Subject: 70-058 Brain Dump

Yehaaa! Passed Network Essentials on July 24, 1998, my first time out, score of 931.

Study resources:

* MCSE Core Exams in a Nutshell, O'Reilly Books

* Brain Dumps! (essential)

* Cram sites

System tuning:

* use disk striping (with parity, if listed) to improve disk performance

* switches are intelligent hubs, can improve performance on the network

Know when to use routers, bridges and brouters to segment a network.

Remember which protocols are not routable (NetBEUI, LAT, DLC). Gateways can translate between different protocols.

Frame settings are the root of all evil (when dealing with NWLink).

"Wrong transceiver type" is a close second.

One of the three I got wrong: want to monitor network traffic at the packet level. Options included Protocol Analyzer and Performance Monitor. I went with Performance Monitor, thinking it included a Network Monitor. bzzzzzzt! Protocol Analyzer is the correct choice.

Got a ton of scenario questions, including:

* T1 lines connecting 3 cities (3 lines satisfies all requirements and electives, 2 lines only gets the required)

* Provide for 2hr max downtime, data integrity, access tracking and virus protection (look for access logging in the solutions)

* Reduce utilization to 50%

* NetBEUI naming schemes (15-character HEX scheme satisfies the required only, other scheme satisfies all)

Watch the wording on the questions! Several times I almost picked the wrong answer because I glossed over a word. One instance that sticks in my mind was "what does the 802.3 10baseT specify?" Answers included BNC connectors, 50 ohm terminators and UTP. I was stuck until I noticed the "10baseT" in the question.

Know your OSI layers, and what works where. Know SLIP vs PPP (PPP has compression, automatic IP assignment).

Didn't see anything on wireless. Didn't get the "8 28.8 modems" question.

It's fading fast. These pages are invaluable - study them, and you'll see 90% of the test.