Basic Switching Concepts Flashcards
7 cards from real Cisco CCNA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Basic Switching Concepts flashcards as text
Which frame type does a switch forward only out the single port associated with the destination MAC address?
Answer: Known unicast
When the destination MAC is found in the MAC address table (known unicast), the switch forwards the frame only to the specific port associated with that address.
What is the collision domain boundary on a switch?
Answer: Each switch port is its own collision domain
Each port on a switch is its own collision domain because switches segment collisions at the port level.
A Cisco switch port is configured with 'spanning-tree portfast'. What is the effect?
Answer: The port immediately transitions to Forwarding state, bypassing Listening and Learning
PortFast causes a port to skip the STP Listening and Learning states and immediately enter Forwarding, reducing connection time for end devices.
Which type of address is FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF?
Answer: Broadcast MAC address
FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF is the Layer 2 broadcast address; frames with this destination are sent to all devices in the broadcast domain.
What is the maximum number of MAC addresses that can be configured with port security on a single Cisco switch port by default?
Answer: 1
The default maximum number of secure MAC addresses per port with port security enabled is 1.
When port security detects a violation in 'protect' mode, what happens?
Answer: Frames from violating MACs are dropped but no notification is sent
In protect mode, frames from unauthorized MAC addresses are silently dropped without generating any log messages or SNMP traps.
What Layer 2 device forwards frames based on MAC addresses and creates separate collision domains per port?
Answer: Switch
A switch operates at Layer 2 and makes forwarding decisions based on MAC addresses, with each port being its own collision domain.