What is a PAN?
Personal Area Network: A network for close-range devices, commonly using Bluetooth (e.g., mice, keyboards, phones).
Contrast LAN vs. WAN.
LAN (Local): Small geographic area (office/home) using switches. WAN (Wide): Large area (countries/continents) using routers.
What is a VLAN?
Virtual LAN: A method of grouping users based on administrative boundaries (like department) rather than physical location.
What is a Wireless Mesh Network (WMN)?
A network that connects multiple access points together to expand wireless coverage over a large area.
Contrast DSL vs. Cable internet.
DSL: Uses phone lines with different frequencies for voice/data. Cable: Shares a coaxial TV network with multiple subscribers.
Why is Satellite internet poor for gaming or VoIP?
High latency (delay) because the signal must travel to space and back.
What is the difference between Tethering and a Mobile Hotspot?
Tethering: Connecting one device to a phone via USB or Bluetooth. Hotspot: Phone acts as a Wi-Fi access point for multiple devices.
What are the three basic operations of TCP reliability?
- Numbering/tracking segments; 2. Acknowledgment of received data; 3. Retransmitting unacknowledged data.
Why is UDP called a “Best-Effort” protocol?
It has low overhead and does not acknowledge if data was received (unreliable but fast).
Match the Port: 20/21
FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
Match the Port: 22
SSH (Secure Shell)
Match the Port: 23
Telnet (Insecure remote access)
Match the Port: 25
SMTP (Sending Email)
Match the Port: 53
DNS (Domain Name System)
Match the Port: 80 vs. 443
80: HTTP (Web); 443: HTTPS (Secure Web).
Match the Port: 110 vs. 143
110: POP3 (Retrieve email); 143: IMAP (Retrieve/Sync email).
Match the Port: 3389
RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol)
What are the two primary Smart Home mesh protocols?
Zigbee (802.15.4) and Z-Wave (Proprietary/Public).
What does a DNS Server do?
It translates human-readable domain names (cisco.com) into numerical IP addresses.
What is the role of a Proxy Server?
It acts on behalf of a client to hide internal hosts and cache frequently accessed web pages for speed.
Define AAA (Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting).
A security framework to control who can access a network, what they can do, and log what they did.
Contrast a Hub vs. a Switch.
Hub: Sends data to ALL ports (inefficient). Switch: Records MAC addresses and sends data only to the specific destination port.
What is the primary function of a Router?
To connect different networks together and forward traffic based on IP addresses.
(Visual for hardware comparison)
