220-1101 Networking Practice Question
A user reports that their workstation can access local network shares and printers but cannot access the internet. The technician pings the default gateway (192.168.1.1) successfully. The technician pings a public DNS server (8.8.8.8) and the request times out. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently assume internet access failure must be a DNS issue, but the question explicitly tests the distinction between IP-level connectivity (ping to 8.8.8.8) and name resolution, forcing you to recognize that a successful gateway ping combined with a failed external IP ping points to a WAN connectivity problem, not DNS.
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 not functioning
The technician can ping the default gateway (192.168.1.1) successfully, confirming that the workstation's local IP configuration and Layer 2/3 connectivity to the router are correct. However, pinging the public DNS server 8.8.8.8 times out, which indicates that traffic is reaching the router but cannot exit to the internet. This points to a failure in the router's WAN connection (e.g., the modem or ISP link), as the router itself is reachable but cannot forward packets beyond the local subnet.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Incorrect DNS server configured on the workstation
Why it's wrong here
A misconfigured DNS server breaks hostname resolution, not raw IP connectivity. When you ping a public IP address like 8.8.8.8, the operating system sends ICMP packets directly to that numeric IP without performing a DNS lookup. Therefore, even with an incorrect DNS server, the ping would succeed as long as IP routing works. This misconfiguration would instead produce 'cannot resolve hostname' errors when trying to access services by name, not a failure to reach a public IP.
- ✗
The workstation's default gateway is misconfigured
Why it's wrong here
The default gateway is the router interface on the local subnet, typically 192.168.1.1. The workstation successfully pings that exact address, proving that the gateway setting is correct and that the workstation can send frames to and receive frames from the router on the local link. If the default gateway were misconfigured, the ping would fail because the workstation would either send the request to the wrong device or have no matching route for off-subnet traffic. Thus, a successful ping to the gateway definitively eliminates a bad gateway configuration as the cause.
- ✓
The router's WAN connection is not functioning
Why this is correct
A successful ping to the local gateway but failure to reach a public IP indicates the router cannot route traffic to the internet, likely due to a WAN-side problem (e.g., disconnected cable, modem failure, or ISP outage).
- ✗
The workstation's subnet mask is incorrect
Why it's wrong here
The subnet mask determines which IP addresses are considered local and which require routing via the gateway. If the mask were incorrect, the workstation might conclude that 192.168.1.1 is on a remote network and attempt to forward the ping to a nonexistent or wrong gateway, causing the ping to fail. Conversely, if the mask were too permissive, local traffic could still work but would have little effect on reaching public IPs. Since the ping to 192.168.1.1 succeeds, the workstation's subnet mask correctly identifies the router as local, so the mask is not the problem.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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