Network+ Troubleshooting and Tools Flashcards
7 cards from real COMPTIA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Network+ Troubleshooting and Tools flashcards as text
A technician uses a toner probe kit. What is the primary purpose of this tool?
Answer: Locating and tracing a specific cable through walls or a patch panel
A toner probe (tone generator and probe) is used to identify and trace the path of a specific cable among many others.
Which of the following symptoms is most characteristic of a broadcast storm?
Answer: Sudden complete network performance collapse affecting all devices
A broadcast storm causes exponentially increasing broadcast traffic that saturates the entire network, causing complete performance collapse for all devices.
What does a high number of CRC errors on a switch port most likely indicate?
Answer: Physical layer issues such as a faulty cable or NIC
CRC errors indicate corrupted frames arriving at the switch port, most commonly caused by physical media problems like a bad cable or failing NIC.
A technician needs to capture and analyze network packets in real time. Which tool is best suited for this?
Answer: Wireshark
Wireshark is a packet analyzer (protocol analyzer) that captures and displays network traffic in real time for detailed inspection.
An administrator notices the network is slow only during business hours. Which tool would best help identify which application or host is consuming the most bandwidth?
Answer: Protocol analyzer / bandwidth monitor
A bandwidth monitor or protocol analyzer (e.g., SNMP-based tools or NetFlow) can identify top talkers and applications consuming bandwidth over time.
What is the purpose of an OTDR (Optical Time-Domain Reflectometer)?
Answer: Testing and locating faults in fiber optic cables
An OTDR sends light pulses into a fiber cable and analyzes reflections to locate breaks, splices, connectors, and measure loss.
A user can ping a server by IP address but not by hostname. What is the most likely cause?
Answer: DNS resolution is failing for that hostname
If IP connectivity works but hostname resolution fails, the issue is with DNS — the name is not resolving to the correct IP address.