Subject: Networking Essentials

I took the exam today and scored what would probably be my all time high of 965. My hat is off to all you guys and gals who shared your recent experiences. Now here is my two cents on today's exam:

I had one question that went something like the following...this is a high level protocol used for netbios file sharing it gave a list of about seven protocols TCP, IP, ipx, dlc, smb, afp, and I can't remember the rest but just be sure you know what level of the OSI model these work at and something of what they do.

One on connection oriented and connectionless and you have to chose all that apply that are reliable delivery.

Couple about which protocol supports compression SLIP or PPP.

One on user level security and share level security and it said choose all that apply of which you had those two choices.

One on which OS supports share level security and it gave Win 4 Workgroups, Windows 95, NT Workstation, and NT Server.

One question about why does it take longer to move a certain files from token to Ethernet than it does from Ethernet to token ring. I chose C which was token ring packet size was larger than the Ethernet and I have to give thanks to Scott (17.1.98) for explaining that one in detail.

I had about 5 questions dealing with trouble shooting a network about 4 of which I chose protocol analyzer and the fifth I chose SNMP Management Base. The one for SNMP asked which device would you use to manage and monitor repeaters, routers, and bridges and the keyword to me in this question was manage since you are supposed to be able to controls such devices with SNMP.

Remember - 10base2 uses Coaxial 58A/U.

For a bus network end should be terminated, but only one end of each segment should be grounded. I got this info from one of the transcender exams.

One question on the purpose of NDIS and ODI.

I had a couple of question about reducing network utilization by 50%, one of which talked about reducing TCP/IP windows size and increasing the Ethernet frame size or something similar. I ignored this part and focused on the fact that they wanted to reduce the packet size which to me means you are going to increase network traffic and I chose that the solution does not meet the required result.

One on which technology provides speeds of 100mbps and it had ATM, ISDN, and T3 and one other; the answer was definitely ATM.

One about you need a protocol to transmit data reliably even when the connection is not reliable and I chose X.25.

It had one before that about which protocol provides bandwidth as needed and you had X.25 and frame relay. I chose frame relay. It did have two other choices that did not apply.

I had a question about measuring the bandwidth of a network or new server and I chose protocol analyzer since I focused on the part that mentioned bandwidth.

One about which protocol uses distance vector algorithm of which the only obvious answer was RIP.

I had one about needing to use a protocol in a peer to peer network and NetBEUI was not a choice. I chose NWLINK IPX.

I had 2 or 3 question about installing a network card and your PC won't boot what could be the problem? I chose IRQ conflict.

I had a couple questions, which definitely required you to know your default IRQ's.

A question on why Sally (or somebody) can't connect to the network but everyone else can. Actually there were about 3 trouble shooting questions of this type.

A question on 100Mb Ethernet uses which type of cable of which the only two close choices were Fiber and CAT 5 UTP. I chose the CAT 5.

There were a few questions where you need to know the differences between routers, gateways, repeaters, bridges, and brouters.

That's about all I can remember some of the scenario questions I had were similar to what other people read in previous brain dumps. In studying for my exam I used the following resources:

• Transcender v2.5
• MS Press Networking Essentials
• Sybex Networking Essentials
• Exam Cram Networking Essentials - I thought this book was quite good since it seemed to be a condensed version of the MS Press book. This book really helped me out by having end of the chapter scenario questions that gave me better insight to answering Microsoft's scenario questions. It reads pretty well and I think it had just as much if not more information than the Sybex book. They have great questions in this book. The transcender definitely helps you see where you stand and gives you good info. And most helpful of all was feed back from those of you who have taken this exam.

Thanks!