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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…

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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