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CCST Networking
The Cisco Certified Support Technician Networking exam validates foundational knowledge of networking standards, addressing, media, infrastructure, and basic troubleshooting. It prepares candidates to support entry‑level network environments.
50
Minutes
$125
Exam Cost
Who Should Take This
It is ideal for recent graduates, junior IT staff, or self‑taught enthusiasts who have up to six months of hands‑on networking exposure. These learners seek a recognized credential that confirms their ability to diagnose common network issues and to assist senior engineers in maintaining reliable connectivity.
What's Covered
1
All domains in the Cisco Certified Support Technician Networking (100-150) exam: Standards and Concepts
2
, Addressing and Subnet Formats
3
, Endpoints and Media Types
4
, Infrastructure
5
, and Diagnosing Network Problems
What's Included in AccelaStudy® AI
Adaptive Knowledge Graph
Practice Questions
Lesson Modules
Console Simulator Labs
Exam Tips & Strategy
20 Activity Formats
Course Outline
62 learning goals
1
Domain 1: Standards and Concepts
3 topics
Identify OSI model layers and TCP/IP model layers
- Identify the seven layers of the OSI reference model and describe the primary function of each layer including physical signaling, data framing, logical addressing, transport reliability, session management, data formatting, and application services.
- Identify the four layers of the TCP/IP model and map each layer to its corresponding OSI layers, describing how application, transport, internet, and network access layers relate to protocol operation.
- Describe the concept of data encapsulation and de-encapsulation as a PDU traverses the OSI layers, identifying the correct protocol data unit name at each layer including bits, frames, packets, segments, and data.
Identify common networking protocols and their functions
- Identify common TCP protocols and their well-known port numbers including HTTP (80), HTTPS (443), FTP (20/21), SSH (22), Telnet (23), SMTP (25), and DNS (53) and describe the purpose of each protocol.
- Identify common UDP protocols and their well-known port numbers including DHCP (67/68), TFTP (69), SNMP (161/162), and NTP (123) and explain why these services use connectionless transport.
- Differentiate between TCP and UDP transport protocols by comparing connection-oriented versus connectionless delivery, reliability mechanisms, flow control, and appropriate use cases for each protocol.
- Describe the DNS resolution process including recursive and iterative queries, root servers, TLD servers, authoritative servers, and caching to explain how domain names are translated to IP addresses.
- Describe the DHCP lease process including the four-step DORA sequence (Discover, Offer, Request, Acknowledge) and explain how clients obtain IP addresses, subnet masks, default gateways, and DNS server addresses.
Describe network topologies and architectures
- Identify physical and logical network topologies including star, mesh, ring, bus, and hybrid and describe the advantages and disadvantages of each topology for small and medium network deployments.
- Differentiate between LAN, WAN, MAN, WLAN, PAN, and SAN network types by comparing geographic scope, typical media, bandwidth characteristics, and common use cases.
- Describe the client-server and peer-to-peer network models and compare their scalability, centralized management, security characteristics, and suitability for different organizational sizes.
2
Domain 2: Addressing and Subnet Formats
3 topics
Understand IPv4 addressing and subnetting
- Identify the structure of an IPv4 address including network portion and host portion, and describe dotted-decimal notation, binary representation, and the role of the subnet mask in determining network boundaries.
- Identify the five IPv4 address classes (A through E) and describe their default subnet masks, address ranges, and intended use including unicast, multicast, and experimental addressing.
- Identify private IPv4 address ranges defined in RFC 1918 (10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, 192.168.0.0/16) and explain their role in conserving public address space when used with NAT.
- Apply CIDR notation and variable-length subnet masks to determine the number of available subnets and hosts per subnet, calculate network and broadcast addresses, and identify valid host ranges.
- Determine whether two hosts reside on the same subnet or different subnets by applying the subnet mask to both addresses and comparing the resulting network portions.
Understand IPv6 addressing fundamentals
- Identify the structure of an IPv6 address including its 128-bit hexadecimal format, abbreviation rules (leading zero suppression, consecutive zero group compression), and prefix length notation.
- Identify the main IPv6 address types including global unicast, link-local, unique local, and multicast addresses and describe the purpose and scope of each type in network communication.
- Compare IPv4 and IPv6 addressing by evaluating address space, header simplification, auto-configuration capabilities, and the elimination of NAT requirements in native IPv6 environments.
Understand MAC addressing and ARP
- Identify the structure and format of a 48-bit MAC address including the organizationally unique identifier (OUI) and device identifier portions, and describe how MAC addresses function at Layer 2.
- Describe the ARP process including ARP request broadcasts, ARP replies, and ARP cache entries and explain how devices resolve IPv4 addresses to MAC addresses on a local network segment.
3
Domain 3: Endpoints and Media Types
3 topics
Identify network media and cabling types
- Identify copper cabling types including UTP categories (Cat 5e, Cat 6, Cat 6a), STP, and coaxial cable, and describe their maximum distances, bandwidth capabilities, and appropriate deployment scenarios.
- Identify fiber optic cable types including single-mode and multimode fiber, and describe their core diameter differences, distance capabilities, bandwidth characteristics, and typical use cases.
- Differentiate between straight-through, crossover, and rollover cable pinouts by identifying the T568A and T568B wiring standards and selecting the correct cable type for device-to-device connections.
- Evaluate the appropriate media type for a given network scenario by comparing cost, distance requirements, bandwidth needs, electromagnetic interference susceptibility, and physical environment constraints.
Identify wireless networking standards and concepts
- Identify IEEE 802.11 wireless standards including a, b, g, n (Wi-Fi 4), ac (Wi-Fi 5), and ax (Wi-Fi 6) and describe their frequency bands, maximum data rates, and backward compatibility.
- Describe wireless networking concepts including SSID, channels, frequency bands (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), signal strength, interference, and the role of access points in providing wireless connectivity.
- Identify wireless security protocols including WEP, WPA, WPA2, and WPA3 and describe their encryption mechanisms, authentication methods, and relative security strengths.
- Analyze common wireless deployment issues including channel overlap, co-channel interference, adjacent channel interference, and signal attenuation and recommend basic mitigation strategies.
Identify endpoint devices and their network interfaces
- Identify common network endpoint devices including desktops, laptops, servers, printers, IP phones, IoT devices, and mobile devices and describe the network interface types each uses.
- Describe the network interface card (NIC) and its role in connecting endpoints to the network, including wired Ethernet adapters, wireless adapters, and configuring basic network settings.
4
Domain 4: Infrastructure
5 topics
Identify network infrastructure devices
- Identify the functions of switches including MAC address learning, frame forwarding, loop prevention with STP, and VLAN segmentation in Layer 2 network environments.
- Identify the functions of routers including packet forwarding between networks, routing table maintenance, default gateway operation, and the role of static and dynamic routing protocols.
- Identify the functions of wireless access points including SSID broadcast, client association, BSS and ESS operation, and the role of access points in extending wired network connectivity.
- Identify the functions of firewalls including packet filtering, stateful inspection, application-layer filtering, and the role of firewalls in enforcing network security policies at network boundaries.
- Differentiate between hubs, switches, and routers by comparing their operating OSI layer, traffic handling behavior, collision domain boundaries, and broadcast domain boundaries.
Understand VLANs and network segmentation
- Define VLANs and explain how they create logical broadcast domains within a physical switch infrastructure, describing the benefits of traffic isolation, improved security, and reduced broadcast traffic.
- Describe the difference between access ports and trunk ports, including the role of 802.1Q VLAN tagging in carrying multiple VLAN traffic across inter-switch links.
- Explain why inter-VLAN routing requires a Layer 3 device such as a router or multilayer switch and describe the router-on-a-stick configuration using subinterfaces with 802.1Q encapsulation.
Understand routing concepts and NAT
- Describe how routers use routing tables to forward packets, including the roles of directly connected routes, static routes, and dynamic routing protocol entries in path selection.
- Identify the purpose of the default gateway and explain how hosts use it to communicate with devices on remote networks, including the packet forwarding process from source to destination across multiple hops.
- Describe Network Address Translation (NAT) including static NAT, dynamic NAT, and PAT (Port Address Translation) and explain how NAT enables private network hosts to access the internet.
- Analyze a simple network topology to determine the path a packet takes from source to destination, identifying routing decisions, NAT translations, and Layer 2 frame re-encapsulation at each hop.
Understand basic network security concepts
- Describe the purpose and operation of access control lists (ACLs) including standard and extended ACLs for filtering traffic based on source/destination IP addresses, protocols, and port numbers.
- Describe common network security threats including phishing, malware, denial-of-service attacks, man-in-the-middle attacks, and social engineering and identify basic mitigation strategies.
- Describe the concept of port security on switches including limiting MAC addresses per port, violation modes (protect, restrict, shutdown), and preventing unauthorized device access.
Understand network services and device management
- Describe common network management protocols including SNMP for monitoring device status, syslog for centralized logging, and NTP for clock synchronization across network infrastructure.
- Identify methods for accessing and managing network devices including console port, SSH, Telnet, and web-based GUI interfaces, and explain when each access method is appropriate.
- Describe the purpose of Quality of Service (QoS) mechanisms including traffic classification, marking, queuing, and policing for prioritizing voice, video, and critical data traffic on congested networks.
5
Domain 5: Diagnosing Network Problems
3 topics
Use network troubleshooting tools
- Apply the ping utility to test Layer 3 connectivity by interpreting success, timeout, and destination unreachable responses and using ping to isolate connectivity failures to specific network segments.
- Apply the traceroute (tracert) utility to identify the path packets take to a destination, interpret hop-by-hop output, and identify where packet loss or latency occurs along the route.
- Apply ipconfig (Windows) and ifconfig/ip (Linux) commands to verify interface IP configuration including assigned address, subnet mask, default gateway, and DNS server settings on endpoint devices.
- Apply nslookup and dig commands to test DNS name resolution by querying specific DNS servers, interpreting authoritative and non-authoritative responses, and identifying DNS configuration issues.
- Describe the purpose and basic operation of Wireshark for capturing and analyzing network traffic including filtering by protocol, IP address, and port number to identify communication patterns.
- Apply the netstat and ss commands to display active network connections, listening ports, and connection states on endpoints to identify services and diagnose port-related connectivity issues.
Apply troubleshooting methodologies
- Describe structured troubleshooting methodologies including top-down, bottom-up, divide-and-conquer, and follow-the-path approaches and explain when each methodology is most effective.
- Apply the seven-step troubleshooting process (define problem, gather information, analyze, propose hypothesis, test hypothesis, solve, document) to systematically resolve network issues.
Diagnose common network problems
- Diagnose common Layer 1 problems including cable faults, incorrect cable types, damaged connectors, speed/duplex mismatches, and interface status errors (up/down, err-disabled) from device output.
- Diagnose common Layer 2 problems including VLAN misconfiguration, trunk link failures, STP issues, and MAC address table inconsistencies using show commands and systematic analysis.
- Diagnose common Layer 3 problems including incorrect IP addressing, subnet mask errors, missing default gateway, routing misconfigurations, and NAT translation failures using ping and traceroute output.
- Diagnose common DHCP and DNS issues including DHCP scope exhaustion, relay agent misconfiguration, DNS server unavailability, and stale DNS cache entries using appropriate diagnostic tools.
- Diagnose common wireless connectivity problems including authentication failures, signal degradation, channel interference, and SSID visibility issues by analyzing client and access point diagnostic information.
Scope
Included Topics
- All domains in the Cisco Certified Support Technician Networking (100-150) exam: Standards and Concepts (20%), Addressing and Subnet Formats (15%), Endpoints and Media Types (15%), Infrastructure (30%), and Diagnosing Network Problems (20%).
- Foundational networking knowledge including OSI and TCP/IP models, common protocols and port numbers, IPv4 and IPv6 addressing, subnetting, media types, cabling standards, wireless standards, and network device roles.
- Key networking technologies including Ethernet, Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax), switching, routing, VLANs, DHCP, DNS, NAT, ACLs, firewalls, and network troubleshooting tools such as ping, traceroute, ipconfig, nslookup, and Wireshark.
- Basic network design concepts, device configuration fundamentals, and systematic troubleshooting methodology for entry-level network support scenarios.
Not Covered
- Advanced routing protocols (BGP, OSPF multi-area, IS-IS) and enterprise-grade network design covered in CCNA and higher certifications.
- Data center networking, software-defined networking (SDN), and programmability topics beyond basic awareness.
- Detailed Cisco IOS/IOS XE command-line configuration, advanced ACL construction, and complex security policy implementation.
- Cloud networking architectures, multi-cloud connectivity, and provider-specific infrastructure services.
- Wireless controller deployment, mesh networking, and enterprise WLAN design and optimization.
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