Jeff, an administrator, has just finished installing a new switch and connected two servers with IPs of 192.168.105.20 and .30. The servers are able to communicate with each other, but are unable to…

The subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 is correct for the 192.168.105.0/24 network - both servers and the switch interface fall within this range, so the mask is not the problem.

A routing loop would cause intermittent or circular traffic issues across the entire network, not a clean scenario where local communication works and only Internet access fails.

Modern switches use Auto-MDIX to handle cable type automatically, and even if a crossover cable caused issues, it would break all connectivity to the router, not just Internet access for the servers.

A default gateway tells a host where to send packets destined for networks outside its own subnet. The servers at .20 and .30 can communicate with each other (same subnet) and the switch can ping the router at .1, confirming basic connectivity and routing are functioning. However, without a default gateway configured on the servers themselves, they have no instruction to forward Internet-bound traffic to the router at 192.168.105.1.