1. Brian, your boss, is sending some of your colleagues to a research conference overseas. He has asked the employees to use the hotel wi-fi to connect to the Internet and send daily reports back to the office. Write Brian a memo explaining the dangers of such a tactic. Explain to him what a VPN connection is and how it is a better solution.

2. Sara knows that using a VPN allows you to safely connect to computers over the Internet using an encrypted channel. She would like to know the difference between an SSL VPN and an IPsec VPN. You answer her in an e-mail. Write email body in the space provided to explain each VPN type, how they differ and what situations each one would be used.

3. Robert would like to implement the strongest protection available to prevent unwanted access to the corporate network. He wants to know the difference between an IDS and an IPS? Write him a memo to explain each technology and suggest a solution. Your explanation should include details supporting your solution.

4. Your boss has tasked Liam with creating some VLANs in one of the company's switches. Liam is quite new and comes to you a bit confused and asks you to help him understand his task. How would you define a VLAN to him and and describe at least two reasons why a VLAN might be necessary.

5. A new employee has been hired as an IT intern to shadow you on the job and overhears a couple of other IT technicians talking about how one of the Cisco switch ports was not configured in "trunking" mode. He asks you what they meant by a switch port not being in "trunking" mode. How do you explain this to him?

6. Your IT trainee needs to learn to manage enterprise switches and routers. Explain to him the definition of in-band and out-of-band management and include the differences between the two methods.