IT 263                                                 John Kristoff
Mid-term Exam Guide                                 January 29, 2007


Exam Format

The midterm exam will consist of multiple choice, fill in the blank and
short essay questions.  The exam will take you about 1 to 1 1/2 hours to
complete, but you have as much time as you need.  If you are having an
unreasonably difficult time with the exam, chances are others are as
well.  Do the questions you know best first and go back to the hard ones
later.  There is a grading curve for the final grade to correct any
problems in the exam or my instruction that led up to the exam.

The exam is closed book, closed notes.  No calculators, computers or
electronic devices are allowed.  Only basic math skills are necessary
for the exam.  You will have enough paper as necessary, but if you
need more you can ask the proctor for additional sheets.  A final word
of caution, DO NOT CHEAT!

Topics Covered

The book, required reading and lecture materials should be used as
reference material to study from.  However, class lectures and class
discussions are equally as important references for the exam.  You
may want to review prior class material using course online.  Below
is a list of concepts and technologies you should be comfortable with
in order to do well on the exam.

I. Introduction to Networking and Security
   A. Protocols
   B. Layering
   C. Encapsulation
   D. Addressing, Naming, Forwarding
   E. Flow Control, Error Control, Fragmentation

II. Wired and Wireless LANs
    A. Cabling
    B. Ethernet and CSMA/CD
    C. Wireshark/Ethereal
    D. LAN Hubs, Bridges and Switches

III. Internet Protocol (IP)
     A. IP Datagram Format and Functions
     B. IP Addressing

IV. TCP/IP Protocol Suite
    A. ARP
    B. TCP key features and functions
    C. UDP key features and functions
    D. DNS

V. IP Network Operations
   A. traceroute, netstat and ping
   B. Routing, routing protocols and peering
   # POSTPONED TO FINAL C. Network Address Translation
   # POSTPONED TO FINAL D. Packet Filtering


Sample Exam Questions

1. What is something the the command line utility 'netstat' can tell
   you in Microsoft Windows or UNIX?

2. Describe what peering is.  Who does it and why?  What protocols or
   technologys are generally involved?

3. What is the maximum number of /26 networks you can make out of a
   /24 address space using IPv4?

4. Of the following, which address(es) should not be present in IP
   datagram source or destination address fields on the public Internet?

    a. 12.62.5.254 
    b. 242.52.9.54
    c. 10.3.2.1
    d. 140.192.5.255
    e. 127.55.121.1

5. Covert the following IP address from binary to decimal:
   00110100.11101001.00110100.01100111

6. Describe the differences between IEEE layer 2 addressing and IP
   addressing?  Compare the sizes, hierarchy, assignment and issues
   in implementation.

7. The IEEE was responsible for defining the Internet Protocol (IP).
   True or false?

8. What does a transparent bridge do with a frame whose destination
   address it doesn't recognize?

9. What is the difference between unicast, multicast and broadcast?

10. What will a router do with an IP packet whose TTL field is set
    to zero?

11. How many hosts can be uniquely addressed if the subnet mask is
    255.255.252.0?

12. If a station's gateway is 10.255.10.254, what is its subnet
    mask? (assume classless addressing)

    a. This is an illegal address
    b. 10.255.255.255
    c. Cannot be determined
    d. This is a loopback address

13. What are the documents used by the IETF to document practices
    and standards for the Internet?

14. What field in the IP header protects against routing loops?

15. In the original class hierarchy of IP addressing, which
    class of addresses would an address fall if its first 4 bits
    started with 1100?

16. What is the subnet mask /20 in dotted decimal notation?

17. Imagine a LAN with 4 stations attached to it.  Draw a picture
    of the LAN as a star wired topology, a bus wired topology and a
    ring wired topology (3 pictures total) 

18. Copper cabling tends to have better transmission qualities than
    fiber optic cabling.  True or false?

19. Explain in detail, how an Ethernet station arbitrates access to
    the LAN for frame transmission.

20. How many bits in a standard IEEE 802 LAN based station address?

21. Why has the original class hierarchy of IP addressing been abandoned?

22. If you had a router with 4 interfaces (4 IP networks) and a total IP
    address space of 140.192.5.0/22 to work with, how might you divide
    the address space equally among the subnet?

23. What part of the IP datagram makes the 'traceroute' utility possible?

24. Give four common pieces of information that a DHCP server will
    give to a DHCP client.

25. What is the purpose and benefit of a network access point (NAP) or
    exchange for Internet connectivity?  Who uses such a thing?

26. Describe the process of discovering an IP host's Ethernt MAC
    address.

27. You start up your PC and load a local HTML file that contains a
    link to http://www.yahoo.com.  Assume no local web caching is
    being done.  Describe the network communications that takes place
    to pull up Yahoo!'s web page.

28. IP typically is encapsulated in Ethernet and TCP is encapsulated
    within IP.  True or False.

29. Match the terms with the phrase that best describes them:

    Flow control        Segmenting packets into smaller parts
    Error control       May help detect corrupted packets
    Fragmentation       May regulate the rate of transmission

30. List three parts of an IP datagram a packet filter may act upon.

31. Match the tools with the common usage:

    traceroute          determine if a host reachable
    ping                examine running network services and routing tables
    netstat             map out the path between two hosts