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220-1201 Practice Question: A technician is troubleshooting a user's…
A technician is troubleshooting a user's inability to reach a server at 172.16.50.100. The user's IP is 172.16.50.50 with subnet mask 255.255.255.0. The technician runs a traceroute and sees the first hop is the gateway (172.16.50.1), but the second hop times out. What does this indicate?
⚠ Common exam trap
The CompTIA A+ exam often tests the distinction between a local subnet issue (where the first hop fails) and a routing issue beyond the gateway (where the first hop succeeds but subsequent hops fail), leading candidates to incorrectly blame the user's IP configuration or the server's power state.
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
✓
There is a routing problem between the gateway and the server.
The traceroute shows that the first hop (the gateway at 172.16.50.1) responds, but the second hop times out. This indicates that the packet successfully leaves the user's subnet and reaches the gateway, but fails to be routed further towards the server. This points to a routing issue beyond the local gateway, such as a missing route on the gateway or an intermediate router dropping the packets.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The user's IP address is in the wrong subnet.
Why it's wrong here
The user's IP address (172.16.50.50) and subnet mask (255.255.255.0) place it squarely within the 172.16.50.0/24 network, which is the same subnet as the default gateway (172.16.50.1). If the IP address were in the wrong subnet, the user would be unable to reach the default gateway, and the traceroute would fail immediately at the first hop, which is not what the problem description implies.
- ✗
The server is powered off.
Why it's wrong here
If the server were powered off, the traceroute would likely show successful hops up to the last router before the server, followed by timeouts for the destination server itself. The fact that the traceroute successfully reaches the first hop (the gateway) but then fails on subsequent hops indicates an issue with the routing path beyond the local network, rather than the ultimate destination being offline.
- ✓
There is a routing problem between the gateway and the server.
Why this is correct
The traceroute output indicates that the user's machine can successfully reach its default gateway (the first hop). However, the traceroute then fails to proceed further, showing timeouts or 'request timed out' for subsequent hops. This behavior strongly suggests that the default gateway or a router further along the path lacks a proper route to the destination server, or there's an issue with an intermediate router's forwarding capabilities.
- ✗
The user's default gateway is incorrect.
Why it's wrong here
The traceroute explicitly shows the user's default gateway (172.16.50.1) as the first successful hop. This confirms that the default gateway is correctly configured on the user's machine and is reachable within the local network. If the default gateway were incorrect, the traceroute would fail at the very first step, as the user's machine would be unable to forward traffic outside its local subnet.
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Related to this question
Learn chapter
Default Gateway Configuration
Key term
Packet
A packet is a small unit of data that is sent over a network, containing both the actual data and control information for delivery.
Key term
Subnet mask
A subnet mask is a 32-bit number that helps a computer or network device determine which part of an IP address identifies the network and which part identifies the host device on that network.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1201 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA 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 220-1201 exam.