Network+ practice questions: Tips to pass your exam | Guest Tommy Gober

[00:00:00] Chris Sienko: Stay on Cyberwork Hacks! InfoSec Bootcamp instructor Tommy Gobert joins me to walk you through the mechanics of CompTIA's Network Plus exam. 

[00:00:07] Tommy Gober: here's your first one, Chris. I'm gonna put you on the spot. You're gonna have to answer this one, 

[00:00:10] Chris Sienko: Oh, boy. Oh

Tommy has prepared a few sample questions, similar to the Net Plus exam, and helps you through the thought process behind each question. 

[00:00:18] Tommy Gober: it's not that clean cut. It's usually kind of embedded somewhat in a, a scenario, you know, the user can't connect, which is the IP address of that. And so having that practice can really help lock in and cement those understandings. 

[00:00:32] Chris Sienko: If you're studying networking now, or are interested in doing so, and you want to see if your knowledge is on track, keep it here for today's Cyberwork Hack. 

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Now let's get the show started 

Welcome to a new episode of Cyberwork Hacks. The purpose of this spin off of our popular Cyberwork podcast is to take a single fundamental question and give you a quick, clear, and actionable solution to that problem, or a new insight into how to utilize InfoSec products and training To achieve your work and career goals.

Now, speaking of that, Tommy Gover is an InfoSec instructor and he's a bootcamp instructor for not only the security plus certification, and we've got several episodes with Tommy, uh, on the feed as well. Go check them out, but CompTIA's network certification bootcamp as well. So for today's cyber work hack, Tommy and I are going to walk you through how network questions are constructed and how you should approach them when taking the exam.

So thanks for joining me today, Tommy. Appreciate it.

[00:02:13] Tommy Gober: Hey, Chris, thanks for having me back

[00:02:15] Chris Sienko: All right, and thank you to your teaching assistant in the back. He's

[00:02:19] Tommy Gober: under attack by Amazon every

[00:02:20] Chris Sienko: very sweet, very sweet. Uh, so Tommy, we've, we've, we've heard from some Network Plus cert holders that the experience of studying for the exam and learning the concepts of networking kind of felt different from the experience of actually trying to convey that knowledge, uh, in the method required by the exam.

So can you talk about the different types of exam questions you'll see on the Net Plus?

[00:02:40] Tommy Gober: Yeah. So on network plus and really across the entire CompTIA offering, you're going to, you're going to see multiple choice. So where the question isn't, you have a, B, C, or D multiple answer, which is similar, but it's a little bit different and that's where they usually will tell you select two of these five or more options. And then we have the, um, performance based questions. A lot of people really get. wrapped up on performance based questions. There's a lot of hand wringing, um, a lot of worry with the performance based questions. Um, I tell my learners, don't worry about it. You've got this when it comes to performance based questions. It's the same content that all of your multiple choice. Multiple answer questions are about. you're just interacting with it in some way other than a, B, C or D. So it's just a different modality, but it's the same content buried in.

[00:03:35] Chris Sienko: Can you explain, uh, for people who haven't taken this kind of test before, what does that, what does that sort of, um, uh, in hands on, you know, question look like? What, what are you, what are you doing? It's you're, you're on a screen, I assume. And are you sort of like moving things around or what's going on?

[00:03:49] Tommy Gober: Yeah. So the excellent point. Um, so I get that question quite a bit. The way that you're interacting with these is they will have a slidable little movable tiles. You can move around the screen or there are radio buttons, little check boxes that you're, uh, selecting the appropriate, um, uh, settings inputs, whatever the case may be, whatever the scenario setup is like. And then there's a limited amount of, uh, of input where you might be on the network plus entering a specific IP address. They're going to give you a lot of, uh, basically hints and clues in Uh, in the setup of what the specific IP address should be. But then you would just. But they are not, and this is what a lot of people get really worried about, they are not giving you, um, a command prompt and saying, okay, get to it, you know, and, and get out there and here's a, here's a router.

You need to set it up from scratch. It's not that involved. But, uh, it's just really a way to engage with some of the networking fundamentals, the, the concepts that are at play here. It's very, very hand wavy in general, um, because it's also worth noting too, that CompTIA is not vendor specific. They're vendor agnostic, they're neutral. Um, and so the way that Cisco might do something might be different than the way that Palo Alto, then the way Fortinet others might do it. So they're not going to give you, um, a command line. Um, Because there's not just one single way of doing these things. It's all about those general concepts.

[00:05:22] Chris Sienko: Yeah, that makes, that makes perfect sense. And, uh, uh, yeah, I think that sounds a lot less scary than like you said, uh, setting up a network from scratch, but it just gives you a little more of a, a high touch so that you're not just sort of thinking in theoretical terms, I suppose. Yeah. So, um, Tommy, I think, uh, the best way and this has already been a good start, but the best way to get a feeling for each of these types of questions is I've asked you to run a couple of example exam questions.

So with your sec plus series, we walked through a few sample questions on. I'm hoping we can do that here as well. So if you have a chance, could you walk us through some of these test questions that you created and help us walk through to the right answer?

[00:06:02] Tommy Gober: Yeah. So here's, 

here's your first one, Chris. I'm gonna put you on the spot. You're gonna have to answer this one,

[00:06:05] Chris Sienko: Oh, boy. Oh

[00:06:07] Tommy Gober: Uh, so the question says, uh, which of the following CIDR notations translates to 2 55? 5 2 5 1 2 8. And, uh, first of all, the, the classless inter domain router, uh, routing notation. The cider notation that we've got here is that slash notation.

Um, it's a, it's a, uh. way of expressing, um, subnets. It's a way of expressing, um, a lot of information about a block or bank of IP addresses. So, uh, this is something that, that, uh, gets touched on whenever we're getting into subnetting is understanding the how and the why of CIDR notation. So two, five, five, two, five, five, two, five, five, one, two, eight. That's kind of a weird looking subnet because a lot of people are, um, from their home networks, maybe used to seeing two, five, five, two, five, five, two, five, five, zero. it's this one 28 that we've got right here that kind of throws folks off. Well, one of the things that we do. In our classes, we, uh, learn the how and the why. And so we get into um, how

[00:07:17] Chris Sienko: Hmm.

[00:07:18] Tommy Gober: numbers come together. this little table, uh, you'll learn, um, how to create one of these tables. Um, this is not something you have at the ready on your, uh, exam. It's not like some of the lookup chart that you've got, what you can do is you can recall this, you can create this from memory, you can write it on some scratch paper, um, when you're taking the exam. And what it's going to do is you write out your CIDR notations and then you write out the, uh, the number of addresses that, that, uh, CIDR notation or that subnet, um, because they are interchangeable. It's two ways of expressing the same concept. and so you create this lookup table. Now, when I present you with this lookup table, Chris, you can look at this lookup table now

[00:08:02] Chris Sienko: Yes.

[00:08:03] Tommy Gober: see what slash number, what CIDR notation would we use for two five, five, two, five, five, two, five, five, one, two, eight.

[00:08:11] Chris Sienko: Uh, well, we have 128 in the second column there with the 128 addresses, so I'm going to assume that it's a B25. Woohoo!

[00:08:20] Tommy Gober: Let's see. Good job. You can learn.

[00:08:25] Chris Sienko: I can learn. Slowly, but I can learn. Okay.

[00:08:29] Tommy Gober: So we get into, you know, how do you create this? There's a lot of, um, go poking around on the internet, there's a lot of other instructors, um, that have different, um, test taking hacks and tricks and techniques. And they have these really convoluted tables that you have to memorize. Um, but it gets back to if you understand the how and the why of networking and the how and the why this table is created.

Uh, once, you know, subnetting. This is sort of a questions, not a problem.

[00:08:58] Chris Sienko: Got it.

[00:09:01] Tommy Gober: So I've got one other question here for us. Let's give it a shot here. Somewhat related. It's still in the neighborhood of subnetting, but it's looking at it slightly different way. So how many usable IP addresses can be assigned to hosts on a slash 26 subnet? So there's that CIDR notation coming up again, and like I said, embedded in that or somewhat encoded in that CIDR notation is a lot of information about that. So if we, uh, recall that table that we had from, uh, earlier, uh, and again, you're gonna be able to recreate this from memory whenever you're going to sit down for the exam. Um, at first, the, the, the answer is not readily apparent on

[00:09:45] Chris Sienko: Mm hmm.

[00:09:45] Tommy Gober: You can kind of get a sense of, okay, well, I'm looking at a slash 26.

Is the question. So if I look on my table here, I see a slash 26. The answer choices don't really line up. They're off by a couple of numbers. If you look at how these numbers are, uh, kind of translated from over here. And the reason that they're off by two by design is because you have to give up two addresses.

Whenever you have a subnet, you give up two addresses. One is the name of your network and one is the address. The broadcast for that network. Of course, we get into, um, what those mean, um, as we get through the course. But in this case, you have 64 possible addresses, but notice that the question is asking about how many usable IP addresses.

So, uh, usable versus possible is a very subtle. Phrasing that's on there. And it could be, it could really, really throw you off because if the answer here was 62 or 64, folks not paying attention might be tempted to answer something other

[00:10:48] Chris Sienko: Yeah.

[00:10:48] Tommy Gober: what they're asking here on usable. So we have 64 possible addresses, but the question is asking about usable. And so the answer on this one is C Charlie. Number six, uh, the number is 62 usable IP addresses.

[00:11:03] Chris Sienko: Nice.

[00:11:05] Tommy Gober: All right. And so I have a third one here, Chris.

[00:11:07] Chris Sienko: Yeah. Great.

[00:11:08] Tommy Gober: That's one here. So, uh, we're going to take a trip away from, away from submitting on this one.

[00:11:14] Chris Sienko: Okay.

[00:11:15] Tommy Gober: it gets a little, um, tricky, a little confusing on this one because the answers are so similar to one another, the question is. of the following IP addresses might a network host have if the user reports no internet connectivity? this also is a fun question because it begins to shed some light on a thing that CompTIA really takes to heart, and that is to able to troubleshoot. Issues, right? That's the, where

[00:11:43] Chris Sienko: Absolutely.

[00:11:44] Tommy Gober: academic, this academic knowledge meets the real world is how do I apply this knowledge?

How do we troubleshoot? Well, in this case, the user says they don't have any internet connectivity. What IP address are we going to be looking at from the course? We talk about the different different types of IP addresses. We have private IP addresses. We have public IP addresses. And then there's also some reserved IP address blocks that are used for various, um, for various purposes. And so right off the bat, starting with a 10, going to be a private IP address. Indeed, a lot of organizations, employers use 10 dot networks because they are a huge, uh, bank of IP addresses that, uh, any size organization can make use of. Uh, next up was, we have a one, six, four dot, what is it?

One, one, three 51, one 45. That's a public IP address that belongs to some. Um, IP address holder. Um, and so that's not one that we're going to, uh, have on a user's, uh, individual system

[00:12:50] Chris Sienko: Okay.

[00:12:51] Tommy Gober: answer. See, a lot of folks probably have seen this. A lot of our viewers might have seen some some jokes or memes about 127001. That's a self referential IP address. That one's reserved referring back to a computer or back to a host. It's a way to

[00:13:08] Chris Sienko: Yeah.

[00:13:09] Tommy Gober: Check yourself. Check your network connection. Check your network interface controller. Um, 1 2 7 0 0 1 is self referential. So that's not the answer either,

[00:13:18] Chris Sienko: I feel like, uh, when you have one that looks so completely different from the other four, uh, the easiest thing would be to say, well, that's gotta be the answer. But at the same time you immediately would have to think, well, that's too easy. So it can't possibly be the answer.

[00:13:30] Tommy Gober: too on the nose on that

[00:13:31] Chris Sienko: Well, on the nose. Yeah.

[00:13:33] Tommy Gober: 1 1. There's there's doormats. There's there's T shirts.

[00:13:36] Chris Sienko: Okay.

[00:13:37] Tommy Gober: There's all sorts of nerd

[00:13:38] Chris Sienko: Fabulous.

[00:13:39] Tommy Gober: you can get for this.

[00:13:41] Chris Sienko: All right. Going to Tee Public right after this.

[00:13:44] Tommy Gober: there we go. need this on a shirt. the answer on this one is in fact, a letter D Delta, uh, 169 254 51 145. It looks very, very similar to the, uh, the first three.

You can see that the last two octets here are in fact, all the same, but it's those first two that are the giveaway. And the thing that I, uh, instill in my, in my, uh, learners in the bootcamps is if you see the IP address. Beginning with 169, you're having a bad time. Uh, 169, having a bad time. I have this little jig that I do, it gets it stuck in your head. 169, having a bad time.

[00:14:20] Chris Sienko: all right. Yeah,

[00:14:20] Tommy Gober: The reason for that is because this is an automatic private IP address, and it's also known as a PIPA, the automatic private IP address. This is the IP address that your computer will default to if it cannot reach an IP address server called your DHCP server. If you don't, if you cannot make contact with your DHCP server, your computer kind of gives up and it defaults back to this 169. 254 address. So 169 having a bad time and that's where you're going to be able to then go through and troubleshoot figure out Why can't we connect the dhtp and then you're off to more troubleshooting from that point

[00:14:59] Chris Sienko: that's great. And yeah, I like that. Um, each of these is sort of covering, uh, something that's very foundational on one hand, but at the same time, uh, can, can be easily slipped up. They all have that, just that little, Twist of of something that's that makes it not obvious. So,

[00:15:17] Tommy Gober: Yeah

[00:15:18] Chris Sienko: yeah, so it was like network plus bootcamp.

We're talking about that, of course, at the top, but it ends with a practice exam for the students before the actual exam. Right? So can you tell us how how that practice exam works and how it helps you to sort of retain your knowledge better when it is actually go time for the exam?

[00:15:36] Tommy Gober: Yeah, so we we do have a practice exam that we have throughout the course Um, you can take it different ways. It is part of infosec's exam pass guarantee that we um that we use with our learners, but Um, with that practice exam, it really dives into a breadth of topics that we've got on the exam. It's drawn from the objectives, um, that CompTIA puts out for the network plus, and it's a way to to engage with that content and see how might these questions be styled these questions are being asked to me, because it's not going to come right out and say, you know, which of the following is the a PIPA Oh, it's one six nine.

And it's, 

it's not that clean cut. It's usually kind of embedded somewhat in a, a scenario, you know, the user can't connect, which is the IP address of that. 

Um, and so it's, it's not just going to be a real clean cut, um, uh, sort of question on this. 

And so having that practice can really help lock in and cement those understandings. 

Uh, once you get, uh, past the practice exam, you should be set and ready for the, uh, for the final exam.

[00:16:47] Chris Sienko: Yeah, I think that's, I think that's really smart on their part as well, because I think you're, you know, when you're first starting your, you know, your first job, you know, baby's first networking job or security job or whatever, you, you've got all this sort of theoretical concept in your head. And then someone says.

I can't get this to work. And you're like, well, you know, yeah, I, okay. You know, uh, you know, well, what, what specific thing is it? And they're like, I don't know. So if you, if you, you, you give people that kind of diagnostic mindset of solve the problem by eliminating. Things that it's clearly not and get to the thing that it could be and uh, I think that's that's actually just a really good piece of sort of, uh, first level job, uh, job skill, right?

[00:17:31] Tommy Gober: yeah,

[00:17:33] Chris Sienko: Yeah, so, uh, all right, as we wrap up today, Tommy, what's your best piece of advice for exam day?

[00:17:39] Tommy Gober: relax, relax. So people get so worked up whenever they go to take the exam. Um, you know, I, I recently wrapped up a course at the, at the end, somebody was like, don't think I'm ready for this. I was like, really, honestly, you rarely feel like walking in, like you're going to kick the door in. I'm like, I'm going to show this test.

What's going on. It, you, you always have this, like, do I really know everything? Um, And the fact is that you do, if you've gone through the bootcamp with me, we've talked about all the topics that could be on the exam. We've covered all the objectives. And the truth is that you are ready for this. Uh, trust your gut. I see time and again, uh, people will answer a test question. And then they go back and they go, well, they think about it for a second and then they change it. And the whole time I'm just like,

[00:18:27] Chris Sienko: Mm hmm,

[00:18:28] Tommy Gober: So, know, make sure that you, uh, uh, have covered all the material when you're going into the exam. Um, you rarely ever feel 110 percent prepared for the exam. There's always that mysterious, unknown feeling, but relax, you've got this trust your gut and give it your best.

[00:18:48] Chris Sienko: and that's also good advice in general. I think people of a certain personality, this guy, uh, can, can think, well, if I don't, you know, If you don't know this topic inside out, backwards and forwards, like I wrote the book myself, then why even bother taking the exam? It's clearly going to fall all apart. And, you know, like I think like every important milestone in your life, you're not ready for it.

You, you make yourself ready for it. So I think, uh, yeah, yeah. Relax and, and know that you have more than you got, uh, than you think you've got. So that's great advice. Yeah. Time to go over. Thank you so much for, uh, demystifying the, uh, that network plus exam. This was a blast.

[00:19:23] Tommy Gober: Chris.

[00:19:24] Chris Sienko: Uh, and thank you all for watching this cyber work hack.

If you enjoyed it, share it with someone, you know, uh, it could be your social media contacts, your colleagues, your forum, but best of all, word of mouth recommendations are how shows like this grow their audience and continue and prosper. So make sure to also subscribe to our podcast feed and our YouTube page.

If you type in cyber work and info sec into them. We'll pop up right near the top. We got a, got a special thing going on there. So if you have any topics you want us to cover, drop them in the comments, we'll do what we can to get them on the show. Uh, so until next time, this is Chris Senko, wishing you happy learning.