Cisco Certified Support Technician

Networking
The successful candidate has the foundational knowledge and skills necessary to
demonstrate how networks operate, including the devices, media, and protocols
that enable network communication. This test will be an entry point into the Cisco
certification program. The next certification in the pathway is Cisco Certified Network
Associate.

Manage Workbook Options and Settings

This is a certification for foundational network technicians, networking students, interns,
etc. The exam targets secondary and immediate post-secondary students, and IT and
Networking professionals. The successful candidates are qualified work-ready network
technicians and customer support technicians, students, and interns with at least 150
hours of instruction and hands-on experience.

Objectives: CCST Networking

1. Standards and Concepts
1.1 Identify the fundamental conceptual building blocks of networks.
• TCP/IP model, OSI model, frames and packets, addressing

1.2 Differentiate between bandwidth and throughput.

• Latency, delay, speed test vs. Iperf

1.3 Differentiate between LAN, WAN, MAN, CAN, PAN, and WLAN.
• Identify and illustrate common physical and logical network topologies.

1.4 Compare and contrast cloud and on-premises applications and

services.
• Public, private, hybrid, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, remote work/hybrid work

1.5 Describe common network applications and protocols.

• TCP vs. UDP (connection-oriented vs. connectionless), FTP, SFTP, TFTP,
HTTP, HTTPS, DHCP, DNS, ICMP, NTP

2. Addressing and Subnet Formats

2.1 Compare and contrast private addresses and public addresses.
• Address classes, NAT concepts

2.2 Identify IPv4 addresses and subnet formats.

• Subnet concepts, Subnet Calculator, slash notation, subnet mask,
broadcast domain

2.3 Identify IPv6 addresses and prefix formats.

• Types of addresses, prefix concepts

3. Endpoints and Media Types

3.1 Identify cables and connectors commonly used in local area networks.
• Cable types: fiber, copper, twisted pair; Connector types: coax, RJ-45,
RJ-11, fiber connector types

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 Cisco Certified Support Technician Exam Objectives

3.2 Differentiate between Wi-Fi, cellular, and wired network technologies.

• Copper, including sources of interference; fiber; wireless, including
802.11 (unlicensed, 2.4GHz, 5GHz, 6GHz); cellular (licensed), sources of
interference

3.3 Describe endpoint devices.

• Internet of Things (IoT) devices, computers, mobile devices, IP Phone,
printer, server

3.4 Demonstrate how to set up and check network connectivity on Windows,

Linux, Mac OS, Android, and Apple iOS.
• Networking utilities on Windows, Linux, Android, and Apple operating
systems; how to run troubleshooting commands; wireless client settings
(SSID, authentication, WPA mode)

4. Infrastructure
4.1 Identify the status lights on a Cisco device when given instruction by an
engineer.
• Link light color and status (blinking or solid)

4.2 Use a network diagram provided by an engineer to attach the appropriate

cables.
• Patch cables, switches and routers, small topologies, power, rack layout

4.3 Identify the various ports on network devices.

• Console port, serial port, fiber port, Ethernet ports, SFPs, USB port, PoE

4.4 Explain basic routing concepts.

• Default gateway, layer 2 vs. layer 3 switches, local network vs. remote
network)

4.5 Explain basic switching concepts.

• MAC address tables, MAC address filtering, VLAN

5. Diagnosing Problems
5.1 Demonstrate effective troubleshooting methodologies and help desk best
practices, including ticketing, documentation, and information gathering.
• Policies and procedures, accurate and complete documentation,
prioritization

5.2 Perform a packet capture with Wireshark and save it to a file.

• Purpose of using a packet analyzer, saving and opening a .pcap file

5.3 Run basic diagnostic commands and interpret the results.

• ping, ipconfig/ifconfig/ip, tracert/traceroute, nslookup; recognize how
firewalls can influence the result

5.4 Differentiate between different ways to access and collect data about
network devices.
• Remote access (RDP, SSH, telnet), VPN, terminal emulators, Console,
Network Management Systems, cloud-managed network (Meraki), scripts

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 Cisco Certified Support Technician Exam Objectives

5.5 Run basic show commands on a Cisco network device.

• show run, show cdp neighbors, show ip interface brief, show ip route, show
version, show inventory, show switch, show mac address-table, show
interface, show interface x, show interface status; privilege levels; command
help and auto-complete

6. Security
6.1 Describe how firewalls operate to filter traffic.
• Firewalls (blocked ports and protocols); rules deny or permit access

6.2 Describe foundational security concepts.

• Confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA); authentication, authorization, and
accounting (AAA); Multifactor Authentication (MFA); encryption, certificates,
and password complexity; identity stores/databases (Active Directory); threats
and vulnerabilities; spam, phishing, malware, and denial of service

6.3 Configure basic wireless security on a home router (WPAx).

• WPA, WPA2, WPA3; choosing between Personal and Enterprise; wireless
security concepts

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