CompTIA Network+ Final Assessment

A network engineer is tracing network routes and counting network hops. The engineers ping packet passes through a total of 3 switches and two routers before reaching its target. Determine how many network hops the packet has taken. The TTL is set to 64.

2

A network administrator is configuring a switching network based on the three-tiered hierarchy model used by Cisco. Which tier of Cisco's modular design principles would the administrator most likely install a Layer 2 LAN switch?

Access Layer

A network engineer is performing packet capture on a Gigabit copper cable for analysis and troubleshooting of a large network. The engineer requires a network sniffer that captures all frames (including frames with errors), performs signal regeneration, and is easy to implement with dedicated hardware. Suggest a network sniffer that will fulfill the engineer's requirements.

Active Test Point (TAP)

How can an IPv4 host send packets to all addresses in a particular subnet?

By sending a packet to the network or subnet's last possible IP address according to the last octet

51 here

51here

A network technician is using Nmap to map a corporate network and decides to perform a half-open scan to limit visibility in logs. Select the Nmap argument that will perform this half-open scan.

-sS

A network security engineer is performing network penetration testing. The engineer is using Nmap to make a map of all network devices and wants to identify all host addresses on the network more quickly by skipping OS fingerprinting until after a target machine is selected. Suggest an Nmap switch that will allow the engineer to perform host discovery only.

-sn

An electric power company is onboarding new employees for its IT/network team. The employees will be responsible for managing switches that connect a variety of Internet of Things (IoT) field devices. Determine the most relevant password policy rule to be applied that the network switch requires in order to align with NIST password recommendations for critical infrastructure.

14 Character Minimum Password Length

While conducting an analysis, a network technician is attempting to determine the amount of information that can be transmitted in bits per second (bps). What is the technician attempting to measure?

Bandwidth

A network engineer oversees a network with 4 subnets of 16 IP addresses each. Each subnet will have the same Classless inter-domain routing (CIDR) range of 192.168.x.0/28, such that the first subnet has an IP range of 192.168.1.0-192.168.1.15, and so forth. If the engineer then needed 62 addresses on each subnet, how many mask bits would be represented in the CIDR notation of each subnet after the engineer has increased the IP range to 62?

26

A network specialist is installing a new WiFi 6 access point in a dentists office lobby. The office is a small space with few physical obstacles, and only patients waiting in the lobby are expected to use the AP. There is a lot of interference from legacy devices used by the offices directly above, mostly on the lower channels of the lowest frequencies. Recommend a frequency and channel for the network.

5 Ghz, Channel 40

What is the lowest ANSI/TIA/EIA copper Ethernet cabling category available in the form of shielded/foiled twisted pair (S/FTP), and is often recommended for use in healthcare settings?

6a

Which IEEE wireless standard is designated as using high efficiency (HE), allowing throughput speeds of up to approximately 4800 Mbps over a 5 Ghz channel using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing with Multiple Access (OFDMA) modulation and UL-MIMO beamforming and can potentially reach approximate 10G speeds using a 6 Ghz frequency?

802.11ax

A manufacturing company utilizes multiple access points (APs) spread across its factory. The APs all share an SSID to allow client roaming. Since there are areas where it is difficult to run cabling, a wireless distribution system is used, where the main router is connected to the Internet and the rest are set in repeater mode. What is true about the channels used by the APs?

All APs must use the same channel

A network cabling installer is inspecting existing cabling in an older building on behalf of a local ISP. The cabling connects several branches of 10BASE-T Ethernet to a newer 100BASE-TX trunk. What protocol does the Fast Ethernet standard use that encodes service capabilities into a 16-bit data packet broadcast that allows legacy hosts to choose the highest available connection settings, thus enabling compatibility between the 100BASE-TX and the legacy 10BASE-T?

An Auto-Negotiation Protocol

A network technician is troubleshooting packet collision issues. The network uses Layer 2 Ethernet switches, and only some ports experience collisions. All of the ports that experience collisions are set at half-duplex; however not all half-duplex ports experience collisions. Recommend the next variable for the technician to check that may be causing collisions in a microsegments switch.

Are legacy hubs connected to the switch?

A network security specialist is conducting an investigation into a network compromise. On-path exploits are a form of attack in which a threat actor breaches the link between two hosts and transparently intercepts and relays all communications between them. What are examples of on-path exploits? (Select all that apply.)

Arp Spoofing DNS Cache Poisoning Mac Address Impersonation

A systems administrator is researching an identity and access management (IAM) system to mediate the use of objects by subjects. Which of the following components determines what rights subjects should have on each resource?

Authorization

A network consultant wants to configure their client's system to generate an alert when either a certain type of a given severity has been encountered, or by setting thresholds for performance counters. What is the name of this type of system?

Automated Event Management

A network administrator is with a major company that cannot handle downtime and requires redundancy at every level possible. They need to set up multiple physical routers to serve as a single default gateway for a subnet, but do not want to use a proprietary protocol. Which of the following will help them accomplish this? (Select all that apply.)

CARP VRRP

A network cable installer is installing copper cabling in an office for a new network. The installer needs to close a gap of about 150 ft. ending in an RJ-45 termination. What is the lowest possible category of cable needed to maintain 10 Gigabit Ethernet speeds?

Cat 6

A network cabling installer is installing cable in a senior care center. A distance of about 80 meters (262 feet) must be connected with a single copper twisted-pair Ethernet cable. What is the minimum acceptable class of cable for covering the distance at 10GBASE-T without repeaters?

Cat 6a

A systems administrator is trying to distribute client requests across server nodes in a farm or pool based on application-level data, such as a request for a particular URL. Which of the following should they set up?

Content Switch

A network security practitioner is hardening a corporate network to mitigate the risk from route processor vulnerabilities. Which quality of service (QoS) stack operational layer comprises traffic that keeps the network itself operational, including routing updates, ARP traffic, STP notifications, NTP updates, QoS classification, and link reservation requests?

Control Plane

A company has deployed a large network of PLC devices in its manufacturing facilities. The company has recently laid off several employees who had regular access to the configuration settings of the PLC devices through workstations connected to the PLC firmware through Secure Shell (SSH) sessions authenticated with public key infrastructure (PKI). Plan the proper actions for remediation of the client device and management of the keys associated with the user accounts of the former employees. (Select all that apply.)

Copy new public key to SSH server Regenerate a new key pair on the client device Delete the old public key from the appliance

A network engineer, investigating connection issues being experienced by users, notes that the user clients are able to connect to hosts using an IP address but not using hostnames or URLs. Propose a setting the engineer should check first.

DNS Server Settings

A service provider has terminated a T1 link to a mid-sized company using the T-carrier system. After patching from where the service provider terminated their connection, where would the customer connect for connectivity?

DSU

A small organization is looking at cloud solutions, but does not possess the necessary number of servers to conduct operations or the appropriate number of employees to complete tasks. To support their mission, the organization attempts to provide incentives, such as working from home by using virtual desktops as a means to attract applicants and fulfill computing requirements without owning the required amount of servers. Which cloud model would probably suit the organization best?

DaaS

A network engineer is creating a network diagram based on a list of media access control (MAC) addresses used in a network. At what layer of the OSI model are all hosts identified by a specific MAC address?

Data-Link Layer

How does the TCP/IP protocol suite resolve the machine hardware address of the target IP if the target IP is on a remote network?

Determine the MAC address of the default gateway using ARP cache

A network consultant is wanting to harden the server room from malicious insider attack. One of the consultant's goals is to prevent the attachment of unauthorized client devices. What can the consultant do to mitigate this risk?

Disable Unused Switch Ports

A network is segmented into separate VLANs that are assigned to ports on a managed switch. Users are reporting that network access is down in all of the VLAN segments but one. The network administrator surmises that the main server assigning IP addresses is in the working VLAN and the other VLANs are having issues accessing it, as each VLAN is in a separate broadcast domain. Prescribe an action to take that will enable the segmented VLANs to be assigned IP addresses from across broadcast domains.

Enable DHCP Relay on the Switch

A team of network engineers is using an interior gateway routing protocol that takes into consideration only the number of hops when calculating routes. Recommend an interior gateway routing protocol that calculates routes using a metric weighted on bandwidth cost combined with delay time, and that only sends updates to neighbors when the topology has changed.

Enhanced IGRP (EIGRP)

A network engineer is configuring an Internet of Things (IoT) network that uses multicasting to allow devices to communicate over a VLAN-enabled managed switch. An issue is occurring where the multicast traffic is being flooded across the network as a broadcast, resulting in reduced network performance. Recommend a potential fix for this issue.

Ensure IGMP snooping is enabled at the switch

A network technician is manually configuring speed and duplex settings in a managed switch, in order to define specific speeds for specific devices. After testing the manual configuration of a single test device, the technician notes that the LED indicator corresponding to the port the test device is connected to is blinking amber. Recommend a next step for the technician to investigate.

Ensure cable is plugged into test device and power is on

A network technician is troubleshooting a network issue. The technician has theorized that some evidence may point to a security breach, but the technician is not trained in security and thus cannot be certain. Decide the next step for the technician, according to the CompTIA® Network+® troubleshooting methodology.

Escalate the issue to security staff

A network administrator is installing software that will monitor network performance metrics such as packet loss, jitter, or throughput and send notifications to the administrator if certain thresholds are met. Conclude the type of software the administrator is installing.

Event Management Software

A network specialist is installing a VoIP gateway in an office building that uses a legacy analog phone system. The office managers want to be able to use the old phone handsets and fax machines as well as add new VoIP endpoints but plans to cancel services with the company providing the analog telephone services and replace all legacy voice cabling. Plan a method for providing VoIP services while retaining legacy handsets and fax machines. (Select all that apply.)

Install a VoIP PBX between the VoIP service provider and VoIP endpoints, and a Foreign Exchange Subscriber (FXS) voice gateway connecting legacy hardware to the new PBX Connect new devices to the VoIP PBX and connect that to the legacy telephone network directly through an analog Foreign Exchange Office voice gateway

An enterprise network provides remote database services delivered using a commercial relational database management system (RDBMS) to employees of an architectural firm. To secure the data, TLS encryption is required by both the server and the client. Propose a method of configuring the authentication that will provide for this requirement.

Install certificates on the server and all clients

What advantage does Collision Detection (CD) bring to the carrier-sense multiple access (CSMA) media access control method?

Instant Termination Upon Collision

A company has installed a security device that automatically analyzes the network traffic and system and application logs to identify malicious activity by matching activity patterns to a signature database. The device is configured to alert the network security administrator upon matching a signature but takes no further action. Deduce the device the company has installed.

Intrusion Detection System (IDS)

A technician is tasked with deploying ethernet cable throughout a new wing of the organization's building. Using the various tools available to assist in achieving this requirement, what is the purpose of using a cable crimper?

It is connector specific and used to fix a plug to a cable and create patch cords.

A network specialist is attempting to measure the time, in milliseconds, it takes for a transmission to reach the recipient. What is the specialist attempting to calculate?

Latency

A security analyst is looking at attacks against unencrypted Neighbor Discovery (ND) protocol. What is the attacker most likely trying to accomplish?

Layer 2 Spoofing

A network security administrator wants to begin network hardening with the easiest possible implementations they can perform first. They found that the company only purchases laptops from a specific vendor and plans to continue doing so. What could they implement based on this?

Mac Filtering

A team of network consultants is configuring an Internet of Things (IoT) network. The team is considering network topologies in the context of the IoT devices being used, which are all within 100 meters of one another, are battery-powered, and communicate via the Zigbee protocol. Recommend a network topology that will save power, scale easily to thousands of IoT sensor devices while saving power by cooperating with nearby devices.

Mesh

The network security office is tasked with updating authentication requirements for computer access as it currently uses a single sign-on and password. The office determines that it will begin using the sign-on criteria but add an additional requirement of a code being sent to the employee's personal cell phone to grant authorization to complete access requirements for login. What is the name of this authentication?

Multi-Factor

A network engineer is testing an application over the IPv6 protocol. Determine how the server can cast packets to an entire local subnet.

Multicast to associated private topology

A data center network administrator working for a cloud services company is configuring an SDN that is optimized for east-west traffic. The SDN must be loop-free so that spanning tree protocol is not required, instead utilizing a protocol called Equal Cost Multipathing (ECMP) to distribute traffic between the links to the top-tier switches. Most importantly, all server resources will be on-premises, so the solution should avoid the use of the public Internet and the use of Protocol-Independent Multicast (PIM) protocols, instead establishing private links with guaranteed service levels to operate as an overlay network and configure point-to-point or point-to-multipoint links between nodes without respect to the underlying physical and data link topologies. The SDN must also feature multipath redundancy to allow for load balancing and failover.

Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) with Shortest Path Bridging (SPB)

An IT team responsible for a small corporate network is attempting to increase data throughput to a particular machine from 1 Gbps to 2 Gbps. The machine has two network interface cards. Recommend an Ethernet switching feature to fulfill these requirements.

NIC Teaming

A virtualization specialist is configuring a host-based hypervisor so that software engineers can test their code in a variety of OS and hardware environments from right on their Mac Pro workstations, using a combination of virtualization and emulation techniques. Select a Type II hypervisor that will fulfill the specialists requirements.

Oracle Virtual Box

A team of network engineers are refurbishing copper Ethernet cabling in a FEMA office. The federal government requires that copper twisted pair cabling be terminated according to the T568A standard. To ensure termination is being done according to standard, what color conductor will be wired to the second pin?

Orange

A branch manager of several chain stores has been researching physical security and wants to set up a network of monitored locks, intruder alarms, and video surveillance cameras. What should they set up?

PACS

A network security specialist is using Mitre's Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) list to identify techniques the specialist can then use to actively demonstrate ways vulnerabilities in the network can be exploited by potential adversaries. Discern the security technique the specialist is demonstrating.

Penetration testing

Which Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model layer is responsible for the transmission of bits of data?

Physical

A corporate network is configured with authentication based on digitally signed certificates issued by an approved certificate authority. Select the type of authentication being used.

Public Key infrastructure

A network consultant has just arrived on-premises to address a support ticket regarding several users being unable to log in. Decide which of the following courses of action the consultant should take first.

Question Users

A network administrator is remotely configuring an application on a Windows server. The application configuration screen is graphically based, with checkboxes, dropdown selectors, etc. Determine the protocol the administrator can use that provides a secure graphical user interface (GUI) connection to the remote server.

RDP

A company has been advised by a network consultant to have extra lengths of copper twisted-pair cables with 4 pairs of wires as well as 8-position/8-contact connectors. Assess what type of connector will be required.

RJ-45

A Windows server manager is trying to calculate the amount of data loss that a system can sustain, measured in time units. What is this referred to as?

RPO

An organizational employee contacts the network security office stating that their computer is saying that if $1,000,000 is not paid to a certain bank router in the Cayman Islands, then all server and legacy business data will be deleted. What is the organization experiencing at this moment?

Ransomware

While performing a resiliency test for availability, a technician is trying to calculate the amount of data loss that a system can sustain before the data is unrecoverable if it was targeted by a virus, and just how far back in time from the disaster that would be. What is the technician testing for?

Recovery Point Objective (RPO)

A network consultant is considering potential upgrades for a network that utilizes an edge router that connects to a layer 2 switch, which has ports subinterfaced into multiple VLANs per port. Suggest an upgrade that will increase the efficiency of routing between VLANs by mapping IP addresses to MAC addresses for hardware forwarding.

Replace the Layer 2 switch with a Layer 3 switch

A systems administrator is setting up conferencing servers that they want to be publicly available. What should the system administrator set up for protocol-specific inbound traffic?

Reverse Proxy

A security auditor for a major company is performing a compliance audit in accordance with their companies' policy. They are currently assessing the likelihood and impact (or consequence) of a threat actor exercising a vulnerability. What is this referred to as?

Risk

A systems administrator is configuring a server for email services. Which protocol or protocol command is also referred to as implicit TLS?

SMTPS

A server manager has just been hired and they notice that sometimes servers are set up in different ways and some important steps end up getting missed. They want to set out the principal goals and considerations, such as budget, security, or customer contact standards, for performing a task and identify lines of responsibility and authorization for performing it. What should they set up to do this?

SOP

A technician is installing a new file server and several printers on a small Windows office network that also contains several legacy Windows XP desktops and legacy printers that the office managers have insisted must remain. Evaluate the protocol and port required for the file share server to be available to all devices on the network, including legacy devices.

Sever Message Block (SMB), TCP port 139

A network administrator is installing hundreds of Internet of Things (IoT) sensor devices at a corporate facility. While each sensor device can be accessed and configured separately, the administrator requires a centralized remote management framework that can perform regular device polling as well as configurable thresholds for triggering notifications when events like port failure occur. Suggest an agent-based framework the administrator can use to fulfill these monitoring and remote management requirements.

Simple Network Management Protocol

A network engineer has configured a network with a tiered mesh topology with multiple redundant links, causing an entire switch segment to become unusable until being reset. What layer 2 protocol packages data into bridge protocol data unit (BPDU) multicast frames and routes based on a ranked hierarchy of switches in order to prevent loops?

Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)

A mid-sized company is looking at the ability for workers to work from home more often after a recent pandemic. They want the users to be able to connect back to the corporate network but don't want to overwhelm the internal network with all traffic from the remote users. Which of the following connections would be the best option?

Split Tunnel VPN

A military installation is upgrading its network infrastructure. Which fiber optic connector type developed by AT&T used to be very common for multimode networks in commercial or military installations due to its quick-connecting bayonet, but is no longer considered standard when retrofitting?

Straight Tip (ST)

An internet user types a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) into the URL bar of the Google Chrome web browser. Chrome then checks its local cache for the correct mapping before querying the local name server. Evaluate the role of the Chrome web browser in this scenario.

Stub Resolver

A network consultant is asked to install environmental sensors on the organization's server to monitor conditions in the server rack. Which of the following factors need monitoring? (Select all that apply.)

Temperature Humidity Electrical

A network engineer is configuring a local intranet for a large manufacturing company that uses a DNS server on its network to resolve internal and external queries while keeping internal IP addresses private. The engineer sets both UDP port 53 and TCP port 53 on the primary name resolution server to allow larger DNS record transfers. Select the situations that would require larger DNS record transfers over TCP. (Select all that apply.)

The DNS server is utilizing a security protocol such as DNSSEC. The network deploys IPv6 addressing.

A network engineer is planning static routes through an IPv6-enabled network. The engineer has configured the network so that each device or interface is represented by a 64 bit Interface ID. Which section of how many bits of a IPv6 address can the Interface ID be found?

The Last 64 Bits

A manufacturing plant, that is closed on weekends, employs a full-time network administrator to oversee the network at the plant. The network administrator is testing and recording network performance baselines and notices a throughput bottleneck is occurring on the same network when a team is using analytical software to retrieve volumes of data for testing. Provide the best guess for diagnosing the bottleneck?

The bottleneck is being caused by usage patterns of an entire group of users

A network engineer is troubleshooting a packet loss issue on a small corporate Internet of Things (IoT) network. The issue began occurring after a legacy device was added to the network, and the engineer has noted that the MTU size on the router is less than the default 1500, at 750 MTU. Propose a likely cause of the packet loss by the legacy device.

The legacy device does not support fragmentation

A network engineer is conducting an assessment of the organization's system to look for any potential opportunity for someone or something to exploit a vulnerability and breach security. What type of assessment is being conducted?

Threat

A network technician is using traceroute on a corporate network to make use of ICMP "Time Exceeded" in order to identify routers along a delivery path. Determine the TCP/IP feature that traceroute uses to accomplish this.

Time To Live (TTL) header field

(37) The PBQ with the channel interference and SSID you enter

To configure an Extended Service Set (ESS): Set all Access Points (APs) to broadcast the same SSID. Channel Selection: Use channel 7 for all APs and repeaters to ensure uniformity and avoid interference. Roaming Aggressiveness for Wireless Clients: Isolated Areas: Low roaming aggressiveness to reduce unnecessary scanning. Areas with Multiple APs: Medium roaming aggressiveness to balance connectivity and stability. Critical Devices: High roaming aggressiveness to maintain the strongest possible connection, with the caveat of potential flapping.

A magazine editor has hired a team of network consultants to install and configure a new network. The network will be a tiered switching network with several VLAN trunks. The editor owns a particular device that is able to access all employee VLANs. Decide where the editor's device should be connected in order to access multiple VLANs.

Trunk port on distribution layer switch

A public school is installing a new two-way intercom system using raspberry-pi based devices as endpoints. Because of the real-time nature of the transmitted data, some packet loss is acceptable, while latency is not. Recommend a layer 4 transport protocol that will be best suited for no-acknowledgment, low-latency broadcast, or multicast traffic that will ignore lost packets.

UDP

As an organization is preparing for an upcoming inclement weather season, the server team has been asked to introduce a device to their server room that will provide a temporary power source solely to the server in the event of a blackout. This protection will ensure that the server is protected from spiking electrical charges associated with the incremental current. What is the name of this device?

UPS

Based on the scenario, drag the appropriate routing devices to the network areas, then use the checkboxes and dropdown Based on the scenario, drag the appropriate routing devices to the network areas, then use the checkboxes and dropdown selectors to configure the various network device settings. Select "N/A" for not applicable.

WAN Gateway Setup: Connects to Internet via WAN port. No static route/forwarding needed. DHCP enabled to receive IP from ISP. Static IP set with 0 in the fourth octet. Home AP Setup: Connects to WAN gateway LAN1 port. Subnet starts at x.x.x.1. DHCP enabled. Home router has static IP at x.x.1.1. Office Network Setup: VLAN2 assigned to LAN4 port on WAN gateway. Office router's WAN port connected to LAN4. Office network shares subnet with Home AP. DHCP off on office router. Static route from office router to home AP. Office router has a static IP. DMZ and Server Configuration: Office server in DMZ on x.x.x.2 subnet. DMZ allows home device access but hides them from office network. Office server is the domain controller. Office router forwards traffic to home AP.

A security administrator receives an alert about a possible attack against the SAE protocol. Which wireless authentication mechanism uses this?

WPA3

A network technician is planning for a mesh network and is testing the hop count for a packet to get from one network device to another. Recommend a tool that can be used to measure the final hop count received from ICMP packet requests that is available on Linux.

traceroute