220-1101 Networking Practice Test 11 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A user reports that their workstation is displaying an 'IP address conflict' error message and cannot access the network. The technician runs ipconfig and sees IPv4 address 192.168.1.15 with subnet mask 255.255.255.0. Which of the following should the technician do FIRST to resolve the issue?

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

Accepted Answer

Run ipconfig /release and then ipconfig /renew. The 'IP address conflict' error indicates that another device on the same subnet is already using 192.168.1.15. The correct first step is to release the current DHCP lease with ipconfig /release and then request a new IP address with ipconfig /renew, which forces the DHCP client to obtain a fresh, non-conflicting address from the DHCP server.

Answer

Change the subnet mask to 255.255.0.0

Answer

Change the DNS server address to 8.8.8.8

Answer

Disable the Windows Firewall

Question 2

A small office uses a single unmanaged switch to connect 20 computers. Users report that file transfers between computers are very slow, and the network feels sluggish. The technician notices that the switch's collision LED is blinking frequently. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

A duplex mismatch between the switch and one or more connected devices. A duplex mismatch occurs when one device is set to full-duplex and the other to half-duplex, causing the half-duplex device to detect collisions when the full-duplex device transmits without checking for a clear channel. The frequent collision LED on an unmanaged switch indicates that collisions are occurring, which is a classic symptom of duplex mismatch, as the switch and workstation negotiate incorrectly or are manually misconfigured.

Answer

An excessive number of broadcast packets flooding the network

Answer

A malfunctioning NIC on one of the workstations

Answer

An incorrect VLAN configuration on the switch

Question 3

A small office has 10 computers connected to a single switch. The ISP provides a modem with a built-in router and DHCP server. One user reports they cannot access the internet but can access shared files on the local network. The technician checks the IP configuration on the user's computer and sees an IP address of 169.254.12.5. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The DHCP server is unavailable. The IP address 169.254.12.5 is an Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) address (169.254.0.0/16 range), which Windows assigns when a DHCP discovery request fails to receive a response. Since the user can access local network shares but not the internet, the DHCP server (built into the ISP modem/router) is unavailable or unreachable, preventing the computer from obtaining a valid IP configuration.

Answer

The DNS server is down

Answer

The default gateway is misconfigured

Answer

The switch port is faulty

Question 4

A technician is troubleshooting a workstation that cannot connect to any network resources. The IP configuration shows an APIPA address (169.254.x.x). Other workstations on the same physical network are functioning normally. What is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

Switch port configured for a different VLAN. An APIPA address (169.254.x.x) is assigned when a DHCP client fails to receive a lease. Since other workstations on the same physical network are working, the issue is isolated to this workstation's switch port. If the switch port is configured for a different VLAN, the workstation's DHCP broadcast will not reach the DHCP server in the correct VLAN, causing the client to self-assign an APIPA address. This is the most likely cause because the physical connectivity is intact, but Layer 2 segmentation prevents DHCP communication.

Answer

Faulty network interface card

Answer

Duplicate IP address on the network

Answer

Incorrect default gateway configured

Question 5

A technician is troubleshooting a computer that cannot access any websites by their domain name (e.g., www.example.com) but can access websites by their IP address. The computer's IP configuration shows it received a valid IP address from the DHCP server. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The DNS server address is incorrect or unreachable. The ability to access websites by IP address but not by domain name indicates that name resolution is failing. Since the computer has a valid IP address from DHCP, the most likely cause is that the DNS server address provided by DHCP is incorrect or unreachable, preventing the translation of domain names to IP addresses.

Answer

The default gateway is incorrect

Answer

The subnet mask is incorrect

Answer

The DHCP lease has expired

Question 6

A technician is installing several wireless access points in a large office to provide Wi-Fi coverage. The access points are PoE-capable, but the existing network switches do not support Power over Ethernet. The access points are located too far from available power outlets. Which of the following devices should the technician use to provide both data connectivity and power to the access points?

Accepted Answer

PoE injector. A PoE injector is the correct choice because it inserts power into the Ethernet cable between the non-PoE switch and the PoE-capable access point, providing both data and power over a single cable. This solves the problem of the access points being too far from power outlets without requiring replacement of the existing switches.

Answer

PoE switch

Answer

Network hub

Answer

Power supply unit

Question 7

A technician is troubleshooting a user's workstation that intermittently loses network connectivity. The user says the connection drops for a few seconds and then reconnects. The technician checks the switch port and sees a high number of runt frames. The Ethernet cable is properly connected and passes a cable tester. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

Duplex mismatch between the workstation and the switch. A duplex mismatch occurs when one device (e.g., the workstation) is set to auto-negotiate while the other (the switch port) is manually set to full-duplex, or vice versa. This causes the switch to detect runt frames (frames smaller than 64 bytes) due to collisions on a half-duplex link, leading to intermittent connectivity drops. The cable passing the tester and the high runt count point directly to a Layer 1/2 negotiation issue, not a physical cable fault.

Answer

Faulty network interface card (NIC)

Answer

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) near the cable

Answer

Incorrect VLAN assignment on the switch port

Question 8

A technician sets up a small office network using two unmanaged switches to connect 25 computers. After connecting both switches to the router, the network becomes extremely slow and many computers lose connectivity intermittently. The technician notices that the router's status lights on all ports are flashing rapidly. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

A broadcast storm caused by a network loop. When two unmanaged switches are connected to the same router without any loop-prevention mechanism (such as STP), broadcast frames forwarded by one switch can be received and re-forwarded by the other, creating a network loop. This causes a broadcast storm, where broadcast frames circulate endlessly, saturating the network bandwidth and causing the router's ports to flash rapidly due to the high traffic load. The resulting congestion leads to extreme slowness and intermittent connectivity loss for all devices.

Answer

A faulty router causing packet loss

Answer

DNS server misconfiguration

Answer

Incorrect DHCP scope size

Question 9

A technician is installing network cabling for a new office. The office has a server room in the basement, and the technician needs to connect workstations on the 2nd floor, which is approximately 120 meters (394 feet) away. The required bandwidth is 1 Gbps. Which cabling type should the technician use?

Accepted Answer

Multi-mode fiber. Multi-mode fiber, because the distance requirement of 120 meters exceeds the maximum segment length for twisted-pair copper cabling (Cat5e and Cat6), which is 100 meters for 1 Gbps. Multi-mode fiber supports distances up to 550 meters at 1 Gbps using 1000BASE-SX, making it the only viable option among the choices.

Answer

Cat5e

Answer

Cat6

Answer

Coaxial

Question 10

A user's computer can access the internet and can successfully ping the IP address of a local file server (192.168.1.50). However, the user cannot access the file server by its hostname (fileserver.local). Other computers on the same network can access the file server by hostname without any issues. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of this problem?

Accepted Answer

The computer's hosts file contains an incorrect entry for the file server.. The hosts file on the local computer overrides DNS resolution. Since the user can ping the file server by IP but not by hostname, and other computers resolve the hostname correctly, the most likely cause is a static, incorrect entry in the local hosts file that maps 'fileserver.local' to a wrong IP or is malformed. This file is checked before DNS, so even if DNS is working for others, the local computer will use the faulty entry.

Answer

The computer's subnet mask is incorrect.

Answer

The file server's firewall is blocking the user's computer.

Answer

The DHCP lease has expired, and the computer has an APIPA address.

Question 11

A technician is setting up a small office network with a single internet connection from a cable modem. The office has two departments: Accounting and Sales. The technician needs to ensure that devices in Accounting cannot communicate with devices in Sales, but both departments must be able to access the internet. Which feature should the technician configure on the managed switch to meet this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Configure VLANs on the managed switch. VLANs (Virtual Local Area Networks) logically segment a switch into multiple isolated broadcast domains. By placing Accounting devices in one VLAN and Sales devices in another, the switch prevents Layer 2 communication between them, while both VLANs can still access the internet through a router configured with inter-VLAN routing or a separate uplink.

Answer

Enable DHCP on the router

Answer

Set up port forwarding on the router

Answer

Configure NAT on the router

Question 12

A technician is setting up a small network. The modem from the ISP provides a single public IP address via DHCP. The technician needs to connect 10 computers to the internet using a single public IP. Which device should the technician install between the modem and the computers to accomplish this?

Accepted Answer

Router with NAT capabilities. The modem provides a single public IP address via DHCP, but 10 computers need internet access. A router with NAT (Network Address Translation) allows multiple devices to share that single public IP by translating their private IP addresses (e.g., 192.168.1.x) to the public IP for outbound traffic, and mapping return traffic back to the correct internal device. This is the standard solution for IPv4 address conservation in small networks.

Answer

Hub

Answer

Switch

Answer

Bridge

Question 13

A technician installs a new VoIP desk phone for a user. The phone is connected to an existing wall jack using a Cat5e patch cable. The switch port on the other end shows a solid link light, but the phone does not power on. The technician verifies that the wall jack is wired correctly and the cable passes a continuity test. Which of the following is the MOST likely reason the phone is not receiving power?

Accepted Answer

The network switch does not support Power over Ethernet (PoE). The phone is not powering on despite a solid link light and a correctly wired, continuity-tested cable. This indicates the switch is providing a data link but not delivering power. The most likely cause is that the network switch does not support Power over Ethernet (PoE), which is required to supply DC power over the same Cat5e cable to the VoIP phone.

Answer

The switch port is administratively disabled

Answer

The patch cable is a crossover cable

Answer

The wall jack is wired with T568A instead of T568B

Question 14

A network technician is configuring a small office network. The office has two departments: Sales and Accounting. The technician needs to ensure that devices in Sales cannot communicate with devices in Accounting, but both departments must be able to access the internet. The network uses a single router and one managed switch. Which of the following should the technician configure on the switch?

Accepted Answer

VLANs. VLANs (Virtual Local Area Networks) allow the technician to logically segment the switch into separate broadcast domains. By placing Sales devices in one VLAN and Accounting devices in another, inter-VLAN communication is blocked at Layer 2, while both VLANs can still access the internet through the single router (which performs inter-VLAN routing if configured, but here only internet access is needed, so the router can simply provide default gateway connectivity without routing between VLANs).

Answer

Port mirroring

Answer

Link aggregation

Answer

Spanning Tree Protocol

Question 15

A technician is troubleshooting a small office network where users are reporting slow internet speeds. The network consists of a router connected to an unmanaged switch, and several workstations and printers connected to the switch. The technician notices that the cable connecting the router to the switch is a crossover cable. Both the router and the switch support Auto-MDI/X. Which of the following BEST describes the impact of using a crossover cable in this scenario?

Accepted Answer

The crossover cable is not causing the issue; Auto-MDI/X will handle the connection properly. Both the router and the switch support Auto-MDI/X (Automatic Medium-Dependent Interface Crossover), which allows them to automatically detect and correct the signal pairing for either a straight-through or crossover cable. Therefore, the crossover cable does not cause connectivity or speed issues; the slow internet problem must be investigated elsewhere (e.g., bandwidth saturation, duplex mismatch, or faulty hardware).

Answer

The crossover cable will prevent the devices from communicating because crossover cables are only used for connecting two similar devices directly

Answer

The crossover cable is faulty and should be replaced with a straight-through cable

Answer

The crossover cable should be replaced with a straight-through cable to achieve maximum throughput