http://programming-genius.blogspot.com/2009/12/computer-networksinterview-questions.

html

http://www.knowledgebase-script.com/demo/article-374.html

http://dev.fyicenter.com/

http://networking.ringofsaturn.com/

http://www.coolinterview.com/interview/20337/

http://www.globalguideline.com/interview_questions/Answer.php?a=Explai n_5_4_3_rule&page=6

http://computernetworkingnotes.com/ccna_certifications/ccna_free_study_ guides.htm http://www.careers-india.com/2007/10/04/computer-networking-questionsasked-in-actual-interviews/

What is difference between Switch & Hub? In a hub, a frame is passed along or "broadcast" to every one of its ports. It doesn't matter that the frame is only destined for one port. The hub has no way of distinguishing which port a frame should be sent to. Passing it along to every port ensures that it will reach its intended destination. This places a lot of traffic on the network and can lead to poor network response times. A switch, however, keeps a record of the MAC addresses of all the devices connected to it. With this information, a switch can identify which system is sitting on which port. So when a frame is received, it knows exactly which port to send it to, without significantly increasing network response times. Switches operate at Layer 2 Data Link Layer

Hub operates at Layer 1 Physical Layer

A Hub is a Layer1(1 Physical Layer) device. It is a Broadcas device which sends out the information to all the devices connected to it. It is a non-intelligent device which is used in smaller networks and increases the network traffic. A Hub is a multiport repeater. A Switch is also a Layer2(Data Link Layer) device but an intelligent device which forwards packets based on the MAC address. It stores information in the form of CAM Tables (Content addressable Memory). It works on CSMA/CD by sensing the medium whether it is free before sending the packet. A Switch is a multiport- Bridge.

hub has layer 1(physical layer) device and it has one broadcasdomain and one collision domain. it works with shared bandwidth. it works with 0's &1's. it is a dummy device. Switch is a layer 2 (datalink layer) device and it has one broadcasdomain and no.of collision domains.it works with fixed B.W. It is an inteligent device.

How Gateway is different from Routers?

Router is device that work at third level of OSI model gateway work at presentation layer of OSI model

Router: A device that determine the optimal path along which network traffic should be forwarded. Routers allow different networks to communicate with each other. They forward packets from one network to another based on network layer information. A gateway can interpret and translate the different protocols that are used on two distinct networks. Unlike routers that successfully connect networks with protocols that are similar, a gateway perform an application layer conversion of information from one protocol stack to another. Now in laymen's terms. A gateway, as linksys is selling now for your home, includes the

cable modem and a router all in one unit. So basically, a gateway as linksys defines it is a router and a cable modem in one unit.

A gateway acts as a conversion from one protocol to another or in the case of VoIP from the VoIP network to the POTS network. A router works by looking at the IP address in the packet and decides if it is for internal use or if the packet should move outside the network (to the WAN). In a VoIP conversation,

The original IP addressing design was based on Address Classes.

In the original Internet routing scheme developed in the 1970s, sites were assigned addresses from one of three classes: Class A, Class B and Class C. The address classes differ in size and number. Class A addresses are the largest, but there are few of them. Class Cs are the smallest, but they are numerous. Classes D and E are also defined, but not used in normal operation. To say that class-based IP addressing in still used would be true only in the loosest sense. Many addressing designs are still class-based, but an increasing number can only be explained using the more general concept of CIDR, which is backwards compatible with address classes. Suffice it to say that at one point in time, you could request the Internet NIC to assign you a class A, B or C address. To get the larger class B addresses, you might have to supply some justification, but only the class A was really tough to get. In any case, NIC would set the network bits, or n-bits, to some unique value and inform the local network engineer. It would then be up to the engineer to assign each of his hosts an IP address starting with the assigned n-bits, followed by host bits, or h-bits, to make the address unique. Internet routing used to work like this: A router receiving an IP packet extracted its Destination Address, which was classified (literally) by examining its first one to four bits. Once the address's class had been determined, it was broken down into network and

host bits. Routers ignored the host bits, and only needed to match the network bits to find a route to the network. Once a packet reached its target network, its host field was examined for final delivery. Summary of IP Address Classes Class A - 0nnnnnnn hhhhhhhh hhhhhhhh hhhhhhhh

First bit 0; 7 network bits; 24 host bits Initial byte: 0 - 127 126 Class As exist (0 and 127 are reserved) 16,777,214 hosts on each Class A

Class B - 10nnnnnn nnnnnnnn hhhhhhhh hhhhhhhh

First two bits 10; 14 network bits; 16 host bits Initial byte: 128 - 191 16,384 Class Bs exist 65,532 hosts on each Class B

Class C - 110nnnnn nnnnnnnn nnnnnnnn hhhhhhhh

First three bits 110; 21 network bits; 8 host bits Initial byte: 192 - 223 2,097,152 Class Cs exist 254 hosts on each Class C

Class D - 1110mmmm mmmmmmmm mmmmmmmm mmmmmmmm

First four bits 1110; 28 multicast address bits Initial byte: 224 - 247 Class Ds are multicast addresses - see RFC 1112

Class E - 1111rrrr rrrrrrrr rrrrrrrr rrrrrrrr

First four bits 1111; 28 reserved address bits Initial byte: 248 - 255 Reserved for experimental use

What is Brouter?

Brouter is a network device which acts both as a brige and as a router.

Brouter => Bridge + router

SO in order to understand the functionality of brouter,you need to understand bridge and router

Bridge

Bridge is a device which makes two different networks communicate.

For example say there are two networks, one is ethernet and other one is wireless LAN which is of different standards.These two networks can be connected with the help of Bridge.

Router

Router is device which receives data packets with destination addresses. The router finds the best path to reach the destination with its routing algorithms.

How Brouter Differ from Router ?

What is Subnet? A portion of a network that shares a common address component. On TCP/IP networks, subnets are defined as all devices whose IP addresses have the same prefix. For example, all devices with IP addresses that start with 100.100.100. would be part of the same subnet.

Dividing the network into smaller groups is a subnet.

What is Frame relay, in which layer it comes?

FRAME RELAY is packet-switching protocol for connecting devices on a Wide Area Network (WAN). Frame Relay networks in the U.S. support data transfer rates at T-1 (1.544 Mbps) and T-3 (45 Mbps) speeds. In fact, you can think of Frame Relay as a way of utilizing existing T-1 and T-3 lines owned by a service provider. Most telephone companies now provide Frame Relay service for customers who want connections at 56 Kbps to T-1 speeds. (In Europe, Frame Relay speeds vary from 64 Kbps to 2 Mbps. it operats at datalink layer os osi model. *Frame Relay is a high-performance WAN protocol that operates at the physical and data link layers of the OSI reference model. *frame relay provides dynamic bandwidth allocation and congestion control

What is Terminal Emulation, in which layer it comes?

The use of software, installed on PC or LAN server, that allows the PC to function as if it were dumb terminal directly attached to a particular type of mainframe. Telnet is also called as terminal emulation. It belongs to application layer.

What is Beaconing?
The process that allows a network to self-repair networks problems. The stations on the network notify the other stations on the ring when they are not receiving the transmissions. Beaconing is used in Token ring and FDDI networks.

What is NETBIOS and NETBEUI? NetBIOS Network Basic Input / Output System An application-programming interface (API) that can be used by programs on a local area network (LAN). NetBIOS provides programs with a uniform set of commands for requesting the lower-level services required to manage names, conduct sessions, and send datagrams between nodes on a network. NetBEUI NetBIOS Extended User Interface

An improved version of the NetBIOS protocol, a network protocol native to Microsoft Networking. It is usually used in small, department-size local area networks (LANs) of 1 to 200 clients. It can use Token Ring source routing as its only method of routing. And

NetBIOS: netBIOS protocol is used for communication within a LAN and operates at the session layer of the OSI layer and provides three type of services namely Name service,Session service and Datagram service. NetBEUI is supported by LAN manager,LAN server,Windows 95 and Windows NT and provide services similar to destination.

What is Attenuation? Attenuation means loss of signal due to external interference or long distance Atenuation is that reducing the frequency of the signal by the effect of external interference.

What is a MAC Address?

A MAC address, or Media Access Control address, is a 48- or 64-bit address associated with a network adapter. While IP addresses are associated with software, MAC addresses are linked to the hardware of network adapters. For this reason, the MAC address is sometimes called the hardware address, the burned-in address (BIA), or the physical address. MAC addresses are expressed in hexadecimal notation in the following format: 01-23-45-67-89-AB, in the case of a 48-bit address, or 01-23-45-67-89-AB-CD-EF, in the case of a 64-bit address. Colons (:) are sometimes used instead of dashes (-). MAC addresses are often considered permanent, but in some circumstances, they can be changed. There are two types of MAC addresses:

Universally Administered Address

The UAA, or Universally Administered Address, is the most commonly used type of MAC address. This address is assigned to the network adapter when it is manufactured. The first three octets define the manufacturer, while the second three octets vary and identify the individual adapter. All network adapter manufacturers have their own code,

called the Organizationally Unique Identifier (OUI). For example, in the MAC address 00-14-22-01-23-45, the first three octets are 00-14-22. This is the OUI for Dell. Other common OUIs include 00-04-DC for Nortel, 00-40-96 for Cisco, and 00-30-BD for Belkin. Most large manufacturers of networking equipment have multiple OUIs.

Locally Administered Address

The LAA, or Locally Administered Address, is an address that changes an adapter's MAC address. The LAA is a type of administered MAC address, and it is possible to change the LAA of a network adapter to any address of allowed length. When the LAA is set, the network adapter uses the LAA as its MAC address. Otherwise, the network adapter uses the UAA as its MAC address. All devices on the same subnet must have different MAC addresses, however. MAC addresses are very useful in diagnosing network issues, such as duplicate IP addresses, so it is a good practice to allow devices to use their UAAs instead of assigning LAAs, unless there is a compelling reason to do so. MAC addresses are useful for security purposes, as they are only rarely changed from the default. IP addresses can change dynamically, especially on networks using DHCP to assign IP addresses, so MAC addresses are often a more reliable way to identify senders and receivers of network traffic. On wireless networks, MAC address filtering is a common security measure to prevent unwanted network access. In MAC address filtering, a wireless router is configured to accept traffic from certain MAC addresses. In this way, as whitelisted devices are assigned new IP addresses through DHCP, they retain their ability to communicate on the network. Any intruder attempting to impersonate a valid user on the network by masquerading with a faked IP address will not be able to do so because the computer's MAC address will not match any of those in the whitelist. This security method is only minimally successful, however, as a determined intruder can fake a MAC address almost as easily as an IP address.

How to Find the MAC Address of Your Computer

http://www.wikihow.com/Find-the-MAC-Address-of-Your-Computer.

What is ICMP? ICMP Internet Control Message Protocol It is a Network Layer Internet protocol, which can report errors and status information. We can use the ping command to send ICMP echo request messages and record the receipt of ICMP echo reply messages. With these messages, we can detect network or host communication failures and troubleshoot common TCP/IP connectivity problems.

And

Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) is a protocol used to pass information related to network operation between hosts, routers and gateways in network level.
There are four major functions as follows: * Announce network errors when the network being unreachable. * Announce network congestion when a router over-buffer due to too many packets transmitting. * Assist Troubleshooting when packets send over a network to compute the loss percentages and round-trip times. * Announce Timeouts when TTL of an IP packet drops to zero, where a packet being discards.

****Protocols according to layers:-http://www.protocols.com/pbook/tcpip1.htm

PDU Names on the Layers of the OSI Model OSI Layer Application Presentation Session Transport Network Data Link Physical PDU Name Data Data Data Segment Packet Frame Bits

Read more: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/getting-to-know-the-osi-modelfor-the-ccna-exam.html#ixzz1ST64uKdu

THE OSI REFERENCE MODEL:---

http://www.thecertificationhub.com/networkplus/the_osi_ref_model.htm

What is difference between ARP and RARP?

ARP (Address resolution Protocol)converts IP address of Destination to physical address by broadcasting in Lan. The host whose ip address matches replies his physical address so data transfer can occur in datalink layer example: 10.43.5.2->ARP-What is physical address of 10.43.5.3?(to all in LAN) 10.43.5.3 -> it is AB:56:89:67:43:78 (to 10.43.5.2)

RARP(Reverse ARP) converts Physical address of Source to IP address. It is used by machine to know what is my IP address? it broadcast RARP to all in LAN(Like do you know my IP) The RARP server replies that this is your IP AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF:GG->What is my IP address?(to all in LAN) RARP server -> It is 1.2.4.5 (to AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF:GG) ARP is layer 2 protocal used by layer 3

simply says arp s adress resolution protocol....that s it convert the physical address in to logical address....the reverse process s take on rarp(reverse address resolution protocol) ARP (address resolution protocol)its port number is 56.ARP finds the Hardware address of the Host from a known IP address and convert the IP address to MAC address.RARP (reverse address resolution protocol) port no 42,convert MAC to IP address,from Layer 2 to Layer 3.

What is the difference between TFTP and FTP application layer protocols? TFTP Trivial File Transfer Protocol

A stripped down version of FTP, easy to use and fast. TFTP has no Directory browsing, no Authentication and insecure it can only send and receive files. FTP File Transfer Protocol The TCP/IP protocol used for transmitting files between network nodes. FTP allows access to both Directories and files, manipulating directories, typing file contents and copying files between hosts. The Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) allows a local host to obtain files from a remote host but does not provide reliability or security. It uses the fundamental packet delivery services offered by UDP. The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the standard mechanism provided by TCP / IP for copying a file from one host to another. It uses the services offered by TCP and so is reliable and secure. It establishes two connections (virtual circuits) between the hosts, one for data transfer and another for control information.

FTP uses TCP/IP Protocol and is connection orientated this means that it uses error checking and flow control where TFTP does not - it uses the basic UDP connectionless protocol, so no error checking or flow control.
Explain 5-4-3 rule?

In a Ethernet network, between any two points on the network, there can be no more than five network segments or four repeaters, and of those five segments only three of segments can be populated.

What is MAU? Short for Media Access Unit, a MAU is also known as an Ethernet transceiver or MSAU (MultiStation Access Unit) is an adapter, connector, or stand alone device that enables a network device to be connected to a token ring network. A MAU is one form of fault tolerance that helps prevent issues if a network device or computer goes down and are commonly available as either active or passive. An active MAU is not powered and does not in any way strengthen the signal from a device. A passive MAU is powered and repeats and strengthens a signal.

What is the difference between routable and non- routable protocols?

Routable protocols can work with a router and can be used to build large networks. NonRoutable protocols are designed to work on small, local networks and cannot be used with a router

What is subnet mask?

It is a term that makes distinguish between network address and host address in IP address. Subnet mask value 0 defines host partition in IP address and value 1 255 defines Network address. What is logical link control? One of two sublayers of the data link layer of OSI reference model, as defined by the IEEE 802 standard. This sublayer is responsible for error detection but not correction, flow control and framing. One of two sublayers of the data link layer of OSI reference model, as defined by the IEEE 802 standard. This sublayer is responsible for maintaining the link between computers when they are sending data across the physical network connection.

What is Virtual Path? Along any transmission path from a given source to a given destination, a group of virtual circuits can be grouped together into what is called path.

What is packet filter? Packet filter is a standard router equipped with some extra functionality. The extra functionality allows every incoming or outgoing packet to be inspected. Packets meeting some criterion are forwarded normally. Those that fail the test are dropped. On the Internet, packet filtering is the process of passing or blocking packets at a network interface based on source and destination addresses, ports, or protocols. The process is used in conjunction with packet mangling and Network Address Translation (NAT). Packet filtering is often part of a firewall program for protecting a local network from unwanted intrusion.

What is multicast routing? Sending a message to a group is called multicasting, and its routing algorithm is called multicast routing.

What is IGP (Interior Gateway Protocol)?( It is any routing protocol used within an autonomous system.)
Interior Gateway Protocols (IGP) are used to route Internet communications within a local area network, such as within an office building. The two main types of IGP protocols are described in the following sections, along with an example proprietary protocol for comparison purposes. Routing Information Protocol (RIP) Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (IGRP).

What is EGP (Exterior Gateway Protocol)? It is the protocol the routers in neighboring autonomous systems use to identify the set of networks that can be reached within or via each autonomous system. What is Autonomous System? A group of Networks under mutual administration that share the same routing methodology. Autonomous Systems are subdivided by Areas and must be assigned an individual 16-bit number by the IANA. It is a collection of routers under the control of a single administrative authority and that uses a common Interior Gateway Protocol.

What is BGP (Border Gateway Protocol)?

BGP performs interdomain routing in Transmission-Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networks. BGP is an exterior gateway protocol (EGP), which means that it performs routing between multiple autonomous systems or domains and exchanges routing and reachability information with other BGP systems.
The Border Gateway Protocol is an inter-Autonomous System routing protocol. The primary function of a BGP speaking system is to exchange network reachability information with other BGP systems.

It is a protocol used to advertise the set of networks that can be reached with in an autonomous system. BGP enables this information to be shared with the autonomous system. This is newer than EGP (Exterior Gateway Protocol).

The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is the core routing protocol of the Internet. It maintains a table of IP networks or 'prefixes' which designate network reachability among autonomous systems (AS). It is described as a path vector protocol. BGP does not use traditional Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP) metrics, but makes routing decisions based on path, network policies and/or rulesets.