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N10-005 · Question #560

A workstation on the network is configured as follows. A user reports that they are unable to print to a device located on a different subnet. Which of the following is the MOST likely problem? IP add

The correct answer is C. Default gateway. The default gateway (172.15.204.254) is on the 172.15.x.x network, which is a different subnet from the workstation (172.16.0.0/16), making cross-subnet communication impossible.

Network troubleshooting

Question

A workstation on the network is configured as follows. A user reports that they are unable to print to a device located on a different subnet. Which of the following is the MOST likely problem? IP address: 172.16.204.12 Subnet Mask: 255.255.0.0 Default Gateway: 172.15.204.254 DNS address: 172.16.204.1 Broadcast address: 172.16.255.255

Options

  • ADNS address
  • BSubnet mask
  • CDefault gateway
  • DBroadcast address
  • EIP address

How the community answered

(20 responses)
  • A
    5% (1)
  • B
    10% (2)
  • C
    80% (16)
  • E
    5% (1)

Why each option

The default gateway (172.15.204.254) is on the 172.15.x.x network, which is a different subnet from the workstation (172.16.0.0/16), making cross-subnet communication impossible.

ADNS address

The DNS address 172.16.204.1 falls within the correct 172.16.0.0/16 subnet and is reachable.

BSubnet mask

The subnet mask 255.255.0.0 is a valid /16 mask and is correctly applied to the given IP address.

CDefault gatewayCorrect

For a workstation to send traffic to a different subnet, the default gateway must reside on the same local subnet as the workstation. The workstation's IP 172.16.204.12 with a /16 mask places it on the 172.16.0.0 network, but the gateway 172.15.204.254 is on the 172.15.0.0 network. Because the gateway is unreachable at Layer 3, all off-subnet traffic including print jobs fails.

DBroadcast address

The broadcast address 172.16.255.255 is the correct directed broadcast for the 172.16.0.0/16 network.

EIP address

The IP address 172.16.204.12 is a valid host address within the 172.16.0.0/16 subnet.

Concept tested: Default gateway subnet mismatch causing routing failure

Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/networking/default-gateway-configuration

Topics

#default gateway#subnetting#IP configuration#inter-subnet routing

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