The CompTIA Network+ certification has become almost a must-have in today's IT world. Over the years, it has added and dropped topics with each iteration, but the current version (N10-006) does an excellent job of testing on a broad range of topical vendor-neutral subjects that a network administrator needs knowledge and understanding of.

The exam is divided into five domains and weighted as follows:

Network Architecture — 22 percent
Network Operations — 20 percent
Network Security — 18 percent
Troubleshooting — 24 percent
Industry Standards, Practices, and Network Theory — 16 percent

There are 90 questions on the actual Network+ certification exam, and 90 minutes in which to complete it. The minimum passing score is 720 on a scale from 100 to 900. To simplify matters, though, we'll pretend there are 100 questions on the exam and this article — as well as the next three — will offer a practice exam mirroring the domain weighting given above.

The following 22 questions (with answers that follow) are based only on topics that appear in the Network Architecture section. Next month, there will 20 questions on Network Operations, followed by 20 on Troubleshooting. The final article will consist of 34 questions combining the Network Security and Industry Standards, Practices and Network Theory domains. Good luck!

1) Evan is in the process of reconfiguring network address translation and wanting to go to a more granular level. What is it known as when address translation is done for specific ports associated with an IP address?

A. Dynamic NAT
B. Port Address Translation
C. SNAT
D. Port Forwarding

2) In the four steps of obtaining IP address information from a DHCP server, which of the following is step three?

A. DHCPDISCOVER
B. DHCPOFFER
C. DHCPREQUEST
D. DHCPPACK

3) Which of the following DNS record types maps a domain name to an email server for that domain?

A. MX
B. SOA
C. CNAME
D. AAAA

4) Layer 2 switches make forwarding decisions based on which of the following:

A. MAC address information
B. Upper level information
C. Destination IP address information
D. Source IP address information

5) What is the total number of collision domains possible on a multilayer switch?

A. None
B. 1 in total
C. 1 per port
D. Unlimited

6) Which of the following devices performs the processor-intensive task of terminating multiple VPN tunnels?

A. VPN concentrator
B. Packet shaper
C. Content filter
D. HIDS

7) Your company is unhappy with their current internet provider and looking for other options and other technologies. What is the typical bandwidth available with T3?

A. 1.544 Mbps
B. 2.048 Mbps
C. 34.4 Mbps
D. 44.736 Mbps

8) Which of the following provides wireless broadband access to fixed locations and mobile devices?

A. LTE
B. WiMAX
C. 2G
D. Edge

9) Which layer 2 protocol commonly used on dedicated leased lines has the capability to use control protocols to simultaneously transmit multiple layer 3 protocols?

A. IPX
B. RIP
C. MetroEthernet
D. PPP

10) Which of the following types of fiber connectors is connected and disconnected by simply pushing or pulling on the connector to/from the terminating device?

A. MTRJ
B. SC
C. ST
D. LC

11) At what level of the OSI model does a hub operate?

A. 3
B. 1
C. 2
D. 4

12) Which of the following topologies requires a complete loop and, because of this, typically has a high amount of cable requirement compared to some other topologies?

A. Ring
B. Star
C. Bus
D. Hybrid

See answers below. For the remaining 10 questions of this quiz, please visit GoCertify.





ANSWERS

1) D
2) C
3) A
4) A
5) C
6) A
7) D
8) B
9) D
10) B
11) B
12) A