Cisco Certified Support Technician (CCST) Networking Flashcards

A VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) logically segments a single physical switch into multiple isolated broadcast domains, improving security and reducing unnecessary broadcast traffic.

The exam code is 100-150, and candidates are given 50 minutes to complete it.

Certiport, a Pearson VUE business, delivers the CCST exams at authorized testing centers or via remote proctoring.

The exam objectives are organized into 6 domains covering standards and concepts, addressing, endpoints and media, infrastructure, diagnosing problems, and security.

Application, Presentation, Session, Transport, Network, Data Link, and Physical.

Four layers: Application, Transport, Internet, and Network Access (sometimes split into Link and Physical), which map onto the seven-layer OSI model.

A frame is a Data Link Layer (Layer 2) protocol data unit that includes MAC addressing, while a packet is a Network Layer (Layer 3) protocol data unit that includes IP addressing.

A LAN (Local Area Network) covers a small area like an office or building; a WAN (Wide Area Network) spans large geographic distances connecting multiple LANs; a MAN (Metropolitan Area Network) covers a city-sized area, larger than a LAN but smaller than a WAN.

A PAN (Personal Area Network) connects devices within a very short range around a single person, such as via Bluetooth, while a WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) provides wireless connectivity across a local area, typically via Wi-Fi access points.

10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16 are reserved for private use and are not routable on the public internet.

CIDR (Classless Inter-Domain Routing) notation expresses an IP address with its subnet mask, where the number after the slash indicates how many bits of the address are used for the network portion.

An IPv6 address is 128 bits long, written as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits separated by colons, with consecutive zero groups optionally compressed using a double colon.

A link-local address is used for communication only within a single network segment and is not routable; it uses the fe80::/10 prefix and is automatically assigned to every IPv6-enabled interface.

A subnet mask defines which portion of an IP address identifies the network versus the host, while a default gateway is the router address a device sends traffic to when the destination is outside its own subnet.

RJ-45 connectors terminate Ethernet twisted-pair cabling, while RJ-11 connectors are used for telephone lines; both use modular jack designs but differ in pin count and width.

A straight-through cable connects dissimilar devices such as a PC to a switch, while a crossover cable connects similar devices such as switch to switch; modern NICs with Auto-MDIX often make this distinction unnecessary.

Single-mode fiber uses a narrow core and laser light to carry a single signal path over long distances, while multimode fiber uses a wider core and LED light suited for shorter-distance, lower-cost connections.

LED status lights on Cisco switches and routers indicate port link status, activity, duplex mode, and speed, letting a technician quickly diagnose physical-layer connectivity without a console session.

A switch forwards frames between devices on the same network based on MAC addresses (Layer 2), while a router forwards packets between different networks based on IP addresses (Layer 3).

The 'show ip interface brief' command displays a summary of interface status, IP addresses, and up/down state on a Cisco IOS device.

Traceroute identifies the path a packet takes across routed hops to a destination, displaying each intermediate router and the round-trip time, useful for isolating where connectivity fails.

Ping tests basic reachability between two hosts using ICMP Echo Request and Echo Reply messages, confirming that a target device is responding on the network.

Wireshark is a packet capture and protocol analysis tool that lets technicians inspect live or recorded network traffic in detail to diagnose issues at multiple protocol layers.

A structured troubleshooting approach typically involves identifying the problem, establishing a theory of probable cause, testing the theory, implementing a solution, and verifying full functionality.

Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability — the three foundational goals of information security that guide how systems and data are protected.

Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting — a framework for verifying identity, granting appropriate access, and tracking user activity on a network.

A firewall filters network traffic based on defined rules such as source/destination address, port, or protocol, permitting or denying packets to protect a network from unauthorized access.

WPA3 improves on WPA2 by using stronger encryption and Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE) for the handshake, offering better protection against offline password-guessing attacks than WPA2's pre-shared key exchange.

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) automatically assigns IP addresses, subnet masks, default gateways, and DNS servers to devices on a network, eliminating the need for manual IP configuration.

DNS (Domain Name System) translates human-readable domain names into IP addresses so that devices can locate and connect to network resources without users needing to remember numeric addresses.