N10-009 Practice Test 29 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A network engineer is installing a WLAN in a warehouse with many metal shelves and racks. During a site survey, the engineer notices significant signal degradation in certain areas. Which wireless propagation phenomenon is most likely causing the issue?

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

Accepted Answer

Reflection. In a warehouse with many metal shelves and racks, the primary cause of signal degradation is reflection. Metal surfaces act as RF reflectors, causing the wireless signal to bounce off them, which leads to multipath interference and dead zones where the signal cancels out or becomes too weak to be usable. This is a common issue in environments with high metal density, as the reflected waves interfere with the direct path signal.

Answer

Refraction

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Diffraction

Answer

Absorption

Question 2

A user reports that they cannot access the internet. The technician is able to ping the default gateway successfully but unable to ping a public IP address (e.g., 8.8.8.8). Which of the following is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The router's default route is missing or misconfigured. Successful ping to the default gateway confirms Layer 2 and Layer 3 connectivity within the local subnet, but failure to ping a public IP like 8.8.8.8 indicates that traffic cannot leave the local network. This is most commonly caused by a missing or misconfigured default route on the router, which prevents the router from forwarding packets destined for external networks to the next-hop ISP gateway.

Answer

Incorrect DNS server configuration

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Duplicate IP address on the network

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Faulty network interface card

Question 3

At which layer of the OSI model does end-to-end communication and data segmentation occur?

Accepted Answer

Transport layer. The transport layer (Layer 4) is responsible for end-to-end communication between source and destination hosts, as well as data segmentation and reassembly. Protocols such as TCP and UDP operate at this layer, with TCP providing reliable, connection-oriented service by segmenting data into segments and managing flow control and error recovery.

Answer

Session layer

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Network layer

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Data link layer

Question 4

An IT security analyst is implementing a solution to detect malware on endpoints by monitoring system calls and file integrity. Which of the following types of controls is being deployed?

Accepted Answer

Host-based Intrusion Detection System (HIDS). A Host-based Intrusion Detection System (HIDS) monitors system calls, file integrity, and operating system logs directly on the endpoint. This matches the scenario because the analyst is deploying a solution that detects malware by observing low-level system behavior and verifying file integrity, which are core HIDS functions.

Answer

Network-based Intrusion Detection System (NIDS)

Answer

Firewall

Answer

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

Question 5

A network security administrator is configuring authentication for network devices and wants to use a protocol that supports separate encryption of the entire authentication packet. Which of the following protocols is designed to encrypt the entire authentication packet and is commonly used with AAA services?

Accepted Answer

TACACS+. TACACS+ is the correct answer because it encrypts the entire authentication packet, including the username, password, and all other fields, using a shared secret key. This full-packet encryption is a key differentiator from RADIUS, which only encrypts the password field. TACACS+ is commonly used with AAA services to provide separate authentication, authorization, and accounting processes.

Answer

RADIUS

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LDAP

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Kerberos

Question 6

Which of the following describes the purpose of a default gateway on a host in a TCP/IP network?

Accepted Answer

It forwards traffic from the local network to other networks. The default gateway is the router interface on the local subnet that a host uses to send packets destined for IP addresses outside its own network. When a host determines that the destination IP is not in its local subnet (via its subnet mask), it forwards the frame to the default gateway's MAC address, which then routes the packet toward the remote network. Without a default gateway, a host can only communicate with devices on the same local broadcast domain.

Answer

It translates domain names to IP addresses

Answer

It assigns IP addresses to devices on the network

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It filters traffic to prevent unauthorized access

Question 7

A user reports that they cannot connect to a file server on the same subnet. The technician checks the IP configuration and sees an IP address of 169.254.5.10. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The DHCP server is unreachable. The IP address 169.254.5.10 is an Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) address from the 169.254.0.0/16 range, which Windows assigns when a DHCP client fails to obtain a lease from a DHCP server. Since the user is on the same subnet as the file server, a missing default gateway or DNS server would not prevent local connectivity, but the inability to reach the DHCP server indicates a broader network issue that also prevents the client from obtaining a valid IP address.

Answer

The default gateway is misconfigured

Answer

The DNS server is down

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The file server is offline

Question 8

A user reports that they can connect to the internet by IP address but cannot access any websites by domain name. Which command-line tool should a technician use first to isolate the issue?

Accepted Answer

nslookup. The user can reach the internet by IP address but not by domain name, which indicates a DNS resolution failure. The `nslookup` command queries DNS servers directly to test name resolution, making it the correct first step to isolate whether the issue is with the DNS server, the client's DNS configuration, or a network path to the DNS server.

Answer

ping

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tracert

Answer

netstat

Question 9

A network administrator wants to allow wireless clients to seamlessly roam between access points without re-authenticating to the RADIUS server for each transition. Which IEEE standard should be implemented?

Accepted Answer

802.11r. 802.11r, also known as Fast BSS Transition (FT), enables wireless clients to roam between access points without re-authenticating to the RADIUS server by using a cached Pairwise Master Key (PMK) and performing a faster, over-the-air or over-the-DS key exchange. This reduces the time required for roaming handoffs, which is critical for real-time applications like VoIP.

Answer

802.11k

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802.11w

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802.1X

Question 10

A network administrator wants to centrally monitor the status of all network devices and receive alerts when an interface goes down. Which protocol and feature combination should the administrator use?

Accepted Answer

SNMP with traps. SNMP traps provide unsolicited, asynchronous notifications from network devices to the management station when specific events occur, such as an interface going down. This allows the administrator to receive immediate alerts without continuously polling each device, making it the ideal protocol and feature combination for real-time status monitoring and alerting.

Answer

SNMP with polling

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Syslog with severity levels

Answer

NetFlow with flow logs

Question 11

A network administrator needs to schedule a firmware upgrade for a critical switch during a maintenance window. After the upgrade is completed and verified, which document should the administrator update to reflect the new firmware version?

Accepted Answer

Configuration baseline document. The configuration baseline document records the approved configuration of a network device, including firmware versions. After a firmware upgrade is verified, updating this document ensures that the baseline reflects the current, known-good state for change management and troubleshooting. The administrator must update the baseline to maintain configuration consistency and audit compliance.

Answer

Incident response plan

Answer

Network topology diagram

Answer

Change request form

Question 12

A network administrator needs to schedule a firmware update for several switches during a maintenance window. Which of the following documents should be updated immediately after the changes are complete?

Accepted Answer

Change management request. The change management request is the correct document to update immediately after completing the firmware update because it serves as the official record that the change was implemented, tested, and closed. This ensures audit compliance, rollback documentation, and approval tracking, which are critical in ITIL-based change management processes. Updating the network diagram or performance baseline may be done later as part of post-change verification, but the change management request must be updated first to formally close the change window.

Answer

Network diagram

Answer

Performance baseline

Answer

Service level agreement

Question 13

A network administrator wants to centrally monitor the bandwidth utilization on a router's serial interface over time. The monitoring tool needs to periodically poll the router for current interface counters. Which protocol should be used for this polling?

Accepted Answer

SNMP. SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is the correct choice because it is specifically designed for polling network devices to retrieve operational statistics such as interface counters (e.g., ifInOctets, ifOutOctets) from a Management Information Base (MIB). The network administrator can configure an SNMP manager to periodically poll the router's serial interface OIDs, enabling centralized bandwidth utilization monitoring over time.

Answer

Syslog

Answer

NetFlow

Answer

ICMP

Question 14

A switch is connected to a network printer. The switch port is manually configured for 100 Mbps and full duplex. The printer is configured for auto-negotiation. The link is up, but there are many FCS errors on the switch port. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

Duplex mismatch. The most likely cause is a duplex mismatch. The switch port is manually set to full duplex, while the printer is using auto-negotiation. When one side is manually configured and the other is set to auto-negotiation, the auto-negotiating side fails to detect the manual setting and defaults to half duplex. This mismatch causes collisions and frame check sequence (FCS) errors on the full-duplex side, as the half-duplex side does not properly handle simultaneous transmission.

Answer

Bad Ethernet cable

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Speed mismatch

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Printer driver issues

Question 15

Which device is used to connect two different network segments and makes forwarding decisions based on IP addresses?

Accepted Answer

Router. A router is the correct device because it operates at Layer 3 (Network layer) of the OSI model and makes forwarding decisions based on destination IP addresses. It connects two different network segments (subnets) and uses routing tables to determine the best path for packet delivery, often employing protocols like OSPF or BGP.

Answer

Switch

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Hub

Answer

Bridge