easyMultiple Choice
220-1201 Practice Question: A user complains that their wireless connection…
A user complains that their wireless connection drops frequently, but only when they are in the conference room. Other areas of the office have stable connections. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
CompTIA often tests the distinction between a localized environmental issue and a device or network-wide fault, tempting candidates to choose 'overloaded AP' because it sounds plausible, but the key clue is the problem's confinement to one room.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The conference room has thick walls or electronic interference that weakens the signal.
The issue is location-specific: the connection drops only in the conference room, while other areas are stable. This strongly points to a local environmental factor, such as thick walls (e.g., concrete or metal) that attenuate the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz signal, or electronic interference from devices like projectors, fluorescent lights, or microwave ovens. A faulty adapter or overloaded AP would cause problems everywhere, not just in one room.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The user's laptop has a faulty wireless adapter.
Why it's wrong here
A faulty adapter would degrade the connection everywhere the laptop goes, yet the drops occur only in the conference room, so the fault tracks location rather than hardware. It tempts because adapter failure is a common cause of intermittent wireless drops, and would be correct if the issue followed the laptop across all areas.
- ✗
The access point is overloaded with too many connections.
Why it's wrong here
An overloaded access point would affect every client associated with it, not one user in one room, and the stem reports stable connections elsewhere. It tempts because AP congestion genuinely causes drops in dense spaces, and would fit if multiple conference-room users lost connectivity simultaneously.
- ✓
The conference room has thick walls or electronic interference that weakens the signal.
Why this is correct
Location-specific drops point to physical attenuation rather than a device or credential fault. Thick conference-room walls and nearby electronics weaken the radio signal, reducing received strength below usable thresholds only in that area, while open office spaces retain adequate coverage.
- ✗
The access point's firmware is outdated.
Why it's wrong here
Outdated firmware would impair the access point's clients across its whole coverage area, not only within the conference room, so it cannot explain location-specific drops. It tempts because firmware bugs do cause intermittent disconnects, and would be correct if the instability affected all users on that AP.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every 220-1201 question from scratch — 871 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1201 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1201 exam.