CompTIA Network+ Exam Objectives Checklist N10-009

1.0 Networking Fundamentals

1.1 Explain concepts related to the Open Systems Interconnection

(OSI) reference model.

• OSI Model
  • Layer 1 – Physical
  • Layer 2 – Data link
  • Layer 3 – Network
  • Layer 4 – Transport
  • Layer 5 – Session
  • Layer 6 – Presentation
  • Layer 7 – Application

1.2 Compare and contrast networking appliances, applications,

and functions.

• Physical and virtual appliances
  • – Router
  • – Switch
  • – Firewall
  • – Intrusion detection system (IDS)/intrusion prevention system (IPS)
  • – Load balancer
  • – Proxy
  • – Network-attached storage (NAS)
  • – Storage area network (SAN)
• – Wireless
  • o Access point (AP)
  • o Controller
• • Applications
  • – Content delivery network (CDN)
• • Functions
  • – Virtual private network (VPN)
  • – Quality of service (QoS)
  • – Time to live (TTL)

1.3 Summarize cloud concepts and connectivity options.

• Network functions virtualization
• (NFV)
• • Virtual private cloud (VPC)
• • Network security groups
• • Network security lists
• • Cloud gateways
  • – Internet gateway
  • – Network address translation (NAT) gateway
• • Cloud connectivity options
  • – VPN
  • – Direct Connect
• • Deployment models
  • – Public
  • – Private
  • – Hybrid
• • Service models        
  • – Software as a service (SaaS)
  • – Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
  • – Platform as a service (PaaS)
• • Scalability
• • Elasticity
• • Multitenancy

1.4 Explain common networking ports, protocols, services,

and traffic types.

• Protocols Ports
  • File Transfer Protocol (FTP) 20/21
  • Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) 22
  • Secure Shell (SSH) 22
  • Telnet 23
  • Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) 25
  • Domain Name System (DNS) 53
  • Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) 67/68
  • Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) 69
  • Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) 80
  • Network Time Protocol (NTP) 123
  • Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) 161/162
  • Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) 389
  • Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) 443
  • Server Message Block (SMB) 445
  • Syslog 514
  • Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Secure (SMTPS) 587
  • Lightweight Directory Access Protocol over SSL (LDAPS) 636
  • Structured Query Language (SQL) Server 1433
  • Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) 3389
  • Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) 5060/5061

• • Internet Protocol (IP) types
  • – Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
  • – Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)
  • – User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
  • – Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE)
  • – Internet Protocol Security (IPSec)
    • o Authentication Header (AH)
    • o Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP)
    • o Internet Key Exchange (IKE)
• • Traffic types
  • – Unicast
  • – Multicast
  • – Anycast
  • – Broadcast

1.5 Compare and contrast transmission media and transceivers.

• • Wireless
  • – 802.11 standards
  • – Cellular
  • – Satellite
• • Wired
  • – 802.3 standards
  • – Single-mode vs. multimode fiber
  • – Direct attach copper (DAC) cable
    • o Twinaxial cable
  • – Coaxial cable
  • – Cable speeds
  • – Plenum vs. non-plenum cable
• • Transceivers
  • – Protocol
    • o Ethernet
    • o Fibre Channel (FC)
• – Form factors
  • o Small form-factor pluggable (SFP)
  • o Quad small form-factor pluggable (QSFP)
• • Connector types
  • – Subscriber connector (SC)
  • – Local connector (LC)
  • – Straight tip (ST)
  • – Multi-fiber push on (MPO)
  • – Registered jack (RJ)11
  • – RJ45
  • – F-type
  • – Bayonet Neill–Concelman (BNC)

1.6 Compare and contrast network topologies, architectures,

and types.

• Mesh
• • Hybrid
• • Star/hub and spoke
• • Spine and leaf
• • Point to point
• • Three-tier hierarchical model
  • – Core
  • – Distribution
  • – Access
• • Collapsed core
• • Traffic flows
  • – North-south
  • – East-west

1.7 Given a scenario, use appropriate IPv4 network addressing.

• Public vs. private
  • – Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA)
  • – RFC1918
  • – Loopback/localhost
• • Subnetting
  • – Variable Length Subnet Mask (VLSM)
  • – Classless Inter-domain Routing (CIDR)
• • IPv4 address classes
  • – Class A
  • – Class B
  • – Class C
  • – Class D
  • – Class E

1.8 Summarize evolving use cases for modern network environments.

• Software-defined network (SDN) and software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN)
  • – Application aware
  • – Zero-touch provisioning
  • – Transport agnostic
  • – Central policy management
• • Virtual Extensible Local Area Network (VXLAN)
  • – Data center interconnect (DCI)
  • – Layer 2 encapsulation
• • Zero trust architecture (ZTA)
  • – Policy-based authentication
  • – Authorization
  • – Least privilege access
• • Secure Access Secure Edge (SASE)/Security Service Edge (SSE)
• • Infrastructure as code (IaC)
  • – Automation
    • o Playbooks/templates/reusable tasks
    • o Configuration drift/compliance
    • o Upgrades
    • o Dynamic inventories
  • – Source control
    • o Version control
    • o Central repository
    • o Conflict identification
    • o Branching
• • IPv6 addressing
  • – Mitigating address exhaustion
  • – Compatibility requirements
    • o Tunneling
    • o Dual stack
    • o NAT64

2.0 Network Implementation

2.1 Explain characteristics of routing technologies.

• Static routing
• • Dynamic routing
  • – Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)
  • – Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP)
  • – Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
• • Route selection
  • – Administrative distance
  • – Prefix length
  • – Metric
• • Address translation
  • – NAT
  • – Port address translation (PAT)
• • First Hop Redundancy Protocol (FHRP)
• • Virtual IP (VIP)
• • Subinterfaces

2.2 Given a scenario, configure switching technologies and features.

• Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN)
  • – VLAN database
  • – Switch Virtual Interface (SVI)
• • Interface configuration
  • – Native VLAN
  • – Voice VLAN
  • – 802.1Q tagging
  • – Link aggregation
  • – Speed
  • – Duplex
• • Spanning tree
• • Maximum transmission unit (MTU)
  • – Jumbo frames

2.3 Given a scenario, select and configure wireless devices and

Technologies.

• Channels
  • – Channel width
  • – Non-overlapping channels
  • – Regulatory impacts
    • o 802.11h
• • Frequency options
  • – 2.4GHz
  • – 5GHz
  • – 6GHz
  • – Band steering
• • Service set identifier (SSID)
  • – Basic service set identifier (BSSID)
  • – Extended service set identifier (ESSID)
• • Network types
  • – Mesh networks
  • – Ad hoc
  • – Point to point
  • – Infrastructure
• • Encryption
  • – Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2)
  • – WPA3
• • Guest networks
  • – Captive portals
• • Authentication
  • – Pre-shared key (PSK) vs. Enterprise
• • Antennas
  • – Omnidirectional vs. directional
• • Autonomous vs. lightweight access point

2.4 Explain important factors of physical installations.

• • Important installation implications
  • – Locations
    • o Intermediate distribution frame (IDF)
    • o Main distribution frame (MDF)
• – Rack size
• – Port-side exhaust/intake
• – Cabling
  • o Patch panel
  • o Fiber distribution panel
• – Lockable

• • Power
  • – Uninterruptible power supply (UPS)
  • – Power distribution unit (PDU)
  • – Power load
  • – Voltage

• • Environmental factors
  • – Humidity
  • – Fire suppression
  • – Temperature

3.0 Network Operations

3.1 Explain the purpose of organizational processes and procedures

•  Documentation
• – Physical vs. logical diagrams
• – Rack diagrams
• – Cable maps and diagrams
• – Network diagrams
  • o Layer 1
  • o Layer 2
  • o Layer 3
• – Asset inventory
  • o Hardware
  • o Software
  • o Licensing
  • o Warranty support
• – IP address management (IPAM)
• – Service-level agreement (SLA)
• – Wireless survey/heat map

• • Life-cycle management
  • – End-of-life (EOL)
  • – End-of-support (EOS)
  • – Software management
    • o Patches and bug fixes
    • o Operating system (OS)
    • o Firmware
• – Decommissioning

• • Change management
  • – Request process tracking/service request

• • Configuration management
  • – Production configuration
  • – Backup configuration
  • – Baseline/golden configuration

3.2 Given a scenario, use network monitoring technologies

• Methods
  • – SNMP
    • o Traps
    • o Management information base (MIB)
    • o Versions
      • o v2c
      • o v3
    • o Community strings
    • o Authentication
• – Flow data
• – Packet capture
• – Baseline metrics
  • o Anomaly alerting/notification
• – Log aggregation
  • o Syslog collector
  • o Security information and event management (SIEM)
• – Application programming interface (API) integration
• – Port mirroring

• • Solutions
  • – Network discovery
    • o Ad hoc
    • o Scheduled
  • – Traffic analysis
  • – Performance monitoring
  • – Availability monitoring
  • – Configuration monitoring

3.3 Explain disaster recovery (DR) concepts

• DR metrics
  • – Recovery point objective (RPO)
  • – Recovery time objective (RTO)
  • – Mean time to repair (MTTR)
  • – Mean time between failures (MTBF)
• • DR sites
  • – Cold site
  • – Warm site
  • – Hot site
• • High-availability approaches
  • – Active-active
  • – Active-passive
• • Testing
  • – Tabletop exercises
  • – Validation tests

3.4 Given a scenario, implement IPv4 and IPv6 network services

• Dynamic addressing
  • – DHCP
    • o Reservations
    • o Scope
    • o Lease time
    • o Options
    • o Relay/IP helper
    • o Exclusions
    • – Stateless address autoconfiguration (SLAAC)

• • Name resolution
  • – DNS
    • o Domain Name Security Extensions (DNSSEC)
    • o DNS over HTTPS (DoH) and DNS over TLS (DoT)
    • o Record types
      • o Address (A)
      • o AAAA
      • o Canonical name (CNAME)
      • o Mail exchange (MX)
      • o Text (TXT)
      • o Nameserver (NS)
      • o Pointer (PTR)
  • o Zone types
    • o Forward
    • o Reverse
  • o Authoritative vs. non-authoritative
  • o Primary vs. secondary
  • o Recursive
• – Hosts file

• • Time protocols
  • – NTP
  • – Precision Time Protocol (PTP)
  • – Network Time Security (NTS)

3.5 Compare and  contrast network access management methods

• • Site-to-site VPN
• • Client-to-site VPN
  • – Clientless
  • – Split tunnel vs. full tunnel
• • Connection methods
  • – SSH
  • – Graphical user interface (GUI)
  • – API
  • – Console
• • Jump box/host
• • In-band vs. out-of-band management

4.0 Network Security

4.1 Explain the importance of basic network security concepts.

• Logical security
  • – Encryption
• o Data in transit
• o Data at rest
  • – Certificates
• o Public key infrastructure (PKI)
• o Self-signed
  • – Identity and access management (IAM)
• o Authentication
  • o Multifactor authentication (MFA)
  • o Single sign-on (SSO)
  • o Remote Authentication Dial-in User Service (RADIUS)
  • o LDAP
  • o Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML)
  • o Terminal Access Controller Access Control System Plus (TACACS+)
  • o Time-based authentication
• o Authorization
  • o Least privilege
  • o Role-based access control
• – Geofencing

• • Physical security
  • – Camera
  • – Locks

• • Deception technologies
  • – Honeypot
  • – Honeynet

• • Common security terminology
  • – Risk
  • – Vulnerability
  • – Exploit
  • – Threat
  • – Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA) triad

• • Audits and regulatory compliance
  • – Data locality
  • – Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS)
  • – General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

• • Network segmentation enforcement
  • – Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
  • – Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), industrial control System (ICS), operational technology (OT)
• – Guest
• – Bring your own device (BYOD)

4.2 Summarize various types of attacks and their impact to

the network

• Denial-of-service (DoS)/
• distributed denial-of-service
• (DDoS)
• • VLAN hopping
• • Media Access Control (MAC)
• flooding
• • Address Resolution Protocol
• (ARP) poisoning
• • ARP spoofing
• • DNS poisoning
• • DNS spoofing
• • Rogue devices and services
  • – DHCP
  • – AP
• • Evil twin
• • On-path attack
• • Social engineering
  • – Phishing
  • – Dumpster diving
  • – Shoulder surfing
  • – Tailgating
• • Malware

4.3 Given a scenario, apply network security features, defense

techniques, and solutions.

• Device hardening
  • – Disable unused ports and Services
  • – Change default passwords

• • Network access control (NAC)
  • – Port security
  • – 802.1X
  • – MAC filtering

• • Key management
• • Security rules

• – Access control list (ACL)
  • – Uniform Resource Locator (URL) filtering
  • – Content filtering

• • Zones

• – Trusted vs. untrusted
  • – Screened subnet

5.0 Network Security

5.1 Explain the troubleshooting methodology

• • Identify the problem
  • – Gather information
  • – Question users
  • – Identify symptoms
  • – Determine if anything has changed
  • – Duplicate the problem, if possible
  • – Approach multiple problems individually
• • Establish a theory of probable cause
  • – Question the obvious
  • – Consider multiple approaches
    • o Top-to-bottom/bottom-to-top OSI model
    • o Divide and conquer
• • Test the theory to determine the cause
  • – If theory is confirmed, determine next steps to resolve problem
  • – If theory is not confirmed, establish a new theory or escalate
• • Establish a plan of action to resolve the problem and identify potential effects
• • Implement the solution or escalate as necessary
• • Verify full system functionality and implement preventive measures if applicable
• • Document findings, actions, outcomes, and lessons learned throughout the process

5.2 Given a scenario, troubleshoot common cabling and

physical interface issues.

• • Cable issues
  • – Incorrect cable
    • o Single mode vs. multimode
    • o Category 5/6/7/8
    • o Shielded twisted pair (STP) vs. unshielded twisted pair (UTP)
  • – Signal degradation
    • o Crosstalk
    • o Interference
    • o Attenuation
  • – Improper termination
  • – Transmitter (TX)/Receiver (RX) transposed
• • Interface issues
  • – Increasing interface counters
    • o Cyclic redundancy check (CRC)
    • o Runts
    • o Giants
    • o Drops
  • – Port status
    • o Error disabled
    • o Administratively down
    • o Suspended
• • Hardware issues
  • – Power over Ethernet (PoE)
    • o Power budget exceeded
    • o Incorrect standard
  • – Transceivers
    • o Mismatch
    • o Signal strength

5.3 Given a scenario, troubleshoot common issues with

network services.

• Switching issues
  • – STP
    • o Network loops
    • o Root bridge selection
    • o Port roles
    • o Port states
  • – Incorrect VLAN assignment
  • – ACLs
• • Route selection
  • – Routing table
  • – Default routes
• • Address pool exhaustion
• • Incorrect default gateway
• • Incorrect IP address
  • – Duplicate IP address
• • Incorrect subnet mask

5.4 Given a scenario, troubleshoot common performance issues.

• Congestion/contention
• • Bottlenecking
• • Bandwidth
  • – Throughput capacity
• • Latency
• • Packet loss
• • Jitter
• • Wireless
  • – Interference
    • o Channel overlap
• – Signal degradation or loss
• – Insufficient wireless coverage
• – Client disassociation issues
• – Roaming misconfiguration

5.5 Given a scenario, use the appropriate tool or protocol to

solve networking issues

• Software tools
  • – Protocol analyzer
  • – Command line
    • o ping
    • o traceroute/tracert
    • o nslookup
    • o tcpdump
    • o dig
    • o netstat
    • o ip/ifconfig/ipconfig
    • o arp
    • – Nmap
    • – Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP)/Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)
  • – Speed tester
• • Hardware tools
  • – Toner
  • – Cable tester
  • – Taps
  • – Wi-Fi analyzer
  • – Visual fault locator

• • Basic networking device commands
  • – show mac-address-table
  • – show route
  • – show interface
  • – show config
  • – show arp
  • – show vlan
  • – show power

ACRONYMS:

• MAC

• MDF

• MDIX

• MFA

• MIB

• MPO

• MTBF

• MTTR

• MTU

• MX

• NAC
• NAS

• NAT

• NFV

• NIC

• NS

• NTP

• NTS

• OS

• OSPF

• OSI

• OT

• PaaS

• PAT

• PCI DSS

• PDU

• PKI

• PoE

• PSK

• PTP

• PTR

• QoS

• QSFP

• RADIUS

• RDP

• RFID

• RIP

• RJ

• RPO

• RSTP

• RTO

• RX

• SaaS

• SAML

• SAN

• SASE

• SC

• SCADA

• SDN

• SD-WAN

• SFP

• SFTP

• SIP

• SIEM

• SLA

• SLAAC

• SMB

• SMTP

• SMTPS

• SNMP

• SOA

• SQL

• SSE

• SSH

• SSID

• SSL

• SSO

• ST

• STP

• SVI

• TACAS+

• TCP

• TFTP

• TTL

• TX

• TXT

• UDP

• UPS

• URL

• USB

• UTM

• UTP

• VIP

• VLAN

• VLSM

• VoIP

• VPC

• VPN

• WAN

• WPA Wi-Fi

• WPS Wi-Fi

• VXLAN

• ZTA