220-1201 Practice Exam 56 — 20 Questions

Question 1

A technician is installing a power supply in a new build. The case has a bottom-mounted PSU bay with a dust filter. The technician notices that the PSU fan faces downward. Is this correct?

Accepted Answer

Yes, the fan should face downward to draw cool air from outside the case.. In a bottom-mounted PSU configuration, the fan should face downward to draw cool air from outside the case through the dust filter. This improves cooling efficiency and reduces dust buildup inside the case.

Answer

No, the fan should face upward to exhaust hot air from inside the case.

Answer

No, the PSU should be mounted fan-up to prevent dust from entering.

Answer

The orientation does not matter as long as the PSU is securely mounted.

Question 2

A technician is troubleshooting a VoIP phone that cannot register with the SIP server. The phone has a valid IP address and can ping the server. Which port should be verified as open for SIP traffic?

Accepted Answer

Port 5060. SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) uses UDP or TCP port 5060 by default for signaling between endpoints and the SIP server. Since the phone has a valid IP and can ping the server, the issue is likely a firewall blocking port 5060, preventing registration.

Answer

Port 80

Answer

Port 443

Answer

Port 1720

Question 3

A user reports that their computer is making a loud grinding noise and then shuts down after a few minutes. The CPU temperature is normal at idle. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

CPU fan bearing failure. A grinding noise typically indicates a mechanical bearing failure in a fan. The CPU fan may still spin but fail under load, causing overheating and shutdown. This scenario tests the ability to correlate auditory symptoms with hardware failure.

Answer

Hard drive failure

Answer

Power supply fan failure

Answer

Loose CPU cooler

Question 4

A small office uses a wireless printer that supports Wi-Fi Direct. Several employees want to print from their smartphones without connecting to the company's wireless network. What is the simplest way to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Use the printer's Wi-Fi Direct feature to connect each phone directly.. Wi-Fi Direct allows devices to connect peer-to-peer without a traditional wireless access point. Since the printer supports Wi-Fi Direct, each smartphone can connect directly to the printer's own Wi-Fi Direct network, enabling printing without joining the company's wireless network. This is the simplest method because it requires no additional hardware or network configuration.

Answer

Connect the printer to the office router via Ethernet.

Answer

Enable the printer's Bluetooth and pair each phone.

Answer

Install a USB hub and connect all phones to the printer.

Question 5

A small office reports that internal users can access the internet but cannot resolve domain names to IP addresses. The DNS server is configured correctly. Which port should be checked on the firewall?

Accepted Answer

Port 53. Port 53 is the standard port for DNS traffic, used for both TCP and UDP. Since internal users can access the internet but cannot resolve domain names, the firewall is likely blocking outbound DNS queries on port 53, preventing the client from reaching the DNS server even though the server itself is configured correctly.

Answer

Port 80

Answer

Port 443

Answer

Port 67

Question 6

A customer wants to set up a home network that supports the fastest possible speeds for streaming 4K video and gaming, with support for multiple devices. They have a cable modem that supports up to 1 Gbps. Which wireless standard should you recommend for the new router?

Accepted Answer

802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6). 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) is the correct recommendation because it offers the highest theoretical data rates (up to 9.6 Gbps aggregate), improved efficiency in dense environments via OFDMA and MU-MIMO, and lower latency, all of which are critical for streaming 4K video and gaming on multiple devices. It also provides backward compatibility with older Wi-Fi standards while maximizing throughput over the existing 1 Gbps cable modem connection.

Answer

802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5)

Answer

802.11n (Wi-Fi 4)

Answer

802.11g (Wi-Fi 3)

Question 7

During a site survey, a technician needs to measure the signal strength of a wireless access point from various locations in an office to ensure adequate coverage. Which tool should be used for this task?

Accepted Answer

Wi-Fi analyzer. A Wi-Fi analyzer is the correct tool because it is specifically designed to measure wireless signal strength (RSSI), channel utilization, and interference from access points. During a site survey, the technician uses a Wi-Fi analyzer to collect real-time signal data from various locations, ensuring adequate coverage and identifying dead zones or co-channel interference.

Answer

Multimeter

Answer

Spectrum analyzer

Answer

Cable tester

Question 8

A small office has a single internet connection and needs to allow multiple internal devices to share that connection. The router's public IP is assigned by the ISP. Which network service must be enabled on the router to allow internal devices to communicate with external servers?

Accepted Answer

NAT. NAT (Network Address Translation) is required because it allows multiple internal devices with private IP addresses to share a single public IP address assigned by the ISP. When internal devices send traffic to external servers, NAT translates the private source IP and port to the router's public IP and a unique port, enabling responses to return to the correct internal host. Without NAT, the router would drop packets from private addresses destined for the internet, as they are not routable on the public internet.

Answer

DHCP

Answer

DNS

Answer

PAT

Question 9

A technician is troubleshooting a network where users can access the internet but cannot reach a specific internal web server by its hostname. The server's IP is 10.0.0.5, and pinging 10.0.0.5 works. The technician checks the DNS server and finds an A record for the server's name pointing to 10.0.0.10. What is the most likely issue?

Accepted Answer

The DNS A record is incorrect. The DNS A record maps the server's hostname to 10.0.0.10, but the server's actual IP is 10.0.0.5. Since pinging the IP works, the network path to the server is functional; the failure to reach it by hostname is due to DNS resolving to the wrong address. This is a classic DNS misconfiguration where the A record does not match the server's assigned IP.

Answer

The DHCP server assigned the wrong IP to the server

Answer

The router's port forwarding is misconfigured

Answer

The server's firewall is blocking DNS queries

Question 10

A user reports that their desktop computer cannot connect to the internet, but other devices on the same network work fine. You check the patch cable from the wall jack to the PC and find it is a Cat5e cable. The PC's network adapter shows a link light, but no activity. What should you do first?

Accepted Answer

Check the IP address configuration on the PC to see if it has a valid address.. The link light indicates Layer 1 (physical) connectivity is present, so the cable and switch port are likely functional. The lack of activity suggests the PC is not successfully communicating at Layer 3, often due to an incorrect or missing IP address. Checking the IP configuration (e.g., with `ipconfig` or `ifconfig`) is the logical first step to verify if the PC has a valid address from DHCP or is set to an APIPA range (169.254.x.x), which would prevent internet access.

Answer

Replace the Cat5e cable with a Cat6 cable.

Answer

Reboot the switch in the wiring closet.

Answer

Replace the network adapter in the PC.

Question 11

A customer reports that their laptop can connect to the internet at home via Wi-Fi, but at a coffee shop it cannot connect to the guest network. They have not changed any settings. Which network type is most likely causing this issue?

Accepted Answer

Local Area Network (LAN). (LAN) is correct because the coffee shop's guest network is a Local Area Network (LAN) that the laptop must join via Wi-Fi. Since the laptop works at home but not at the coffee shop, the issue is likely with the LAN configuration—such as a mismatched SSID, security type (e.g., WPA2 vs. WPA3), or IP address assignment (DHCP) on that specific LAN. The user's unchanged settings may not be compatible with the coffee shop's LAN setup.

Answer

Personal Area Network (PAN)

Answer

Wide Area Network (WAN)

Answer

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)

Question 12

A technician is setting up a wireless network for a home office that requires the fastest possible speeds for streaming 4K video. The router supports 802.11ac and has three antennas. Which configuration will yield the highest throughput?

Accepted Answer

Use the 5 GHz band with MIMO enabled and a channel width of 80 MHz.. 802.11ac operates exclusively on the 5 GHz band, and combining MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) with an 80 MHz channel width maximizes throughput by increasing spatial streams and spectral bandwidth. This configuration supports the high data rates required for 4K video streaming, typically exceeding 1 Gbps aggregate throughput.

Answer

Set the router to 802.11n mode only.

Answer

Enable 40 MHz channel width on the 2.4 GHz band.

Answer

Disable SSID broadcast to reduce overhead.

Question 13

A technician is configuring a high-performance workstation for scientific simulations that require large amounts of RAM. The motherboard has eight DDR4 slots and supports quad-channel memory. The technician installs four 16 GB sticks in the correct slots for quad-channel mode. After booting, the system reports 64 GB of RAM but only runs in dual-channel mode. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The installed CPU only supports dual-channel memory.. Quad-channel memory requires a compatible CPU that supports quad-channel architecture. Most consumer CPUs (like Intel Core i7/i9) only support dual-channel, even if the motherboard has four slots. Server or HEDT (High-End Desktop) CPUs are needed for quad-channel.

Answer

The RAM sticks are not identical in speed and timings.

Answer

The motherboard BIOS needs to be configured to enable quad-channel mode.

Answer

The RAM is installed in the wrong slots for quad-channel operation.

Question 14

A school district with five elementary schools spread across a city needs to connect each school's LAN to a central data center for internet access and shared resources. Which network type should connect the schools to the data center?

Accepted Answer

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN). A Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) is designed to interconnect multiple LANs across a city or metropolitan region, typically using high-speed fiber optic links such as Metro Ethernet or SONET/SDH. This makes it the ideal choice for connecting five elementary schools spread across a city to a central data center, as it covers a larger geographic area than a LAN but is more localized than a WAN.

Answer

Local Area Network (LAN)

Answer

Wide Area Network (WAN)

Answer

Personal Area Network (PAN)

Question 15

A customer reports that their new Gigabit Ethernet connection is only achieving 100 Mbps speeds. The cable run is 75 meters through a drop ceiling and uses a Cat5e cable. What is the most likely cause of the speed limitation?

Accepted Answer

The cable is actually Cat5, not Cat5e.. Cat5e is rated for Gigabit Ethernet (1000BASE-T) up to 100 meters. However, if the cable is actually Cat5 (not Cat5e), it is only certified for 100 Mbps (100BASE-TX) at that distance. The 75-meter run is within spec for Cat5e, so the most likely cause is that the installed cable is Cat5, which cannot reliably support 1000BASE-T.

Answer

The cable is too long for Cat5e.

Answer

The cable is shielded and causing interference.

Answer

The network switch port is faulty.

Question 16

A user on a corporate iPhone cannot receive push notifications from the company's email app, even though notifications are enabled in the app settings. Other apps on the phone receive notifications normally. What should the technician check first?

Accepted Answer

Check the notification settings for the email app in iOS Settings.. The problem is isolated to a single app (the email app) while other apps receive notifications normally. This indicates the issue is not with the device's system-wide notification settings (like Do Not Disturb) but rather with the app-specific notification permissions within iOS Settings. The technician should first check the notification settings for the email app in iOS Settings to ensure that 'Allow Notifications' is toggled on and that the desired alert styles (e.g., banners, sounds, badges) are configured correctly, as these settings override any in-app notification preferences.

Answer

Verify that the device is not in Do Not Disturb mode.

Answer

Reinstall the email app to reset its configuration.

Answer

Update the iPhone to the latest iOS version.

Question 17

A network administrator needs to determine the exact model and firmware version of a switch located in a remote wiring closet without physically visiting the site. The switch is configured with an IP address on the management VLAN. Which tool can be used to query the switch's SNMP agent for this information?

Accepted Answer

SNMP management tool. An SNMP management tool can query the switch's SNMP agent using GET requests to retrieve the exact model and firmware version from the system MIB (RFC 1213), specifically the sysDescr (1.3.6.1.2.1.1.1) and sysObjectID (1.3.6.1.2.1.1.2) OIDs. This allows remote, agent-based access without physical site visits, as the switch is reachable via its management VLAN IP address.

Answer

Packet analyzer (e.g., Wireshark)

Answer

Port scanner (e.g., Nmap)

Answer

Wi-Fi analyzer

Question 18

A technician is troubleshooting a network drop that was working yesterday but now has no link light. The cable run is 90 meters and uses Cat5e. The patch cables and switch ports have been tested and are fine. What is the most likely issue?

Accepted Answer

The cable has been cut or damaged.. Since the cable run is 90 meters (within the 100-meter maximum for Cat5e), the patch cables and switch ports are verified working, and the link light is absent, the most likely cause is physical damage to the cable—such as a cut, pinch, or break—that interrupts the electrical continuity required for link pulses. A damaged cable prevents the switch and NIC from establishing a link, even if all other components are functional.

Answer

The cable is too long for Cat5e.

Answer

The network switch is not powered on.

Answer

The cable is terminated with the wrong standard.

Question 19

A user reports that their internet connection drops out frequently, especially during rainstorms. They have a dish mounted on their roof. Which connection type are they most likely using?

Accepted Answer

Satellite. Satellite internet (Option C) is the correct answer because the user's dish is mounted on the roof, and the connection drops out during rainstorms—a phenomenon known as 'rain fade.' Rain attenuates the Ku-band or Ka-band radio frequencies (typically 12–18 GHz or 26–40 GHz) used by satellite systems, causing signal loss. Fiber-optic, cable, and DSL are terrestrial connections that do not use a roof-mounted dish and are not significantly affected by rain.

Answer

Fiber-optic

Answer

Cable broadband

Answer

DSL

Question 20

A technician is setting up a wireless network for a small office that experiences heavy interference from neighboring businesses. The office uses many Bluetooth devices and cordless phones. Which 802.11 standard and frequency combination would minimize interference and provide the best performance?

Accepted Answer

802.11ac on 5 GHz. 802.11ac operates exclusively on the 5 GHz frequency band, which is far less congested than 2.4 GHz. This avoids interference from Bluetooth devices and cordless phones (which predominantly use 2.4 GHz), providing cleaner channels and better performance in a dense interference environment.

Answer

802.11b/g on 2.4 GHz

Answer

802.11n on 2.4 GHz

Answer

802.11ax on 2.4 GHz