@melvinsilva said in Spanning Tree Protocol - CompTIA Network+ N10-007 Prof Messer:

I had experience when "users" manipulate patch panel or switch and plug both end of the cable (patch cord) to the same switch, creating a physical loop, but STP blocks this and prevent network issues.

Yeah, having switches that have STP turned on by default can be such a life saver in those situations. One place I worked liked to put in unmanaged switches all over the place. Caused me multiple long nights just tracking down which switch was the issue and then finding the loop cable. I knew exactly what was going on, finding it without good documentation and people saying "Oh, there's another network thingy over here." was just so much.... fun.

Is there a limit to how many trunks you can use?

@scottalanmiller said in Protocol Data Units - CompTIA Network+ N10-007 Prof Messer:

@WrCombs said in Protocol Data Units - CompTIA Network+ N10-007 Prof Messer:

Why would you not want to fragment a frame?

Performance. Fragmentation takes time and effort. If you can avoid it, there is less work to be done and, all other things being equal, that means cheaper equipment going faster.

Ah, That makes sense.

It's more purpose based. Unicast is for normal communications. Broadcast is normally reserved for special cases like DHCP where there is no way to do unicast.

Can anyone give me an example of a broadcast domain? This seems a bit basic. It made me think of things like push notifications, so I'm not sure if I'm getting the concept.

Worth noting that STP (Spanning Tree) is common in good switches, but it's also common to have switches that don't have it.

Watched this one during lunch today, I thought This was a good way to explain Network behavor.

I'd like to think of "L3 switch" as being short for switch with layer 3 functions.
Often they are used for routing traffic between VLANs. A router can do that as well but a L3 switch can usually do faster and on more ports at the same time.

Typical is to have a bunch of L2 switches where the end points connect and then the L2 switches are uplinked to one L3 switch that takes care connecting the L2 switches together and do inter-VLAN routing.

There are also L3 Lite switches (aka L2+) which are L2 switches with a limited L3 functionality like for instance static routing.

L3 switches are usually the ones with the most features in all categories so sometimes you need to buy a L3 switch because you are after some other feature, like redundant power or what not.

In small networks L3 switches are usually not needed.

As an example Dell's PowerSwitches for instance are managed switches for building out the network to end points (campus).

They are like this:

N1100 series - L2 switch N1500 series - L3 Lite switch N2000, N3000 series - L3 switch

They have the same OS and work the same but each step up in the series gives you more features and more speed and higher cost.

this is amazingly didactical... really enjoy this.

This video was a great introduction to networks. I like the description of the moving truck, it gives an image to start.

@mary said in Windows HomeGroups, WorkGroups, and Domains - CompTIA A+ 220-1002 Prof Messer:

Is there any alternative to home group now that it isn't available on Windows 10? Also why would you use workgroup instead of Windows Domain? Is it a cost issue?

"Home Group" was just a fancy name for network sharing without AD on Windows computers.

@mary said in Windows Control Panel - CompTIA A+ 220-1002 Prof Messer:

This may be basic but, can cookies damage your system in anyway? It's one of those things that a lot of sites require you to accept, and an average user just accepts them.

So the cookie itself is just a text file. A tiny one. That's it. So the cookie itself does nothing.

The issues are if the cookie has something in the text and a browser reads it and does something it shouldn't because of it. But realistically, that's not going to happen.

The main concerns around cookies are that they help people to track you, but you need to be tracked. We've been conditioned to thinking that being tracked is a bad thing, but cookies are what lets us track you from post to post here in RoIT for example.

Pretty useful stuff. I played around with some of the commands on my laptop.

Very useful tool, specially when computer gets freeze.

Very interesting, this tool we always use to check Windows system configuration.

@brianwinkelmann said in Windows Firewall with Advanced Security - CompTIA A+ 220-1002 Prof Messer:

what about the Windows Defender, I mean the antivirus and the firewall of Windows They go hand in hand right?

They go together as in they are both security components of the Windows operating system. But that's about the extent of it. They are both very good, they should both always be used, they are both for the purpose of security. But they are not actually associated other than in name.

Most of these tools I have used at least once doing support on computers.