WGU C172 NETWORK AND SECURITY
FOUNDATIONS FINAL PAPER 2026
COMPREHENSIVE EXAM
◉ Patch cable. Answer: A short cable used to make the physical
connection between networking equipment
◉ CAT6a. Answer: An improved version of CAT6 that supports 10GB
Ethernet. Class Ea.
◉ Balanced mode. Answer: Neither wire in the wire pairs connects
to ground
◉ network congestion. Answer: A slowdown on network data traffic
movement
◉ bottlenecking. Answer: Another name for network congestion
◉ full duplex. Answer: Transmit and receive at the same time
◉ color map. Answer: The specification of which wire color connects
to which pin on the connector
,◉ T568A. Answer: Color map that begins with green
◉ T568B. Answer: Color map that begins with orange
◉ Link. Answer: Point from one cable termination to another
◉ Full channel. Answer: Consists of all the link elements from the
wall plate to the hub or switch
◉ Attenuation. Answer: The amount of loss in the signal strength as
it propagates down a wire or fiber strand
◉ near-end crosstalk (NEXT). Answer: A measure of the level of
crosstalk or signal coupling in a cable. A high (dB) value is desirable
◉ Insertion loss. Answer: Another name for attenuation
◉ Crosstalk. Answer: Signal coupling in a cable
◉ Return loss. Answer: The ratio of power transmitted into a cable
to the amount of power returned or reflected
, ◉ Propagation delay. Answer: The amount of time it takes for a
signal to propagate from one end of the cable to the other
◉ Delay skew. Answer: The difference in arrival time between the
fastest and the slowest signal in a UTP wire pair
◉ Normal velocity of propagation. Answer: Some percentage of the
velocity of light that measures the speed of a signal in a cable
◉ ACR. Answer: Compares the signal level from a transmitter at the
far end to the crosstalk measured at the near end
◉ IEEE 802.3an-2006 10GBASE-T. Answer: The standard to 10Gb
Ethernet, 500 MHz bandwidth and up to 100 m
◉ Alien crosstalk (AXT). Answer: Unwanted signal coupling from
one permanent link to another
◉ F/UTP. Answer: Foil over twisted pair
◉ Multilevel encoding. Answer: Technique used to reduce the
bandwidth required to transport data
FOUNDATIONS FINAL PAPER 2026
COMPREHENSIVE EXAM
◉ Patch cable. Answer: A short cable used to make the physical
connection between networking equipment
◉ CAT6a. Answer: An improved version of CAT6 that supports 10GB
Ethernet. Class Ea.
◉ Balanced mode. Answer: Neither wire in the wire pairs connects
to ground
◉ network congestion. Answer: A slowdown on network data traffic
movement
◉ bottlenecking. Answer: Another name for network congestion
◉ full duplex. Answer: Transmit and receive at the same time
◉ color map. Answer: The specification of which wire color connects
to which pin on the connector
,◉ T568A. Answer: Color map that begins with green
◉ T568B. Answer: Color map that begins with orange
◉ Link. Answer: Point from one cable termination to another
◉ Full channel. Answer: Consists of all the link elements from the
wall plate to the hub or switch
◉ Attenuation. Answer: The amount of loss in the signal strength as
it propagates down a wire or fiber strand
◉ near-end crosstalk (NEXT). Answer: A measure of the level of
crosstalk or signal coupling in a cable. A high (dB) value is desirable
◉ Insertion loss. Answer: Another name for attenuation
◉ Crosstalk. Answer: Signal coupling in a cable
◉ Return loss. Answer: The ratio of power transmitted into a cable
to the amount of power returned or reflected
, ◉ Propagation delay. Answer: The amount of time it takes for a
signal to propagate from one end of the cable to the other
◉ Delay skew. Answer: The difference in arrival time between the
fastest and the slowest signal in a UTP wire pair
◉ Normal velocity of propagation. Answer: Some percentage of the
velocity of light that measures the speed of a signal in a cable
◉ ACR. Answer: Compares the signal level from a transmitter at the
far end to the crosstalk measured at the near end
◉ IEEE 802.3an-2006 10GBASE-T. Answer: The standard to 10Gb
Ethernet, 500 MHz bandwidth and up to 100 m
◉ Alien crosstalk (AXT). Answer: Unwanted signal coupling from
one permanent link to another
◉ F/UTP. Answer: Foil over twisted pair
◉ Multilevel encoding. Answer: Technique used to reduce the
bandwidth required to transport data
