Diagram based questions?

jdogg737

Is there an easier way to approach diagram based troubleshooting questions? I'm researching each possible answer. This seems to take a long time. I don't think I would have that much time when taking the actual exam. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

LBC90805

The primary thing to remember when approaching Diagram type questions is to look at subnet mask; make sure all hosts, switches/VLANs, router default gateways have the same subnet mask for the links they are sharing/connect too. If they do not, they cannot possibly have the same view of the network. If all hosts, switches and routers have the same subnet mask, make sure that they are in the same subnet. For example if the subnet mask is a /25 or 255.255.255.128 if five hosts have ips in the range of .001 - .126 they can communicate, but if another hosts on the same LAN has an ip in the range of .129 - .254 it will not be able to communicate with the other hosts. Even though it has the same subnet mask, it is in a different subnet as the other hosts; this is provided that all the hosts are using the same default gateway.

Also another thing to lookout for is subnet number and broadcast address, they can never be assigned to a host. From what I've seen reading Cisco literature and documentation they just love to assign serial link interfaces with subnet mask /30 255.255.255.252 either a subnet, network number or a broadcast address.