100 petabit×kilometer per second using… Read More
18) Which port or ports does RDP use?
RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) uses TCP port 3389.
This question is filed under objective 2, Network operations
Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a proprietary protocol developed by Microsoft which provides a user with a graphical interface to connect to another computer over a network connection The user employs RDP client software for this purpose, while the other computer must run RDP server software Clients exist for most versions of Microsoft Windows (including Windows Mobile), Linux, Unix, macOS, iOS, Android, and other operating systems RDP servers are built into Windows operating systems an RDP server for Unix and OS X also exists By default, the server listens on TCP port 3389 and UDP port 3389Microsoft currently refers to their official RDP client software as Remote Desktop Connection, formerly "Terminal Services Client"… Read More
19) In the OSI model, what layer is a router located?
Routing devices are located on layer 3 (network) in the OSI model.
This question is filed under objective 5, Industry standards, practices, and network theory
In the seven-layer OSI model of computer networking, the network layer is layer 3 The network layer is responsible for packet forwarding including routing through intermediate routers … Read More
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