Passed Exam Today N10-008

• Channel overlap occurs when two or more wireless access points (APs) use the same or adjacent frequency channels within the same area12. This can cause interference and degradation of the wireless signal quality, resulting in increased latency and packet drops for the Wi-Fi-connected devices12.
• Channel overlap is one of the most common causes of Wi-Fi performance issues, especially in densely populated areas where there are many wireless networks operating in the same spectrum12. The 2.4 GHz band, which is widely used by Wi-Fi devices, has only three non-overlapping channels (1, 6, and 11) in most regions, making it more prone to channel overlap than the 5 GHz band, which has more non-overlapping channels available12.
• To fix channel overlap, network administrators should perform a site survey to identify the existing wireless networks and their channel usage, and then configure their APs to use the least congested or non-overlapping channels12. Alternatively, they can use APs that support automatic channel selection, which can dynamically adjust the channel based on the network conditions12.
• The other options are not the most likely reasons for the issue. Distance from the AP can affect the signal strength and quality, but it does not explain why the issue occurred only after the new company moved in3. Bandwidth latency is a measure of the delay in data transmission, which can be affected by various factors such as network congestion, routing, or quality of service, but it is not a cause of the issue itself4. RF attenuation is the loss of signal power due to distance, obstacles, or interference, which can also affect the Wi-Fi performance, but it is not specific to the scenario described in the question5. Network congestion is the state of high demand and low availability of network resources, which can cause latency and packet loss, but it is not necessarily related to channel overlap6. References:
• 1: CompTIA Network+ N10-008 Certification Study Guide, Chapter 4: Wireless Networks, Section 4.4: Wireless Network Troubleshooting7
• 2: Professor Messer’s CompTIA N10-008 Network+ Course Notes, Page 25: Wireless Troubleshooting8
• 3: CompTIA Network+ N10-008 Certification Study Guide, Chapter 4: Wireless Networks, Section 4.2: Wireless Network Implementations7
• 4: CompTIA Network+ N10-008 Certification Study Guide, Chapter 2: Network Protocols and Services, Section 2.5: Bandwidth and Latency7
• 5: CompTIA Network+ N10-008 Certification Study Guide, Chapter 4: Wireless Networks, Section 4.1: Wireless Network Fundamentals7
• 6: CompTIA Network+ N10-008 Certification Study Guide, Chapter 3: Routing, Section 3.5: Network Congestion7
• 7: CompTIA Network+ N10-008 Certification Study Guide2
• 8: Professor Messer’s CompTIA Network+ N10-008 Training Course5

The data link layer is responsible for defining the format of data on the network and providing physical transmission of data. Devices that operate at this layer include switches and network interface cards (NICs). Encapsulations that are used at this layer include frames, which are units of data that contain a header, payload, and trailer. Frames are used to identify the source and destination of data on the network and to perform error detection. References: CompTIA Network+ N10-008 Certification Study Guide, page 9; The Official CompTIA Network+ Student Guide (Exam N10-008), page 1-6.

One of the best practices to secure the network would be to disable unneeded switchports in the guest waiting area. This will prevent unauthorized users from connecting to the network through these ports. It's important to identify which switchports are not in use and disable them, as this will prevent unauthorized access to the network.

Other practices such as ensuring all guests sign an NDA, lowering the radio strength to reduce Wi-Fi coverage in the waiting area and enabling MAC filtering to block unknown hardware addresses are not as effective in securing the network as disabling unneeded switchports. Enforcing an NDA with guests may not stop a malicious user from attempting to access the network, reducing the radio strength only limits the Wi-Fi coverage, and MAC filtering can be easily bypassed by hackers.

SLAAC (Stateless Address Autoconfiguration) is a mechanism that enables each host on the network to auto-configure a unique IPv6 address without any device keeping track of which address is assigned to which node12. SLAAC uses link-local addresses and the interface’s MAC address or a random number to generate the host portion of the IPv6 address2. SLAAC also relies on Router Solicitation (RS) and Router Advertisement (RA) messages to obtain the network prefix and other information from a router12. Therefore, to change an entire subnet of SLAAC-configured workstation addresses, the network engineer needs to change the address prefix in a router and let the router advertise the new prefix with an ND (Neighbor Discovery) message. This way, the workstations will receive the new prefix and update their IPv6 addresses accordingly3.

References1 - IPv6 Stateless Address Auto-configuration (SLAAC) | NetworkAcademy.io2 - IPv6 SLAAC – Stateless Address Autoconfiguration - Study-CCNA3 - Mastering IPv6 SLAAC Concepts and Configuration - Cisco Press