I passed the Networking Essentials exam on January 27, 1998 with a score of 965 (the two I got wrong were in Troubleshooting). This was my second attempt at this exam. The first time I failed with a 707. The first test was like a nightmare. Despite studying for over a month (Microsoft SSK, Transcenders and Exam Cram), I was clueless on many questions. After a suitable period of mourning for my crushed ego, I bought the Sybex book and began another month of studying. This time, I scoured the net for all the questions I could find. I downloaded literally hundreds of pages of brain dumps. From these, I found maybe a hundred good questions. I answered these, researching where necessary. When I sat down for my second exam, I was pleasantly surprised that they were all the same questions I had studied. As my score indicates, I breezed through and now am moving on to NT Server.

The exam I took contained no questions on wireless and none on the OSI model (so much for all that memorizing!). There were several questions on NDIS (what is its purpose, what is it used for). The answers were vague and wordy. I read them through several times and was able to pinpoint the correct answers (I had put emphasis on studying this before the exam).

Following are a bunch of questions that were on the exam. The exact wording no doubt differs from what you’ll see on the Sylvan screen, but it’s close enough:

1. Setting: Major WAN network with e-mail will be connected to your company. Required result: To create NetBIOS names for the server and clients that would work and stay unique when you connect to the WAN. Optional results: To be able to distinguish the server name, computer name and department name through the NetBIOS name. Solution: Use a unique hexadecimal number for each computer. (Satisfies required only)
2. Setting: Major WAN network with e-mail will be connected to your company. Required result: To create NetBIOS names for the server and clients that would work and stay unique when you connect to the WAN. Optional results: To be able to distinguish the server name, computer name and department name through the NetBIOS name. Solution: Use a number that designates a certain number of digits for the department, another few for the user’s name, another few for the computer name. And link the NetBIOS name with the e-mail address. (Satisfies all)
3. Which replaces analog: Primary Rate ISDN or Basic Rate ISDN? (Basic)
4. Which server provides the processing power (speed) for a client (to run an application)? File server or application server - choose all that are correct. (App)
5. What cable should be used for 100 Mbps considering cost and length? Fiber optic, UTP CAT 5, others. (The actual question is more precise)
6. Exhibit: A 10Base2 network with RG 58 A/U cable, containing a server segment. One end is terminated, the other grounded and terminated. The network is not working well. Should you: change cable (58 A/U), ground the other terminator or arrange the cable not to exceed a certain length?
7. Exhibit: A 10Base2 network with RG 58 A/U cable. Both ends are terminated and grounded. The network is not working well. Should you: change cable (58 A/U), ground the other terminator or arrange the cable not to exceed a certain length?

8. Modems scenario: Can you use RAS Server with 16 modems on each server (3 servers) to use as connections between locations to dial up each other? How to get over 1 Mbps? You need fault tolerance. (I didn’t have this one, much to my relief)
9. Ethernet Network is not functioning. You use DVM to check: cable, between the core and the shield: 0 ohm, T connector: infinite, Terminators both 50 ohms. What do you do: (a) replace the T (b) replace the cable (c) replace the network cards (d) replace the terminator. (I said replace cable)
10. How to measure network traffic (log network activity) on a packet basis? (a) meter (b) TDR (c) protocol analyzer (d) oscilloscope. (PA)
11. How to measure traffic over time? Protocol analyzer, TDR, oscilloscope? (PA)
12. With which device(s) can you measure the bandwidth of a new installation site? • Volt meter • Network Analyzer • TDR • Oscilloscope. (I had this on test 1, not test 2)
13. What of the following would you replace? You tested the RG 58 A/U cable from center to edge and it read 0 ohm to infinite. You tested the T connector and it read 0 ohm. You tested the terminator and it read 50 ohm. What does it indicate? Short? Change cable?
14. A computer can access network resources sometimes, not always; same thing happened to others; network uses RG 58 U and RG 58 A/U cables. How can this be fixed?
15. You have a mixed DOS, UNIX, NT network. New NT server, UNIX boxes only can’t see it. What is problem? (protocol mismatch)
16. Scenario: You have a large network (700+ computers) including NT Server servers and Win95 clients. You want to implement security on network resources while minimizing administration. Which method should you implement? (a) peer-to-peer with user-level security (b) peer-to-peer with resource-level security (for some reason the term "share-level security never appeared anywhere on the exam; it was always described as resource or network resource, etc.) (c) centralized user accounts with user-level security (d) centralized user accounts with resource-level security
17. You have a network with the data on the servers, in a separate room, NTFS and a lot more good things. Required: You have to ensure hardware reliability with 2 hours downtime acceptable, assure data protection, fault tolerance. Optional: Protection against virus on network shares; logged tracking of network resource access (data access tracking); protection against password guessing programs. Solution: Daily backups, UPS, disk striping with parity, 40 day password change policy, server locked in closet, etc., granting user access, virus scans plus more stuff but not auditing.
18. You have a network with the data on the servers, in a separate room, NTFS and a lot more good things. 2 hours downtime acceptable. Required: You have to assure data protection, fault tolerance. Optional: Protection against virus, data access tracking. Solution: Doing backups, granting user access, virus scans and RAID 1 plus more stuff and auditing.
19. Network performance in accessing the server is decreasing. Performance Monitor results show %Processor Time = 8%, Page Faults = 2/second and Disk Utilization = 25%. How should you increase performance?
20. Which of the following can provide a WAN link with digital voice, data and video? ATM, T1? (ATM)
21. What Topology is this (Exhibit) 5 PCs each linked to each other (looks like Star of David)? (mesh)
22. You’ve set up a PC and it inserts into the ring but you can’t see some of the servers. What is the problem?
23. Which is used for at least 100 Mbps? ATM, X.25, 52 Kbps Digital Line? (ATM)
24. What does Back End processing? Application server, file server, both?
25. What protocols are routable? What protocols are not routable?
26. Scenario: You have a mixed network of Win 95 and Mac workstations. You use brouters between the LANs and you use multiple protocols (IPX, TCP/IP, AppleTalk, NetBEUI). Main: You must reduce network traffic (broadcasts) without altering functionality. Solution: remove every protocol except IPX and disable bridging on the brouters. (Does not meet required)
27. What can a network with 10 Windows NT Workstations implement to share/protect files? (a) user level security (the wording is not straight forward) (b) share level access.
28. You have a 200 node LAN using TCP/IP and NetBEUI. You want to segment it into 3 subnets and be able to use both protocols. What connectivity device would you use? Repeater, bridge, router, brouter, gateway. (brouter)
29. What protocol measures hops between routers to determine the best paths between locations on a network? (RIP - not any of the ten other choices)
30. Your company has 3 locations: Chicago, Atlanta and Los Angeles. You would like to set up a WAN solution to enable communication between the offices. Required results: Transfer speed of at least 1 Mbps and assurance that communication between the 3 locations will not suffer if one link fails. Proposed solution: Install two T1 lines, one between Chicago and Atlanta, one between Atlanta and LA. (meets required only)
31. Your company has 3 locations: Chicago, Atlanta and Los Angeles. You would like to set up a WAN solution to enable communication between the offices. Required results: Transfer speed of at least 1 Mbps and assurance that communication between the 3 locations will not suffer if one link fails. Proposed solution: Install three T1 lines, one between Chicago and Atlanta, one between Atlanta and LA, one between LA and Chicago. (meets all)
32. What is the purpose of NDIS?
33. Which limitation are NDIS and Novell ODI designed to overcome? (a) The need to dynamically bind a single protocol to multiple MAC drivers in order to support more than one network operating system. (b) The need for proprietary network interface drivers for each network operating system and protocol. (c) Monolithic protocols do not conform to the OSI model. (d) Monolithic protocols cannot be loaded into the upper memory area.
34. Network performance reports a large number of broadcast storms. The network uses NetBEUI. What is the best thing to do: (a) use router to segment the network (b) use bridge to segment the network (c) use gateway to segment the network (d) use router and TCP/IP instead of NetBEUI.
35. You have a 200 node LAN using TCP/IP and you want to segment it into 3 subnets. What should you use? Repeater, bridge, router or gateway?
36. What device should be used to connect an Ethernet LAN to an IBM mainframe?
37. You have an Ethernet LAN connected to a token ring LAN. You are only running IPX/SPX and you want to use IPX/SPX addressing to filter data. What should you use: .repeater, .bridge, .router, .gateway.
38. You have 5 Win 95 clients in a peer-to-peer network. What is the protocol used? (a) NFS (b) NWLink (c) DLC (d) PPP.
39. Your network is using multiple protocols (AppleTalk, NetBEUI, TCP/IP, NWLink) for MACS, NetWare, Unix, PCs. There is excessive network traffic and poor performance. How can you reduce network traffic and improve performance? Choose only one protocol for the network. There should be minimal degradation of machine functionality as a result of the protocol change. Choices: (a) AppleTalk (b) NetBEUI (c) TCP/IP (d) NWLink.
40. Scenario: Network traffic increases from 30% to 70% in a 10BaseT network. Required: Reduce network traffic to 50%. Optional: Reduce cost, not affecting administration or functions. Proposed: Change all Ethernet components to Ethernet switches?
41. Scenario: Network of bla bla...... and you want to reduce usage by 50%. Desired: minimized cost and room for expansion. Solution replace 10baseT cards, cable, hubs with that of 100BaseT.
42. Network Utilization, Part 2: You have 10 NT servers and 200 clients using Win 95 with TCP/IP as the protocol in a 10BaseT network. You need to reduce network utilization (traffic) by 50% on the network. Proposed solution: Reduce the default Ethernet frame size from 1,514 bytes to 768 bytes and raise (increase) the default (TCP/IP) window size from 4,000 bytes to 16k.
43. Where do repeater, bridge, router and gateway sit on the OSI model?
44. How to connect two LANs with different protocols?
45. What connectivity device should be used on 10BaseT to connect a 500m segment?
46. There is a new PC which cannot connect to the network. There is no IRQ conflict and network protocols are correct. The frame type of the network card is correct. What will you do first to fix the problem? (a) replace the network card (b) use other protocol (c) replace the driver version (d) check the base memory address.
47. You have to set up 2 computers to connect to the network. All components IRQ's are set to default value. You have to set up both NIC with the following: MAC address = 0114AS558957; IRQ = 5; I/O Base Memory = 300. The computers are not able to communicate on the network. What should you do? (A) Change IRQ5 to IRQ3; (B) Change MAC address to manufacturer's default; (C) Change I/O Base address to 320 (D) Check for loose connections. (restore MAC addresses)
48. A client's computer connected to an IPX network, NetWare initialization OK but still cannot talk to the network: What is the problem?
49. Which of the following supports compression and error control? PPP, SLIP?
50. Which protocols allow computers to use dial-up connections? PPP, SLIP?