What’s New to the CompTIA Network+ (N10-008)‍

1. More focus on new and complex network architecture

Networks are getting more complex and newer standards and technology are becoming more popular. Students will be able to understand new technologies and determine which standards and equipment are optimal for connecting networks. More emphasis is given to topics such as:

• Internet of Things (IoT): Everything is connected to the internet. Understand how to manage those devices and their strain on your network.
• ‍Software-defined networking: The automation and central management of networking to help administrators respond quickly to changing business requirements.
• ‍Fiber and CAT8 cabling: Learn about fiber networking, and new Category-8 standards for cabling your network effectively.

2. Greater emphasis on cloud computing

As more companies expand into the cloud, students will be required to know both physical and virtual networking to effectively do their jobs, whether it be in the cloud, on-premises or a hybrid of the two. More emphasis is given to topics including:

• Elasticity: Configuring your network to include provisions to increase and decrease network hardware based on online traffic, utilization, and other pre-set thresholds.
• ‍Scalability: Understand what makes your network scale, and how to effectively add hardware to keep your network running smoothly and securely.
• ‍Multitenancy: Make sure that network traffic and data is only accessible by the correct tenant, and security between tenants is air-tight.
• ‍Public, Private, and Cloud deployment models: Design your network according to business requirements for cloud inclusion into your network.

3. New wireless standards and technologies

Network speeds continue to get faster. Wireless standards are continually being updated to maintain fast and reliable WiFi networks. There is more emphasis given to topics such as:

• WiFi 6: New standard for WiFi that supports increased speeds across your wireless network. ‍
• 3G/4G/5G and LTE: As more companies are dispersed across large areas, they rely on telecom wireless standards in order to stay connected.

4. Additional emphasis on security

As security continues its upward trend as one of the most important aspects of information technology, securing your network is essential to defending against cyber attacks. The N10-008 exam give emphasis to topics such as:

• Risk management: Forecasting and evaluating risk, and defining policies and procedures to minimize impact.
• Malware: Any and all types of malicious software designed to harm the device, computer, or network.
• Rogue DCHP: A DHCP server that is not under control of the administrators of the network. This device usually causes problems by handing out invalid IP addresses.

What’s Been Added to TestOut Network Pro

GUI for Cisco Devices

TestOut has removed much of the Cisco command-line tool and replaced it with Cisco's GUI Web Administration tool. This change makes it much easier for students to learn how to configure Cisco devices and see what different options are available for Cisco device management. This new feature is applied to multiple labs, including securing a switch, creating VLANs, and enabling jumbo frame support.

Additional Network Security Labs

With version 6.0 of Network Pro, we replaced old Network Security Appliance labs with pfSense. pfSense is a powerful, open source firewall and router that allows users to implement secure access and strong network protection. Students will learn critical skills, such as configuring network security appliance access and implementing intrusion detection prevention.

New Cyber Attack Labs

It is becoming more critical for IT professionals to understand how cyber attacks work. This knowledge helps them identify ways to protect their computer networks. We added a few cyber attack labs for this purpose. Students will learn different attacks, such as DNS poisoning or DHCP spoofing, using John the Ripper, Ettercap, Wireshark, and more.

More Network Management Labs

We also added more hands-on labs that are useful in managing and configuring internal and external networks. Students will be able to practice skills such as backing up or recovering files in Windows 10, configuring a DMZ in Windows Server, managing Linux Network Services, etc.

Additional Device Management Labs

Users will see more labs that help them learn how to manage more devices in their network. They will learn about how to configure and analyze smart, IoT, and mobile devices.

New 3D Graphics

TestOut has created a new office, dorm, and business environments for students to test out their skills.

New Learning Resources

• 229 New Questions
• 13 New Video Lessons
• 22 New Technology Demos
• 42 New Hands-On Lab Tasks
• 29 New Text Lessons
• And hundreds of existing resources have also been updated.