CompTIA Network+ — All Questions

During troubleshooting, a technician glances at a switch port's LEDs to quickly gauge link status and activity before running deeper tests. What do these indicators primarily show?

• a.The spanning-tree root bridge for the VLAN
• b.The DNS server in use
• c.Link status and activity✓
• d.The DHCP lease duration

Port status LEDs quickly indicate link presence, speed, and activity, giving a fast first read before deeper testing. A dark link LED points to a Layer 1 problem. They are the quickest physical-layer sanity check.

A known bug in a device's current software version causes intermittent crashes, and the vendor has published a corrected release. What is the appropriate remediation?

• a.Reassign the device's IP address
• b.Replace all the network cabling
• c.Apply the vendor's firmware update✓
• d.Increase the interface MTU to work around the crashes

Applying the vendor's firmware/software update that fixes a known bug is the correct remediation for a defect-driven failure. Change management and a maintenance window should govern the upgrade. Verifying the release notes confirms the fix applies.

Midway through a tricky fault, a technician reviews the network's baseline and documentation to compare current behavior against the known-good state. Why is this step valuable?

• a.It replaces the need for change management approval entirely
• b.It eliminates the need to test any theory
• c.It reveals deviations from the known-good state✓
• d.It automatically repairs the misconfiguration

Comparing current behavior against baselines and documentation quickly reveals what has deviated from the known-good state, focusing the investigation. It turns vague symptoms into concrete differences. This is why keeping documentation current pays off during outages.

For long-term packet capture on a critical link, a team wants a passive inline device that copies all traffic to a monitoring port without relying on switch resources or dropping frames under load. Which tool fits?

• a.A network tap✓
• b.A tone generator paired with an inductive probe
• c.A punchdown tool
• d.A loopback plug

A network tap is a passive inline device that copies full-duplex traffic to a monitor port without burdening the switch CPU or dropping frames the way an oversubscribed SPAN port can. It gives an unaltered, reliable feed for capture and analysis. It is preferred over port mirroring for high-fidelity, sustained monitoring.