Question

What are two actions performed by a Cisco switch?

1) Building a routing table that is based on the first IP address in the frame header
2) Using the source MAC addresses of frames to build and maintain a MAC address table
3) Forwarding frames with unknown destination IP addresses to the default gateway
4) Utilizing the MAC address table to forward frames via the destination MAC address
5) Examining the destination MAC address to add new entries to the MAC address table

Answer 1

A Cisco switch builds and maintains a MAC address table using source MAC addresses and utilizes this table to forward frames based on the destination MAC address. The switch does not examine destination MAC addresses to add to the MAC address table; it adds entries based on source MAC addresses in received frames.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question concerns the actions performed by a Cisco switch. The two accurate actions that a Cisco switch performs are:

1. Using the source MAC addresses of frames to build and maintain a MAC address table. This is how a switch learns which devices are connected to which ports, allowing it to forward frames efficiently.
2. Utilizing the MAC address table to forward frames to the correct device based on the destination MAC address in the frame. The switch examines this address, determines the corresponding port, and sends the frame directly to that port if possible.

Option 5, examining the destination MAC address to add new entries to the MAC address table, is actually incorrect because the switch adds entries using the source MAC address of the frames it receives, not the destination MAC address.