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220-1201 Practice Question: A user's smartphone intermittently disconnects…
A user's smartphone intermittently disconnects from a known Wi-Fi network when they move to a different room. The network uses a single access point. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
The 220-1201 exam often tests the misconception that 5 GHz is always superior, leading candidates to overlook its range and penetration limitations in favor of blaming client-side settings like battery saver or MAC filtering.
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 smartphone is connecting to the 5 GHz band, which has poor wall penetration.
The 5 GHz band offers higher data rates but has significantly poorer wall penetration and range compared to the 2.4 GHz band. When the user moves to a different room, the signal from the single access point attenuates more rapidly at 5 GHz, causing intermittent disconnections. This is the most likely cause because the problem is location-dependent and occurs with a known network.
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 smartphone is connecting to the 5 GHz band, which has poor wall penetration.
Why this is correct
The 5 GHz Wi-Fi band utilizes higher frequencies, which inherently have shorter wavelengths and are more susceptible to attenuation and absorption by physical obstacles like walls, floors, and furniture. This reduced penetration capability means that as the smartphone moves further from the access point or into different rooms, the signal strength can rapidly degrade below a usable threshold, causing intermittent disconnections. Unlike the 2.4 GHz band, 5 GHz signals struggle to maintain consistent connectivity through multiple barriers, directly explaining the intermittent disconnects tied to movement.
- ✗
The access point is overloaded with too many clients.
Why it's wrong here
An access point overloaded with too many clients experiences resource contention, leading to reduced bandwidth and increased latency for all connected devices, not just a single smartphone. While performance would degrade across the network, it would manifest as slow speeds or general unresponsiveness for everyone, rather than intermittent disconnects specifically for one device when it changes physical location. The issue would be network-wide, not localized to a single user's movement between rooms.
- ✗
The smartphone's MAC address is being filtered.
Why it's wrong here
MAC address filtering operates by either explicitly allowing (whitelist) or denying (blacklist) network access based on a device's unique hardware address. If the smartphone's MAC address were being filtered, it would either be completely unable to connect to the Wi-Fi network in the first place, or it would be immediately disconnected upon attempting to join. This security measure does not cause intermittent connectivity issues tied to a device's physical movement within the coverage area; it's an all-or-nothing access control.
- ✗
The smartphone's battery saver mode is turning off Wi-Fi.
Why it's wrong here
Smartphone battery saver modes are designed to conserve power by reducing background activity, limiting data usage, and potentially disabling non-essential features like Wi-Fi when the battery level drops below a certain threshold. While it could disable Wi-Fi, this action is typically triggered by battery percentage or user-defined schedules, not by the device's physical location or movement between rooms. Therefore, it would not explain intermittent disconnections specifically tied to traversing different areas of a building.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Network Configuration: IP, DNS, DHCP
Key term
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is a technology that lets devices like laptops and phones connect to the internet or communicate with each other wirelessly using radio waves.
Key term
Access Point
An access point is a device that creates a wireless local area network, usually by connecting to a wired network and broadcasting a Wi-Fi signal for computers, phones, and tablets to join.
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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.