A network architect is designing a network for a trading floor where low latency and high availability are critical. The architect must choose between a star topology and a partial mesh topology. Which factor is most important in making this decision?

Star topology provides better redundancy than partial mesh.

Star topology is always faster because it has fewer hops.

Partial mesh is always more expensive than star topology.

Partial mesh provides redundant paths, which can improve availability but may increase latency due to additional hops.

A user reports that they can ping a server's IP address but cannot connect to the web service running on it. The network administrator verifies that the server is up and the web service is listening. Which OSI layer should the administrator investigate next?

Session layer, because the web service may not establish a session.

Network layer, because routing may be misconfigured for the web service's subnet.

Transport layer, because the ping uses ICMP while the web service uses TCP port 80/443.

Data link layer, because the switch may be blocking the web service's MAC address.

A network analyst is investigating a slow web browsing experience. The analyst captures traffic and sees that DNS queries are taking an average of 2 seconds to respond. Which action is most likely to improve the user experience?

Change the web server's IP address to a different subnet.

Configure the clients to use a faster, closer DNS server.

Disable HTTP keep-alive on the web server.

Increase the TCP window size on the clients.

A financial firm must isolate its trading application traffic from general internet traffic. The trading application uses a protocol that relies on broadcast discovery. The firm has a single switch and a router. They also need to allow the trading application to communicate with a server on a different subnet. Which configuration meets the isolation and connectivity requirements?

Place the trading application and server in the same VLAN, and use a router to connect to the internet.

Assign different IP subnets to the trading application and server but keep them on the same VLAN.

Use a firewall between the trading application and the server, but keep them on the same VLAN as the general network.

Create a dedicated VLAN for the trading application and server, and configure the router to route between that VLAN and the general network.

GIAC Network Forensic Analyst

Domain 1Objective 2

Network Architecture GNFA Practice Questions (Page 3)

Part of the Network Fundamentals and Architecture domain, which makes up ~26% of our current practice bank. GIAC (SANS) does not publish an official question count, but from its 180-minute exam (~70–120 total, ~18–31 in this domain), expect 9–16 from this objective — we provide 39 practice questions to prepare you well beyond it. (estimate)

39questions here

8free pages

7concepts

Questions 11–15

11expert · medium
A network architect is designing a network for a trading floor where low latency and high availability are critical. The architect must choose between a star topology and a partial mesh topology. Which factor is most important in making this decision?
Select an answer first
12application · medium
A network analyst is explaining to a junior analyst why a firewall can block traffic based on port numbers. Which OSI layer does the firewall use to make this decision?
Select an answer first
13application · medium
A user reports that they can ping a server's IP address but cannot connect to the web service running on it. The network administrator verifies that the server is up and the web service is listening. Which OSI layer should the administrator investigate next?
Select an answer first
14expert · medium
A network analyst is investigating a slow web browsing experience. The analyst captures traffic and sees that DNS queries are taking an average of 2 seconds to respond. Which action is most likely to improve the user experience?
Select an answer first
15expert · hard
A financial firm must isolate its trading application traffic from general internet traffic. The trading application uses a protocol that relies on broadcast discovery. The firm has a single switch and a router. They also need to allow the trading application to communicate with a server on a different subnet. Which configuration meets the isolation and connectivity requirements?
Select an answer first

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Network Architecture GNFA Practice Questions (Page 3)

Questions 11–15

A network architect is designing a network for a trading floor where low latency and high availability are critical. The architect must choose between a star topology and a partial mesh topology. Which factor is most important in making this decision?

A network analyst is explaining to a junior analyst why a firewall can block traffic based on port numbers. Which OSI layer does the firewall use to make this decision?

A user reports that they can ping a server's IP address but cannot connect to the web service running on it. The network administrator verifies that the server is up and the web service is listening. Which OSI layer should the administrator investigate next?

A network analyst is investigating a slow web browsing experience. The analyst captures traffic and sees that DNS queries are taking an average of 2 seconds to respond. Which action is most likely to improve the user experience?

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