Courseiva
hardMultiple SelectObjective-mapped

300-410 Practice Question: Which THREE symptoms indicate that NAT is…

Which THREE symptoms indicate that NAT is misconfigured or failing on a Cisco router? (Choose THREE.)

⚠ Common exam trap

Cisco often tests the distinction between connectivity to the outside interface (which does not require NAT) and connectivity beyond it (which requires proper NAT translation), leading candidates to mistakenly think that successful pings to the outside interface imply full NAT functionality.

Answer choices

Why each option matters

Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.

Correct answer & explanation

Inside hosts can ping the outside interface IP but cannot reach hosts beyond it.

If inside hosts can ping the outside interface IP but cannot reach hosts beyond it, this indicates that NAT is translating the source address correctly for outbound traffic, but the router is not performing NAT for destinations beyond the outside interface. This typically happens when the NAT configuration lacks an access list that matches the inside-to-outside traffic or when the ip nat inside/outside interface commands are misapplied, causing the router to forward packets without translation for destinations beyond the directly connected network.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

  • Inside hosts can ping the outside interface IP but cannot reach hosts beyond it.

    Why this is correct

    This often indicates that NAT is not translating the source address for packets going out, or the return traffic is not being untranslated.

  • Traffic flows in one direction only (e.g., inside-to-outside works, but return traffic fails).

    Why this is correct

    Asymmetric routing or missing NAT entries can cause one-way traffic; the router may not have a translation for the return packet.

  • The show ip nat translations output shows many translations with the same inside global address but different ports, and new connections fail.

    Why this is correct

    This indicates PAT port exhaustion; when all available ports are used, new translations cannot be created.

  • The router's CPU utilization is high due to BGP process.

    Why it's wrong here

    High CPU from BGP is unrelated to NAT; NAT issues typically do not cause high CPU unless there is a bug or extremely high traffic.

  • The show ip route command shows a default route pointing to the ISP next hop.

    Why it's wrong here

    A default route is normal for internet access and does not indicate a NAT problem.

Visual reference

Inside (Private) PC-A 10.0.0.1 PC-B 10.0.0.2 NAT Router Outside (Public) 203.0.113.1 Inside Global Server PAT: many private IPs share one public IP via unique port numbers

About these practice questions

One of 1,966 original 300-410 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →

How Courseiva writes practice questions · Editorial policy

JA

Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security

Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva

This 300-410 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Cisco certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 300-410 exam.