220-1201 Practice Exam 63 — 20 Questions

Question 1

A customer complains that their wireless network is slow and frequently drops connections. They live in a densely populated apartment building. The technician checks the wireless router and sees it is using channel 1. What is the most likely cause of the issue?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

There is interference from other wireless networks on the same channel. In a dense area, overlapping Wi-Fi channels cause interference. Channel 1 is commonly used, but if neighboring networks are also on channel 1 or 6, it can cause congestion. The correct answer is co-channel interference from neighboring networks. The technician should use a Wi-Fi analyzer to find a less congested channel.

Answer

The router is too far from the devices

Answer

The router's firmware is outdated

Answer

The router is using 5 GHz instead of 2.4 GHz

Question 2

A company is deploying a new VoIP phone system. Each desk needs both a computer and a phone connected to the network. To minimize cabling, the phone will be connected to the wall jack, and the computer will connect to the phone. Which feature must the switch ports support to ensure both devices receive network access?

Accepted Answer

VLAN tagging (802.1Q). This scenario describes a typical VoIP deployment where the phone acts as a pass-through for the computer. The switch port must support VLAN tagging to separate voice and data traffic, but the key feature is Power over Ethernet (PoE) if the phone is powered by the switch. However, the question asks for both devices to receive network access, which is handled by the switch port's ability to carry multiple VLANs. The correct answer is VLAN tagging (802.1Q) to separate voice and data traffic on the same port.

Answer

PoE (Power over Ethernet)

Answer

Port mirroring

Answer

Link aggregation

Question 3

A technician is deploying a wireless network in a large warehouse. The warehouse has metal shelving and concrete walls. The technician needs to ensure coverage throughout the area. Which antenna type should be used for the access points to maximize coverage in this environment?

Accepted Answer

Directional antenna. In an environment with obstacles like metal and concrete, omnidirectional antennas may not penetrate well. Directional antennas can focus the signal in a specific direction, helping to overcome obstacles and extend range. The correct answer is a directional antenna, such as a Yagi or panel antenna.

Answer

Omnidirectional antenna

Answer

Dipole antenna

Answer

Rubber duck antenna

Question 4

During a network upgrade, a technician needs to connect a legacy printer that only has a USB port to the network. The printer is in a location without a nearby computer. Which device should the technician use to enable network printing?

Accepted Answer

External print server. A print server is designed to connect a USB printer to a network, allowing it to be shared without a dedicated computer. A USB hub would not provide network connectivity, and a wireless bridge could work but is less direct. The correct answer is an external print server.

Answer

USB hub

Answer

Wireless access point

Answer

Network switch

Question 5

A technician is installing a new network switch in a server room. The switch has 48 ports and needs to connect to the existing network backbone via fiber optic cable. The technician has a 10GBASE-SR SFP+ module. Which type of fiber optic cable should be used to ensure compatibility?

Accepted Answer

Multimode fiber (OM3). 10GBASE-SR is designed for multimode fiber (MMF) over short distances, typically up to 300 meters. Using single-mode fiber (SMF) would not work because the transceiver is optimized for multimode. The correct answer is multimode fiber (OM3 or OM4).

Answer

Single-mode fiber (OS2)

Answer

Cat6a twisted pair

Answer

Coaxial cable

Question 6

A small office with 15 employees uses a single switch to connect all workstations. Users report that the network becomes extremely slow during peak hours, and some packets are being dropped. The switch is a 10/100 model with a 1 Gbps uplink to the router. What is the most likely cause of the slowdown?

Accepted Answer

The switch's ports are only 100 Mbps, causing a bottleneck when multiple users are active.. The switch operates at 10/100 Mbps per port, meaning each workstation is limited to a maximum of 100 Mbps. With 15 employees active during peak hours, the aggregate traffic can easily exceed the 100 Mbps per-port capacity, causing congestion, packet drops, and slowdowns. The 1 Gbps uplink to the router is not the bottleneck; the bottleneck is the 100 Mbps access ports connecting the workstations.

Answer

The switch is not a managed switch and cannot prioritize traffic.

Answer

The router's uplink port is faulty and needs to be replaced.

Answer

The switch is a hub, not a switch, causing collisions.

Question 7

A technician is troubleshooting a network where a user's computer cannot obtain an IP address via DHCP. The computer is connected to a switch, and other devices on the same switch work fine. The technician checks the switch and sees that the port is up and the link light is green. What should the technician check next?

Accepted Answer

Check if the switch port is configured with Port Security that is blocking the MAC address.. Since the switch port is up and other devices on the same switch obtain IP addresses correctly, the DHCP server and the general network path are functional. The most likely cause is a Layer 2 security feature, such as Port Security, which can be configured to block unknown or specific MAC addresses, preventing the computer from communicating with the DHCP server even though the physical link is active.

Answer

Replace the Ethernet cable.

Answer

Reboot the DHCP server.

Answer

Set a static IP address on the computer.

Question 8

A small office has a single internet connection and needs to provide wired network access to 20 computers. They also need to allow guests to connect wirelessly but keep the guest traffic separate from the internal network. Which single device can handle both wired switching and wireless access with VLAN support?

Accepted Answer

Wireless router. A wireless router (often a small business or SOHO router) integrates a switch, a router, and a wireless access point into one device. It can provide wired switching for the 20 computers and wireless access for guests, and with VLAN support, it can isolate guest traffic from the internal network using 802.1Q tagging or built-in guest network features. This makes it the single device that meets all the requirements.

Answer

Managed switch

Answer

Wireless access point

Answer

Hub

Question 9

A company's network uses a router with a built-in 4-port switch. The IT manager wants to segment the network into two separate broadcast domains for security. What additional hardware is required?

Accepted Answer

A managed switch. A managed switch is required because it can be configured with VLANs (IEEE 802.1Q) to create multiple broadcast domains on a single physical switch. The built-in 4-port switch on the router cannot be segmented into separate broadcast domains without VLAN support, which only a managed switch provides.

Answer

A second router

Answer

A hub

Answer

A wireless access point

Question 10

A user reports that their VoIP phone works but the connected PC cannot access the network. The phone is connected to the wall jack, and the PC is connected to the phone's passthrough port. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The switch port is not configured for the data VLAN, so the PC cannot get an IP address.. The VoIP phone and PC share a single physical switch port via the phone's passthrough port. For the PC to access the network, the switch port must be configured as a trunk (or access port with voice VLAN) carrying both the voice VLAN (for the phone) and the data VLAN (for the PC). If the switch port is not configured for the data VLAN, the PC will not receive an IP address from the DHCP server and cannot communicate on the network, even though the phone works because it uses its own voice VLAN.

Answer

The PC's network cable is faulty.

Answer

The VoIP phone's passthrough port is disabled.

Answer

The PC's network adapter is set to a static IP address that conflicts with the phone.

Question 11

A technician is troubleshooting a user's inability to reach a server at 172.16.50.100. The user's IP is 172.16.50.50 with subnet mask 255.255.255.0. The technician runs a traceroute and sees the first hop is the gateway (172.16.50.1), but the second hop times out. What does this indicate?

Accepted Answer

There is a routing problem between the gateway and the server.. The traceroute shows that the first hop (the gateway at 172.16.50.1) responds, but the second hop times out. This indicates that the packet successfully leaves the user's subnet but fails to reach the server at 172.16.50.100, pointing to a routing issue beyond the local gateway. Since the user and server share the same subnet (172.16.50.0/24), the gateway should be able to forward traffic directly to the server; a timeout at the second hop suggests either a missing route on the gateway or an intermediate router dropping the packets.

Answer

The user's IP address is in the wrong subnet.

Answer

The server is powered off.

Answer

The user's default gateway is incorrect.

Question 12

A technician is setting up a new branch office and needs to assign IPs to 30 devices. The ISP provided a public IP block of 203.0.113.0/28. The technician decides to use private IPs internally and NAT. Which of the following is the most appropriate private IP range for this network?

Accepted Answer

192.168.1.0/24. (192.168.1.0/24) is correct because it provides a private IP range (per RFC 1918) that supports up to 254 hosts, which is more than sufficient for 30 devices. The /28 public block from the ISP is used only for NAT translation, not for internal addressing, and private IPs must be used internally to conserve public addresses.

Answer

203.0.113.1 to 203.0.113.14

Answer

10.0.0.0/8

Answer

172.16.0.0/12

Question 13

A small business uses a router with a default IP of 192.168.1.1. The owner wants to set up a new printer with a static IP of 192.168.1.50. After configuring the printer, it cannot be accessed from any computer on the network. All computers are set to obtain IP addresses automatically. What is the most likely problem?

Accepted Answer

The printer's IP address conflicts with an address already assigned by DHCP.. The printer's static IP (192.168.1.50) likely falls within the router's default DHCP pool (commonly 192.168.1.2–192.168.1.254 or a subset like 192.168.1.100–199). If the router has already assigned 192.168.1.50 to another device via DHCP, a duplicate IP conflict occurs, causing the printer to be unreachable. The printer may appear to have an IP, but the conflict prevents proper ARP resolution and communication.

Answer

The printer's subnet mask is set to 255.0.0.0.

Answer

The printer's IP address is outside the router's DHCP range.

Answer

The printer is not connected to the network via an Ethernet cable.

Question 14

A technician is troubleshooting a network where several users cannot access the internet, but they can communicate with each other. The network uses a router with IP 10.0.0.1 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0. All computers have IPs in the 10.0.0.0/24 range. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The default gateway on the computers is not set to 10.0.0.1.. Since users can communicate with each other but cannot access the internet, the issue is likely with the default gateway. The router's IP is 10.0.0.1, and the subnet mask is 255.255.255.0, so computers must have their default gateway set to 10.0.0.1 to route traffic outside the local subnet. Without a correct default gateway, packets destined for the internet have no route to the router and are dropped.

Answer

The DNS server address is set to 10.0.0.1.

Answer

The subnet mask is incorrectly set to 255.255.0.0 on some computers.

Answer

The router's DHCP server is disabled.

Question 15

A technician is configuring a small branch office network with 30 devices. The network uses a single router with DHCP enabled. To conserve IP addresses, the technician decides to use a subnet that provides exactly enough usable addresses for the devices, with minimal waste. Which subnet mask should the technician choose?

Accepted Answer

255.255.255.224. The network requires exactly 30 usable IP addresses. A /27 subnet (mask 255.255.255.224) provides 32 total addresses, with 30 usable (2^5 - 2 = 30), matching the requirement with minimal waste. This is the most efficient choice because it supplies the exact number of hosts needed without leaving a large pool of unused addresses.

Answer

255.255.255.0

Answer

255.255.255.240

Answer

255.255.255.192

Question 16

A customer reports that their laptop can connect to the internet at home but not at a coffee shop. The coffee shop uses a /24 subnet with a gateway of 192.168.1.1. The laptop's IP is 192.168.2.10. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The laptop's IP address is on a different subnet than the coffee shop's network.. The coffee shop's network uses a /24 subnet (255.255.255.0), which means all devices must have an IP address in the 192.168.1.0/24 range to communicate with the gateway at 192.168.1.1. The laptop's IP address of 192.168.2.10 falls in a different subnet (192.168.2.0/24), so the laptop cannot send frames to the gateway or receive a DHCP lease, preventing internet access despite a successful Wi-Fi association.

Answer

The DNS server address is incorrect.

Answer

The wireless card is faulty.

Answer

The subnet mask is set to 255.0.0.0.

Question 17

A technician is configuring a new printer on a network with the IP 172.16.0.50 and subnet mask 255.255.0.0. The router's LAN IP is 172.16.0.1. A workstation with IP 172.16.1.10 can ping the printer, but a workstation with IP 172.17.0.10 cannot. What is the most likely reason?

Accepted Answer

The workstation with IP 172.17.0.10 is on a different network and needs a router to reach the printer.. The workstation with IP 172.17.0.10 has a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0, so it considers its local network to be 172.17.0.0/16. The printer's IP 172.16.0.50 is on the 172.16.0.0/16 network. Since these are different classful networks (172.16.0.0 vs 172.17.0.0), the workstation will send traffic to its default gateway (the router) for delivery. If the router is not configured to route between these subnets, or if the workstation lacks a default gateway, the ping fails. Option B correctly identifies that the workstation is on a different network and requires a router to reach the printer.

Answer

The printer's subnet mask is wrong.

Answer

The printer has a duplicate IP address.

Answer

The default gateway on the printer is missing.

Question 18

A technician is configuring a small office network with 15 computers and a single router. The router's WAN port is connected to a cable modem, and the LAN port is connected to a switch. All computers are connected to the switch. The technician assigns the router's LAN interface the IP 192.168.0.1/24. What should be the default gateway setting on each computer?

Accepted Answer

192.168.0.1. The default gateway is the router's LAN interface IP address because it is the next-hop device that forwards traffic from the local subnet to external networks. Since the router's LAN interface is configured as 192.168.0.1/24, all computers on the 192.168.0.0/24 subnet must use that address as their default gateway to reach the internet via the cable modem.

Answer

The IP address of the cable modem.

Answer

The IP address of the switch.

Answer

192.168.0.255

Question 19

A technician is configuring a router with two interfaces: WAN (DHCP from ISP) and LAN (static IP 10.0.0.1/24). The technician sets the LAN subnet mask to 255.255.255.0. A workstation is assigned IP 10.0.0.100/24 and can ping the router, but cannot access the internet. The router's WAN interface has IP 203.0.113.5/30. What is the most likely missing configuration?

Accepted Answer

The router lacks a default route pointing to the ISP's gateway.. The workstation can ping the router's LAN interface (10.0.0.1), confirming Layer 2 and basic IP connectivity on the LAN. However, for the workstation to reach the internet, the router must have a default route (0.0.0.0/0) pointing to the ISP's next-hop gateway (likely 203.0.113.6, the other end of the /30 WAN link). Without this route, the router does not know where to forward packets destined for external networks, even though the WAN interface has a valid IP from DHCP.

Answer

The workstation's default gateway is set to 10.0.0.1.

Answer

The WAN subnet mask should be 255.255.255.0.

Answer

The LAN subnet mask should be 255.255.0.0.

Question 20

A client in a rural area has a cellular hotspot for internet but experiences frequent slowdowns. They want a more stable option that does not rely on wired infrastructure. Which technology should a technician recommend?

Accepted Answer

Fixed wireless. Fixed wireless (C) is the correct recommendation because it provides a stable, high-speed internet connection using radio waves between a fixed antenna on the client's premises and a nearby tower, without requiring any wired infrastructure. This technology is ideal for rural areas where DSL and cable are unavailable, and it offers lower latency and more consistent performance than satellite, which suffers from high latency due to geostationary orbit distances (approximately 600 ms round-trip time).

Answer

DSL

Answer

Cable broadband

Answer

Satellite