Exam topics and subtopics

The Microsoft 98-366: Networking Fundamentals exam assesses the candidates’ knowledge of a variety of topics. The skills measured in this test are combined in a number of objectives. They are highlighted below:

• Understanding Network Hardware (20-25%)

  This section includes the examinees’ understanding of switches, routers, and media types. This area encompasses their knowledge of transmission speed, VLAN capabilities, speed of uplinks, number of uplinks, types and number of ports, unmanaged or managed switches, support, hardware redundancy, virtual switches, switching MAC cables and switches, Layer 3 and Layer 2 switches and security options, backplane speed, directly connected routes, routing table memory, Quality of Service (QoS), installing and configuring routing, and cable types and their characteristics.

• Understanding Protocols and Services (45-50%)

  In this domain, the students have to demonstrate their understanding of the OSI (open systems interconnection) model, TCP and UDP (User Datagram Protocol), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) model, packets and frames, well-known parts for commonly used purposes, and examples of application, devices, protocols, and which TCP/OSI layer they belong to. This area also involves their knowledge of IPv4, whereby they are required to demonstrate their understanding of IPconfig, subnetting, addressing, the use of IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4), ipv4toipv6 tunneling protocols for ensuring backward compatibility, gateway, dual IP stack, packets, ports, reserved address ranges for the local use, including local loopback IP. This subject also involves one’s grasp of IPv6, name resolutions, networking services, and TCP/IP.

• Understanding Network Infrastructures (30-35%)

  This topic area evaluates your understanding of the concepts of intranet, extranet, and the Internet. This includes firewalls, Virtual Private Network (VPN), and security zones with the focus on Azure network security. The applicants should also have an understanding of local area networks (LANs), in which they have to demonstrate their knowledge of perimeter networks, VLANs, wireless LAN, wired LAN, addressing, and reserved address ranges for the local use. In addition, the learners need to show that they understand wide area networks (WANs), such as cable modem, leased lines, ISDN, dial-up, VPN, DSL, E1, E3, T1, T3, and their characteristics (availability and speed).

  Also, the skills measured under this objective include the usage of wireless networking. You are required to demonstrate your knowledge of types of wireless networking standards along with their characteristics (ac, n, g, b, 11a, 802 including different GHz ranges), point-to-point (P2P) wireless, wireless bridging, ad hoc networks, and types of network security (WEP, WPA, 802.1x, and others).

What Are the Career Opportunities?

Having the MTA: Networking Fundamentals certification, an individual can apply for a wide variety of job positions such as network administrator, helpdesk support analyst, system administrator, desktop support specialist, systems engineer, IT specialist, and others. Speaking of the salary one can expect to get, as stated by PayScale's recent research, the compensation for professionals with Microsoft networking skills is about $66k per year. Still, with extra skills and experience, one can expect even better pay. Thus, according to the same website, the annual income of network administrators can reach the mark of $83k while systems administrators can earn up to $88k per annum.

Reference: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/exam-98-366.aspx