Subject: braindump on 70-058 (net ess)

Passed the Networking Essentials exam with a perfect score- Yoohoo! Here are some tips:

1) Reducing the ethernet frame size and increasing the TCP/IP window size does not reduce network utilization by 50%. If anything, it will increase network traffic, because there are now more frames, and each frame has overhead, such as headers and CRC.

2) Scenario with brouters, multiple protocols (IPX, TCP/IP, Appletalk, NetBEUI, etc). You have to reduce broadcasts. Clients are Windows 95 and Mac workstations. Solution: remove every protocol except IPX and disable bridging on the brouters. This does not fulfill the requirement because the MAC workstations can't communicate with just IPX.

3) Know the IRQs- especially the comm ports.

4) Know that you can't do user level sharing on Windows 95 unless there is an NT or Novell server on the Network from which the 95 workstation can obtain the user list.

5) Which device can translate protocols? gateway

6) Know at which level of the OSI model devices operate- bridge (data link), router (network), repeater (physical), gateway (transport, session, presentation, application).

7) Know about connection (reliable) and connectionless (fast, but unreliable) modes

8) When in doubt about WAN questions, choose ATM (packet-switched, allows for transmission speeds above 100Mbps of data, voice, or video).

9) When in doubt about troubleshooting tools choose protocol analyzer (can inspect network traffic, locate malfunctioning network adapters, inspect at packet level, etc)

10) Know the different cable types (their max length and bandwidth and for which LAN topology they are used)

11) Know the different LAN topologies (hint: especially mesh) and their advantages and disadvantages- for example, bus topology is easy to install, but break in cable can bring down the whole segment.

12) 10base2 can only use RG58 A/U cable. It is not compatible with RG58 /U cable.

13) Resistance measurements: coax cable end to end(50 ohms), T-connector (infinite ohms), terminator (50 ohms), coax cable center to edge (infinite ohms)

14) Know that if there is a problem with network using IPX its probably the frame type.

Well, I hope these hints help people. For me that's 4 down and 2 to go. Next is TCP/IP on NT4. If anyone has any tips, be kind and email me.