A network technician is troubleshooting an issue where users on VLAN 20 can access internal servers and the default gateway but cannot reach any external websites. The router's ACL is configured to permit all outbound traffic. What is the most likely cause of this issue?
NAT is required to translate private VLAN IPs to a public IP for internet access. Even if ACLs permit traffic, without proper NAT, packets will not be forwarded to the internet. This matches the symptom of being able to reach internal resources but not external ones.
Why this answer
Since users can access internal servers and the default gateway, Layer 3 connectivity within the VLAN is working, and the router's ACL permits all outbound traffic. The inability to reach external websites while internal resources are reachable strongly indicates that Network Address Translation (NAT) is either not configured or misconfigured on the router. Without NAT, private IP addresses from VLAN 20 cannot be translated to a public IP, so return traffic from external web servers has no route back to the internal hosts.
Exam trap
CompTIA often tests the misconception that an ACL permitting all outbound traffic is sufficient for internet access, but without NAT, private IP addresses are not routable on the public internet, so the ACL alone cannot fix the issue.
Why the other options are wrong
The question states users can access internal servers and the default gateway, which indicates DNS resolution for internal names works and the gateway is reachable. External website access failure with a permissive ACL points to a NAT issue, not DNS.
The question states users can access internal servers and the default gateway, so the DHCP server is providing a default gateway. The issue is external access, not gateway reachability.
The switch port for the router being in the wrong VLAN would prevent all traffic from that VLAN from reaching the router, but users can access internal servers and the default gateway, indicating the router is reachable. Thus, the issue is not at the switch port level.