Thank God it's finally over!!!

I passed Networking Essentials today with a 931. This was my first time taking the exam and was my first step towards the MCSE certificate. I have no background with networking or in computers for that matter so I was glad to pass this with the score I achieved.

I studied for about 5 weeks (I don't work so I spent about 5-6 hrs. every weekday) with the Sybex study guides as well as the CD ROM videos from LearnKey Inc. The CDs were a great source of information and they put in laymen's terminology. I also read about every braindump here as well as scanned the web for any info I felt I needed help on. Also, use the Microsoft PEP practice tests, they are virtually identical to the exam, even down to the blue screen of death.
 

Maybe I just prepared really well, but I didn't think the test was that difficult. It seemed pretty repetitive to me. Here is what I can remember that wasn't in the other braindumps:

ODI and NDIS:
There were only 2 questions on this, both asking the same thing; what is the purpose of ODI and NDIS.

Routers, Brouters, Bridges, Gateways and Repeaters:
It seemed like I got 20 questions about these. They were all about which device operates at what level of the OSI model. You really need to know what each of these devices do and how they go about doing it. Know that a bridge doesn't stop broadcast storms and that routers can combine unlike networks architectures(Ethernet to Token Ring).
I did get a weird question that went something like this:

You have 2 network segments. 1 using IPX/SPX, the other using NetBEUI. You have to combine these networks so that they can access computers on either side. What are you going to use to connect these?

       a) gateway
       b) router
       c) repeater
       d) bridge

At first glance, I went for the router but NetBEUI is not routable, so the only option left is a bridge. I just thought it was a weird question because I have not seen it anywhere. I think the IPX/SPX protocol threw me for a second.
 
Another one I got was this:
 

You need to connect a IBM mainframe with computers using a terminal emulation program. You can't use new software protocols. What will connect these two?

       a) router
       b) repeater
       c) gateway
       d) bridge
As soon as they say you can't add a new protocol, you know you will have to try to combine two different protocols together and the only thing that will translate two different protocols is a gateway.

Scenerio Questions
I got the T1 questions like everyone else with a little twist. The first one was the same everybody gets; You need full redundancy with minimum of 1Mbps, 1Mbps even if 1 link fails. They proposed 2 T1 lines with 2 9600Bps lines as well, this does the required and 1 optional(giving communication even if 1 link fails, even though that link will be slow) but doesn't give 1Mbps to all sites if a link fails.
 The other one gave 16 modems pooled together in a RAS environment. This doesn't even produce 1Mbps so it will not meet the required.

For the record here, I have read peoples braindumps and they make reference to a formula for calculating total bandwidth when pooling modems. The formula (modem speed/8)*100*(# of modems) is not right!!! There is absolutely no reason to multiply by 100. Just find out the number of Bps per modem and multiply by the number of modems pooled.

I also got one that went something like this:
You have a 10baseT network and need to cut down on the utilization by 50%. You need to be able to maintain your current utilization and be able to provide for future expansion. You also need to cut down on costs. Proposed solution: use fiber-optic cable, change all NIC cards and connectivity devices to FDDI.
This does everything but cut the costs, I answered meets required and 2 optionals.

Anyway, I think most of the rest of the questions I seen in the braindumps here. I think as long as you know your terminology and understand the basic concepts of networking, you'll do fine. Good Luck!!!
 
Brian