Jan. 4th, 1998

Well I passed the Networking Essentials yesterday with a 948 and here’s my 2 cents worth. Std. & Terminology 100%, Planning 100%, Implementation 92%, Troubleshooting 86%, so I must of missed 1 question in Impl. and two in troubleshooting.

This was my first test so I was very nervous. I took it at a new center right by Microsoft so everything was brand new, 17" monitors and very private booths. I read the Sybex book first from cover to cover and then skimmed the MS book, took every sample test I could find and researched every answer in the MS book and did the same with every question on every braindump. The night before the test I reread all the braindumps that I had collected (all 20, I swear I’ve seen every possible question) and the morning of the test I reread "Bob’s NetEss notes" and a couple of the better braindumps. One thing you need to be clear on is the fact that not everything on the braindumps are correct, you’re never sure which questions you missed.

My test started out with very simple questions, the first one was what translates protocols and you had a choice of a repeater, NIC, some other nonsense thing and Gateway. The next question showed a mesh topography and asked what it was and it went on like that for the first 20 questions everyone being very simple and easy, I finished the first 20 in 10 minutes flat, not one troubleshooting, not one scenario, not one on anything hard! I knew I was hitting 100% and was starting to think I would be out of there in less than a half hour with an ace, and then the blue screen of death hit and it was one after another (I ended up with about 15 scenario and 8 troubleshooting and a couple of misc. thrown in. By the end of the test I had marked 24! as unsure and only had 14 minutes to run through them, I ended up changing two but can’t tell you if it hurt or helped. I hadn’t a clue whether I had passed until I hit the end button, It seemed like at least 15 of the last 38 questions had two correct answers. Most of scenario questions came in pairs with the scenarios being identical but with the proposed solution being different. Here’s some of the questions I got.

3 cities with 3 T1 links- meets required and all optional

3 cities with 2 T1 links- meets required only

2 cards set up identically can’t access network?-change to factory settings

card with IRQ 3 setting ? conflicts with com 2

upgrade from 10baseT to 100baseT?- change to category 5 cable

on the NDIS/ODI question all answers are worded weird but choose the one that has the word protocol in it. There are two of these questions but just know it has to do with multiple protocols although they never use the word multiple.

On the two long questions about NetBIOS naming with 20,000 client and servers, required was unique names which must still work after WAN is established, optional must be able to tell server function and user and departments (or something like that) first solution was to use hexadecimal (0 thru 9 a,b,c,d,e,f) that would meet required but not optional. Second was to use 15 characters with part identifying department or server and throw in email address on end, ect. this meets required and all optional.

Tool to identify a faulty network card- Protocol Analyzer

One question that I struggled with was- NT server with 85 NT clients, what monitors network, at the packet level, over time? You have the choice Protocol analyzer or performance monitor. I went back and forth because some of the dumps suggested PM and because we’re talking pure MS products and it is a MS test but I felt the key word was at the packet level so I chose Protocol Analyzer and because everyone says when in doubt choose that. If it would have said server performance over time I would have gone with PM.

Another troubleshooting question shows a diagram of a 10base2 and you test the cable with the following results. Terminators 50ohms, T’s infinity, and cable 0. I said replace cable but other choices were replace terminators (no) replace T’s (maybe).

Two other question about NIC’s (one on Ethernet and one Token ring) not being able to access network and you’re told no IRQ conflict and have they want to know most likely problem. I said wrong transceiver on the Ethernet question and I think I said the same on the token ring, you had that choice or I/O conflict, frame mismatch and wrong driver version. I think now it might be I/O but I’m not sure, I know I only missed 2 troubleshooting questions. The rest of the troubleshooting was all Protocol Analyzer.

Remember when in doubt, protocol analyzer and ATM

Frame relay is band width on demand

Token Ring to Ethernet transfer speed differences is because of FRAME SIZE DIFFERENCES not TCP window or speed of Ethernet.

Changing TCP window sizes will not reduce utilization by 50%. does not meet req.

On the ques. with Macs and 95 clients. Macs can’t use IPX or NWLINK so does not meet require.

High level file protocol is SMP if FTP is not offered. AFP is at presentation so is lower.

Measure bandwidth with Protocol Analyzer.

Question with client with dial up and what protocol could it be using choices are SLIP & PPP chose both.

UNC string remember computer/share

Password on shared resources is less administration than user.

Can’t use RU58U must be 58AU

connection is slower but more reliable than connectionless.

That’s about it, take the assessment exam (at least 5 question showed up) and the 4 exams at http://www.visualmcp.com/ne/default_2asp (at least 10 questions on my test).

Good luck,

Foz