Networking practice questions

Answer: A) A wireless site survey

• AA wireless site survey involves measuring signal strength, interference, and coverage throughout a physical space before deployment, informing exactly where access points should be placed for reliable coverage with minimal dead zones or overlap issues.
• BA cable pull test verifies physical cabling's tensile strength during installation, unrelated to wireless coverage planning.
• CA firmware rollback reverts a device to a previous software version, unrelated to planning wireless AP placement.
• DA factory reset restores default settings on a device; it isn't the process of surveying a space for AP placement.

Answer: A) SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)

• ASNMP is the standard protocol used by network monitoring systems to query and receive status/performance data from routers, switches, and other managed network devices centrally.
• BFTP is a file transfer protocol, not a device-monitoring/management protocol.
• CPOP3 retrieves email from a mail server; it has no network device monitoring capability.
• DTelnet provides (unencrypted) remote command-line access; it's not the standard protocol for structured device health/performance monitoring.

Answer: A) Wireless client isolation

• AClient isolation (sometimes called AP isolation) prevents devices connected to the same wireless network from communicating directly with each other, which is exactly the kind of protection a public guest network needs to keep one customer's device from being able to reach or attack another's, even though they share the same SSID.
• BWPS simplifies initial device pairing to a network; it has no relationship to isolating already-connected clients from each other.
• CPoE delivers electrical power over Ethernet cabling; it has no relationship to isolating wireless clients from each other.
• DNAT translates private addresses for shared internet access; it doesn't isolate wireless clients on the same network from communicating with each other.

Answer: A) The modem converts the ISP's incoming signal (cable, DSL, fiber) into usable Ethernet data, while the router creates and manages the local network and shares that connection among devices

• AA modem's job is translating the ISP's specific physical-layer signal into standard Ethernet data; the router then takes that single connection and creates the local network, assigning addresses and routing traffic for all connected devices — many consumer devices combine both functions into one box, but they're functionally distinct roles.
• BBoth modems and routers are used across various connection types; this isn't the actual functional distinction between them.
• CThis has the roles reversed — wireless capability is typically a router (or combo device) function, not something a standalone modem inherently provides.
• DWhile many home devices combine both functions in one box, a modem and a router perform genuinely distinct roles, even when housed together.

Answer: A) A VPN

• AA VPN creates an encrypted tunnel over the internet, letting a remote device securely join the internal network and reach resources like file shares.
• BA DNS record just maps a name to an address; it provides no encryption or secure remote access on its own.
• CForwarding port 80 exposes unencrypted HTTP traffic to the internet; it doesn't provide secure, authenticated network access.
• DDHCP lease duration only affects how long an IP address assignment is held locally — it has nothing to do with secure remote access.

Answer: A) Each switch port is a separate collision domain, and each VLAN is a separate broadcast domain.

Switches split collision domains, so each port is its own collision domain. VLANs split broadcast domains, so each VLAN is one broadcast domain that can include many ports.

• ACorrect. A switch isolates each port, so with full-duplex links each port is its own collision domain. A VLAN is a logical Layer 2 broadcast domain: a broadcast reaches every port in that VLAN and no port outside it unless a router connects them.
• BIncorrect. This swaps the two terms. A broadcast is flooded to every port in the same VLAN, so a single port isn't its own broadcast domain. Collisions are also limited to each switch port, not the whole VLAN.
• CIncorrect. A single shared collision domain describes a hub, not a switch. VLANs exist to split one switch into several separate broadcast domains.
• DIncorrect. Collision domains end at each switch port, not at the VLAN boundary. A broadcast also stays inside its own VLAN, so the switch isn't one broadcast domain.

Answer: A) WPA3

• AWPA3 is the current wireless security standard, offering stronger encryption and better protection against offline password-guessing attacks than its predecessors.
• BWEP is an old, badly broken protocol that can be cracked in minutes with widely available tools — it should never be used.
• CAn open network provides no encryption at all, leaving all traffic visible to anyone nearby.
• DOriginal WPA with TKIP is outdated and has known weaknesses; WPA3 (or WPA2 as a minimum) is the appropriate modern choice.

Answer: A) It identifies which bits of an IP address are the network part and which are the host part

A subnet mask is a 32-bit value that separates the network and host portions of an IPv4 address, so a host can tell local destinations from remote ones. DHCP, the default gateway and DNS are separate TCP/IP settings with different jobs.

• ACorrect. The subnet mask divides an IPv4 address into a network portion and a host portion. TCP/IP compares the masked addresses to decide whether a destination is on the local subnet or must be sent to a router.
• BIncorrect. Automatic address assignment is done by DHCP. A subnet mask is a configuration value. It does not hand out addresses.
• CIncorrect. That is the default gateway. The subnet mask tells the host whether a destination is remote, but the gateway setting identifies the router that the traffic goes to.
• DIncorrect. Translating names to IP addresses is the job of DNS, not the subnet mask.

Answer: A) A port forwarding rule mapping the game's port to the PC's internal IP

Port forwarding creates a static NAT rule that sends inbound traffic on a chosen port to an internal host's IP address. This lets external clients reach a server behind a home router.

• ACorrect. A port forwarding rule tells the NAT router to send inbound traffic that arrives on a chosen external port to a particular internal IP address and port. Internet players can then reach the PC even though NAT otherwise blocks unsolicited inbound connections.
• BIncorrect. QoS prioritizes traffic that is already flowing, which can reduce lag. It doesn't create a NAT mapping, so inbound connection attempts are still dropped.
• CIncorrect. A DHCP reservation keeps the PC's internal address the same, and that is often done alongside port forwarding. On its own, though, it doesn't tell the router to forward any inbound traffic to the PC.
• DIncorrect. MAC filtering controls which local devices can join the network. It has no effect on whether inbound internet traffic gets through NAT to an internal host.

Answer: A) Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)

• ASTP detects redundant physical paths that would create a loop and logically blocks specific ports to prevent one, while keeping those links available as automatic backups if the active path ever fails — directly preventing the broadcast storms that an unmanaged physical loop causes.
• BDHCP assigns IP addresses to devices; it has no loop-prevention function on a switched network.
• CSNMP monitors device health/status; it doesn't detect or prevent Layer 2 switching loops.
• DNTP synchronizes clocks across devices; it has no relationship to preventing network switching loops.