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220-1201 Practice Question: That they can only access the internet…
A user reports that they can only access the internet intermittently. The technician runs ipconfig and sees an IPv4 address of 192.168.1.105 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and a default gateway of 192.168.1.1. The technician pings the gateway successfully, but pings to 8.8.8.8 fail. What is the most likely issue?
⚠ Common exam trap
The 220-1201 exam often tests the distinction between local and remote connectivity; the trap here is that candidates assume a successful ping to the gateway implies full internet access, but they overlook that the router's WAN link is a separate point of failure that does not affect LAN-side reachability.
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
✓
The router's WAN connection is down or misconfigured.
The technician can ping the local gateway (192.168.1.1) successfully, which confirms that Layer 2 and Layer 3 connectivity within the local subnet is working and that the user's IP configuration is valid. However, pings to the public DNS server 8.8.8.8 fail, indicating that traffic cannot reach the internet. Since the gateway is reachable but external IPs are not, the most likely cause is that the router's WAN connection is down or misconfigured, preventing traffic from being routed beyond the local 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.
- ✗
The user's computer has a duplicate IP address.
Why it's wrong here
A duplicate IP address causes an IP conflict, leading to highly unstable and intermittent network access, often manifesting as frequent disconnections or an inability to connect at all. However, if the user can consistently ping their local gateway, it suggests their device has a stable connection to the local network segment. This scenario points away from a duplicate IP as the primary cause of a complete lack of external connectivity while local access remains functional.
- ✗
The DNS server is not resolving addresses.
Why it's wrong here
DNS resolution failures prevent the translation of human-readable domain names, such as google.com, into numerical IP addresses that computers use for routing. If the user can successfully ping an external IP address like 8.8.8.8, it confirms that basic internet connectivity exists at the network layer, bypassing DNS entirely. Therefore, a DNS issue would only hinder access by name, not by direct IP, and would not explain a complete inability to reach external IP addresses.
- ✓
The router's WAN connection is down or misconfigured.
Why this is correct
If a user can successfully access local network resources, such as pinging their default gateway, but cannot reach any external IP addresses like 8.8.8.8, it strongly indicates a problem beyond the local network segment. The router's Wide Area Network (WAN) interface is specifically responsible for establishing and maintaining the connection between the internal network and the Internet Service Provider (ISP). A down or misconfigured WAN connection would effectively sever all outbound traffic from reaching the broader internet, while still allowing internal network communication to function normally.
- ✗
The user's firewall is blocking ICMP traffic.
Why it's wrong here
A user's local firewall, whether a software application or a hardware device, can be configured to block specific types of network traffic, including ICMP packets used by the `ping` command. While this would prevent successful pings, it would not typically affect other forms of internet access, such as web browsing (HTTP/HTTPS) or email (SMTP/POP3/IMAP), unless the firewall was configured to block all outbound traffic indiscriminately. Therefore, a firewall blocking only ICMP would not explain a general inability to access external resources.
Visual reference
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JA
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.