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Q 1. Explain different types of networks.

Ans: Below are few types of Network:

Q 2. What is internetworking ?

Ans: Internetworking is a combination of two words, inter and

networking which implies an association between totally
different nodes or segments. This connection area unit is
established through intercessor devices akin to routers or
gateways. The first term for associate degree internetwork was
interconnected. This interconnection is often among or between
public, private, commercial, industrial, or governmental
networks. Thus, associate degree internetwork could be an
assortment of individual networks, connected by intermediate
networking devices, that function as one giant network.

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Q 3. Tell me something about VPN (Virtual Private
Network)

Ans: VPN or the Virtual Private Network is a private WAN (Wide

Area Network) built on the internet. It allows the creation of a
secured tunnel (protected network) between different networks
using the internet (public network). By using the VPN, a client
can connect to the organization’s network remotely. The below
diagram shows an organizational WAN network over Australia
created using VPN:

Q 4. What are the different types of VPN ?

Ans: Few types of VPN are:

• Access VPN: Access VPN is used to provide connectivity to
remote mobile users and telecommuters. It serves as an
alternative to dial-up connections or ISDN (Integrated
Services Digital Network) connections. It is a low-cost
solution and provides a wide range of connectivity.
• Site-to-Site VPN: A Site-to-Site or Router-to-Router VPN
is commonly used in large companies having branches in
different locations to connect the network of one office to
another in different locations. There are 2 sub-categories as
mentioned below:
• Intranet VPN: Intranet VPN is useful for connecting remote
offices in different geographical locations using shared
infrastructure (internet connectivity and servers) with the
same accessibility policies as a private WAN (wide area
network).

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 • Extranet VPN: Extranet VPN uses shared infrastructure
over an intranet, suppliers, customers, partners, and other
entities and connects them using dedicated connections.

Q 5. Name some services provided by the application

layer in the Internet model ?

Ans: Some services provided by the application layer in the

Internet model are as follows:
• Mail services
• Directory services
• File transfer
• Access management
• Network virtual terminal

Q 6. What is a server farm ?

Ans: A server farm is a set of many servers interconnected

together and housed within the same physical facility. A server
farm provides the combined computing power of many servers
by simultaneously executing one or more applications or
services. A server farm is generally a part of an enterprise
data center or a component of a supercomputer. A server farm
is also known as a server cluster or computer ranch.

Q 7. Name the three means of user authentication.

Ans: There is biometrics (e.g. a thumbprint, iris scan), a

token, or a password. There is also two-level authentication,
which employs two of those methods.

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Q 8. What is a zone-based firewall ?

Ans: The A Zone-based firewall is an advanced method of

stateful firewall. In a stateful firewall, a stateful database is
maintained in which the source IP address, destination IP
address, source port number, and destination port number are
recorded. Due to this, only the replies are allowed i.e. if the
traffic is Generated from inside the network then only the replies
(of inside network traffic) coming from outside the network are
allowed.
Cisco IOS router can be made firewall through two methods:
• By using CBAC: create an access list and apply it to the
interfaces keeping in mind what traffic should be allowed or
denied and in what direction. This has an extra overhead for
the administrator.
• Using a Zone-based firewall.

Q 9. What are nodes and links ?

Ans: Node: Any communicating device in a network is called a

Node. Node is the point of intersection in a network. It can
send/receive data and information within a network. Examples
of the node can be computers, laptops, printers, servers,
modems, etc.
Link: A link or edge refers to the connectivity between two
nodes in the network. It includes the type of connectivity (wired
or wireless) between the nodes and protocols used for one node
to be able to communicate with the other.

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Q 10. What is the network topology and define different
types of network topology ?

Ans: Network topology is a physical layout of the network, connecting

the different nodes using the links. It depicts the connectivity between
the computers, devices, cables, etc.
The different types of network topology are given below:
• Bus Topology:

1. All the nodes are connected using the central link known
as the bus.
2. It is useful to connect a smaller number of devices.
3. If the main cable gets damaged, it will damage the whole
network.

• Star Topology:

1. All the nodes are connected to one single node known as

the central node.
2. It is more robust.
3. If the central node fails the complete network is
damaged.
4. Easy to troubleshoot.
5. Mainly used in home and office networks.

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• Ring Topology:

1. Each node is connected to exactly two nodes forming a

ring structure
2. If one of the nodes are damaged, it will damage the whole
network
3. It is used very rarely as it is expensive and hard to install
and manage

• Mesh Topology:

1. Each node is connected to one or many nodes.

2. It is robust as failure in one link only disconnects that
node.
3. It is rarely used and installation and management are
difficult.

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 • Tree Topology:

1. A combination of star and bus topology also known as an

extended bus topology.
2. All the smaller star networks are connected to a single
bus.
3. If the main bus fails, the whole network is damaged.

• Hybrid:

1. It is a combination of different topologies to form a new

topology.
2. It helps to ignore the drawback of a particular topology
and helps to pick the strengths from other.

Q 11. What are Private and Special IP addresses ?

Ans: Private Address: For each class, there are specific IPs that are
reserved specifically for private use only. This IP address cannot be
used for devices on the Internet as they are non-routable.

Special Address: IP Range from 127.0.0.1 to

127.255.255.255 are network testing addresses also known as
loopback addresses are the special IP address.

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Q 12. What is Confidentiality, Integrity & Availability ?

Ans: Confidentiality – means information is not disclosed to

unauthorized individuals, entities, or processes. For example, if we say
I have a password for my Gmail account but someone saw it while I
was doing login into my Gmail account. In that case, my password has
been compromised and Confidentiality has been breached.
Integrity – means maintaining the accuracy and completeness of
data. This means data cannot be edited in an unauthorized way. For
example, if an employee leaves an organization then in that case data
for that employee in all departments like accounts, should be updated
to reflect the status to JOB LEFT so that data is complete and accurate
in addition, this is only authorized persons should be allowed to edit
employee data.
Availability – means information must be available when needed. For
example, if one needs to access information about a particular
employee to check whether an employee has outstood the number of
leaves, that case, it requires collaboration from different organizational
teams like network operations, development operations, incident
response, and policy/change management. Denial of service attack is
one of the factors that can hamper the availability of information.

Q 13. What is Confidentiality, Integrity & Availability ?

Ans: Symmetric Key Encryption: Encryption is a process to

change the form of any message in order to protect it from reading by
anyone. In Symmetric-key encryption the message is encrypted by
using a key and the same key is used to decrypt the message which
makes it easy to use but less secure. It also requires a safe method to
transfer the key from one party to another.
Asymmetric Key Encryption: Asymmetric Key Encryption is based
on public and private key encryption techniques. It uses two different
keys to encrypt and decrypt the message. It is more secure than the
symmetric key encryption technique but is much slower. For more
details please refer difference between symmetric and asymmetric
encryption articles.

©Topperworld
Q 14. What is a Tunnel mode ?

Ans: This is a mode of data exchange wherein two communicating

computers do not use IPSec themselves. Instead, the gateway that is
connecting their LANs to the transit network creates a virtual tunnel
that uses the IPSec protocol to secure all communication that passes
through it. Tunnel mode is most commonly used between gateways, or
at an end-station to a gateway, the gateway acting as a proxy for the
hosts behind it. Tunnel mode is most commonly used to encrypt traffic
between secure IPSec gateways, such as between the Cisco router and
PIX Firewall.

Q 15. What are the HTTP and the HTTPS protocol ?

Ans: HTTP is the HyperText Transfer Protocol which defines the

set of rules and standards on how the information can be transmitted
on the World Wide Web (WWW). It helps the web browsers and web
servers for communication. It is a ‘stateless protocol’ where each
command is independent with respect to the previous command. HTTP
is an application layer protocol built upon the TCP. It uses port 80 by
default.
HTTPS is the HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure or Secure HTTP. It is
an advanced and secured version of HTTP. On top of HTTP, SSL/TLS
protocol is used to provide security. It enables secure transactions by
encrypting the communication and also helps identify network servers
securely. It uses port 443 by default.

Q 16. Define Digital Signatures ?

Ans: As the name sounds are the new alternative to signing a

document digitally. It ensures that the message is sent to the intended
use without any tampering by any third party (attacker). In simple
words, digital signatures are used to verify the authenticity of the
message sent electronically.
OR
A digital signature is a mathematical technique used to validate the
authenticity and integrity of a message, software, or digital document.

©Topperworld
Q 17. What is Authorization ?

Ans: Authorization provides capabilities to enforce policies on

network resources after the user has gained access to the network
resources through authentication. After the authentication is
successful, authorization can be used to determine what resources is
the user allowed to access and the operations that can be performed.

Q 18. What is the difference between IPS and a firewall?

Ans: The Intrusion Prevention System is also known as

Intrusion Detection and Prevention System. It is a network security
application that monitors network or system activities for malicious
activity. The major functions of intrusion prevention systems are to
identify malicious activity, collect information about this activity, report
it, and attempt to block or stop it. Intrusion prevention systems are
contemplated as augmentation of Intrusion Detection Systems
(IDS) because both IPS and IDS operate network traffic and system
activities for malicious activity. IPS typically records information related
to observed events, notifies security administrators of important
observed events, and produces reports. Many IPS can also respond to
a detected threat by attempting to prevent it from succeeding. They
use various response techniques, which involve the IPS stopping the
attack itself, changing the security environment, or changing the
attack’s content.
A firewall is a network security device, either hardware or software-
based, which monitors all incoming and outgoing traffic, and based on
a defined set of security rules it accepts, rejects, or drops that specific
traffic.

©Topperworld
Q 19. What is the SMTP protocol ?

Ans: SMTP is the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. SMTP sets the
rule for communication between servers. This set of rules helps the
software to transmit emails over the internet. It supports both End-to-
End and Store-and-Forward methods. It is in always-listening mode on
port 25.

Q 20. What is IP Spoofing ?

Ans: IP Spoofing is essentially a technique used by hackers to

gain unauthorized access to Computers. Concepts of IP Spoofing were
initially discussed in academic circles as early as 1980. IP Spoofing
types of attacks had been known to Security experts on the theoretical
level. It was primarily theoretical until Robert Morris discovered a
security weakness in the TCP protocol known as sequence prediction.
Occasionally IP spoofing is done to mask the origins of a Dos attack. In
fact, Dos attacks often mask the actual IP addresses from where the
attack has originated from.

Q 21. What is the DNS ?

Ans: IP DNS is the Domain Name System. It is considered as the

devices/services directory of the Internet. It is a decentralized and
hierarchical naming system for devices/services connected to the
Internet. It translates the domain names to their corresponding IPs.
For e.g. interviewbit.com to 172.217.166.36. It uses port 53 by default.

©Topperworld
Q 22. What is the meaning of threat, vulnerability, and
risk ?

Ans: Threats are anything that can exploit a vulnerability

accidentally or intentionally and destroy or damage an asset. An asset
can be anything people, property, or information. The asset is what we
are trying to protect and a threat is what we are trying to protect
against. Vulnerability means a gap or weakness in our protection
efforts.
Risk is nothing but an intersection of assets, threats, and vulnerability.

Q 23. What is the use of a router and how is it different

from a gateway ?

Ans: The router is a networking device used for connecting two

or more network segments. It directs the traffic in the network. It
transfers information and data like web pages, emails, images, videos,
etc. from source to destination in the form of packets. It operates at
the network layer. The gateways are also used to route and regulate
the network traffic but, they can also send data between two dissimilar
networks while a router can only send data to similar networks.

Q 24. What is the TCP and UDP protocol and difference

between them ?

Ans: TCP or TCP/IP is the Transmission Control

Protocol/Internet Protocol. It is a set of rules that decides how
a computer connects to the Internet and how to transmit the
data over the network. It creates a virtual network when more
than one computer is connected to the network and uses the
three ways handshake model to establish the connection which
makes it more reliable.
UDP is the User Datagram Protocol and is based on Datagrams.
Mainly, it is used for multicasting and broadcasting. Its
functionality is almost the same as TCP/IP Protocol except for
the three ways of handshaking and error checking. It uses a
simple transmission without any hand-shaking which makes it
less reliable.

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©Topperworld
Q 25. What are the Advantages of Fiber Optics ?

Ans: The advantages of Fiber Optics are mentioned below:

• Bandwidth is above copper cables.
• Less power loss and allows data transmission for extended
distances.
• The optical cable is resistant to electromagnetic interference.
• Fiber cable is sized 4.5 times which is best than copper wires.
• As the cable is lighter, and thinner, in order that they use less
area as compared to copper wires.
• Installation is extremely easy thanks to less weight.
• Optical fiber cable is extremely hard to tap because they don’t
produce electromagnetic energy. These optical fiber cables are
very secure for transmitting data.
• This cable opposes most acidic elements that hit copper wires also
are flexible in nature.
• Optical fiber cables are often made cheaper than equivalent
lengths of copper wire.
• Light has the fastest speed within the universe, such a lot faster
signals.
• Fiber optic cables allow much more cable than copper twisted-
pair cables.
• Fiber optic cables have how more bandwidth than copper twisted-
pair cables.

Q 26. What is the ICMP protocol ?

Ans: ICMP is the Internet Control Message Protocol. It is a network

layer protocol used for error handling. It is mainly used by network
devices like routers for diagnosing the network connection issues and
crucial for error reporting and testing if the data is reaching the
preferred destination in time. It uses port 7 by default.

©Topperworld
Q 27. What do you mean by the DHCP and ARP Protocol?

Ans: DHCP is the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol.

It is an application layer protocol used to auto-configure devices on IP
networks enabling them to use the TCP and UDP-based protocols. The
DHCP servers auto-assign the IPs and other network configurations to
the devices individually which enables them to communicate over the
IP network. It helps to get the subnet mask, IP address and helps to
resolve the DNS. It uses port 67 by default.
ARP is Address Resolution Protocol. It is a network-level protocol used
to convert the logical address i.e. IP address to the device's physical
address i.e. MAC address. It can also be used to get the MAC address
of devices when they are trying to communicate over the local network.

Q 28. What is Multicast ?

Ans: Multicast is a method of group communication where the sender

sends data to multiple receivers or nodes present in the network
simultaneously. Multicasting is a type of one-to-many and many-to-
many communication as it allows sender or senders to send data
packets to multiple receivers at once across LANs or WANs. This
process helps in minimizing the data frame of the network.

©Topperworld
Q 29. What is CGMP (Cisco Group Management
Protocol) ?

Ans: CGMP is a simple protocol, the routers are the only devices that
are producing CGMP messages. The switches only listen to these
messages and act upon them. CGMP uses a well-known
destination MAC address (0100.0cdd.dddd) for all its messages.
When switches receive frames with this destination address, they flood
it on all their interfaces Bluetoothso all switches in the network will
receive CGMP messages.
Within a CGMP message, the two most important items are:
• Group Destination Address (GDA)
• Unicast Source Address (USA)

Q 30. What is the difference between Bluetooth and

WIFI ?

Ans:

©Topperworld
Q 31. What is the MAC address and how is it related to
NIC ?

Ans: MAC address is the Media Access Control address. It is a 48-bit

or 64-bit unique identifier of devices in the network. It is also called the
physical address embedded with Network Interface Card (NIC) used at
the Data Link Layer. NIC is a hardware component in the networking
device using which a device can connect to the network.

Q 32. Differentiate the MAC address with the IP

address.

Ans: The difference between MAC address and IP address are as

follows:

Q 33. What is a reverse proxy ?

Ans: Reverse Proxy Server: The job of a reverse proxy server is to

listen to the request made by the client and redirect to the particular
web server which is present on different servers. This is also used to
restrict the access of the clients to the confidential data residing on
particular servers.

©Topperworld
Q 34. What is a subnet ?

Ans: A subnet is a network inside a network achieved by the

process called subnetting which helps divide a network into subnets. It
is used for getting a higher routing efficiency and enhances the security
of the network. It reduces the time to extract the host address from
the routing table.

Q 35. Define piggybacking ?

Ans: Piggybacking is used to improve the efficiency of the

bidirectional protocols. When a frame is carrying data from A to B, it
can also carry control information about arrived (or lost) frames from
B; when a frame is carrying data from B to A, it can also carry control
information about the arrived (or lost) frames from A.

Q 36. What are the advantages and disadvantages of

piggybacking ?

Ans: Advantages of Piggybacking

The major advantage of piggybacking is the better use of available
channel bandwidth.
Disadvantages of Piggybacking
The major disadvantage of piggybacking is additional complexity and if
the data link layer waits too long before transmitting the
acknowledgment, then re-transmission of the frame would take place.

©Topperworld
Q 37. Compare the hub vs switch.

Ans:

Q 38. What is the firewall ?

Ans: The firewall is a network security system that is used to

monitor the incoming and outgoing traffic and blocks the same based
on the firewall security policies. It acts as a wall between the internet
(public network) and the networking devices (a private network). It is
either a hardware device, software program, or a combination of both.
It adds a layer of security to the network.

©Topperworld
Q 39. What are Unicasting, Anycasting, Multicasting and
Broadcasting ?

Ans: Unicasting: If the message is sent to a single node from the

source then it is known as unicasting. This is commonly used in
networks to establish a new connection.
• Anycasting: If the message is sent to any of the nodes from
the source then it is known as anycasting. It is mainly used to
get the content from any of the servers in the Content Delivery
System.
• Multicasting: If the message is sent to a subset of nodes from
the source then it is known as multicasting. Used to send the
same data to multiple receivers.
• Broadcasting: If the message is sent to all the nodes in a
network from a source then it is known as broadcasting.

Q 40. What happens when you enter google.com in the

web browser ?

Ans:
• Check the browser cache first if the content is fresh and
present in cache display the same.
• If not, the browser checks if the IP of the URL is present in
the cache (browser and OS) if not then request the OS to do
a DNS lookup using UDP to get the corresponding IP address
of the URL from the DNS server to establish a new TCP
connection.
• A new TCP connection is set between the browser and the
server using three-way handshaking.
• An HTTP request is sent to the server using the TCP
connection.
• The web servers running on the Servers handle the incoming
HTTP request and send the HTTP response.
• The browser process the HTTP response sent by the server
and may close the TCP connection or reuse the same for
future requests.
• If the response data is cacheable then browsers cache the
same.
• Browser decodes the response and renders the content.

©Topperworld
Q 41. What is the difference between the ipconfig and
the ifconfig ?

Ans:

Q 42. Define the term OFDM ?

Ans: OFDM stands for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing.

It is also the multiplexing technique that is used in an analog system.
In OFDM, the Guard band is not required and the spectral efficiency of
OFDM is high which oppose to the FDM. In OFDM, a Single data source
attaches all the sub-channels.

©Topperworld
Q 43. What is a transparent bridge ?

Ans: Transparent Bridge: A transparent bridge automatically

maintains a routing table and updates tables in response to maintaining
changing topology. The transparent bridge mechanism consists of three
mechanisms:
• Frame forwarding
• Address Learning
• Loop Resolution

The Transparent bridge is easy to use. Install the bridge and no

software changes are needed in the hosts. In all the cases, transparent
bridges flooded the broadcast and multicast frames.

Q 44. What is the FTP protocol ?

Ans: FTP is a File Transfer Protocol. It is an application layer

protocol used to transfer files and data reliably and efficiently between
hosts. It can also be used to download files from remote servers to your
computer. It uses port 27 by default.

Q 45. Describe the OSI Reference Model

Ans: Open System Interconnections (OSI) is a network

architecture model based on the ISO standards. It is called the OSI
model as it deals with connecting the systems that are open for
communication with other systems.

The OSI model has seven layers. The principles used to arrive at the
seven layers can be summarized briefly as below:

• Create a new layer if a different abstraction is needed.

• Each layer should have a well-defined function.
• The function of each layer is chosen based on internationally
standardized protocols.

©Topperworld
Q 46. Why do we OSPF a protocol that is faster than
our RIP ?

Ans: OSPF stands for Open Shortest Path First which uses a link-
state routing algorithm. This protocol is faster than RIP because:

• Using the link-state information which is available in routers, it

constructs the topology of Bluetooth which Bluetooth the topology
determines the routing table for routing decisions.
• It supports both variable-length subnet masking and classless
inter-domain routing addressing models.
• Since it uses Dijkstra’s algorithm, it computes the shortest path
tree for each route.
• OSPF (Open Shortest Path First) is handling the error detection by
itself and it uses multicast addressing for routing in a broadcast
domain

Q 47. Why do we need the pop3 protocol for e-mail ?

Ans: Need of POP3: The Post Office Protocol (POP3) is the most
widely used protocol and is supported by most email clients. It provides
a convenient and standard way for users to access mailboxes and
download messages. An important advantage of this is that the mail
messages get delivered to the client’s PC and they can be read with or
without accessing the web.

Q 48. Define the term Jitter ?

Ans: Jitter is a “packet delay variance”. It can simply mean that

jitter is considered a problem when different packets of data face
different delays in a network and the data at the receiver application is
time-sensitive, i.e. audio or video data. Jitter is measured in
milliseconds(ms). It is defined as an interference in the normal order
of sending data packets.

©Topperworld
Q 49. Why Bandwidth is important to network
performance parameters ?

Ans: Bandwidth is characterized as the measure of data or

information that can be transmitted in a fixed measure of time. The
term can be used in two different contexts with two distinctive
estimating values. In the case of digital devices, the bandwidth is
measured in bits per second(bps) or bytes per second. In the case of
analog devices, the bandwidth is measured in cycles per second, or
Hertz (Hz). Bandwidth is only one component of what an individual sees
as the speed of a network. True internet speed is actually the amount
of data you receive every second and that has a lot to do with latency
too.

Q 50. What is the minimum size of the icmpV4 packet

what is the maximum size of the icmpv4 packet ?

Ans:
• Minimum size ICMPv4 packet = 28 bytes

• Maximum size ICMPv4 packet = 2068 bytes

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