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220-1202 Practice Question: A customer complains that their new smartphone…
A customer complains that their new smartphone connects to their home Wi-Fi but has no internet access. The router is configured with WPA2-PSK and a 64-character pre-shared key. Other devices work fine. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
The 220-1202 exam often tests the distinction between 'connected to Wi-Fi' (Layer 2 association) and 'has internet access' (Layer 3 connectivity), trapping candidates who assume any connectivity issue must be DHCP or DNS related, when the root cause is often an authentication failure due to a mistyped password.
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 smartphone is using a wrong or mistyped Wi-Fi password.
The most likely cause is a mistyped or incorrect Wi-Fi password. Since the smartphone connects to the Wi-Fi network (association and authentication succeed at Layer 2) but has no internet access, the device is likely using a wrong pre-shared key that still allows partial connectivity due to WPA2-PSK's four-way handshake behavior—if the key is incorrect, the handshake fails, but some implementations may show a 'connected' status without proper encryption. Other devices work fine, ruling out router-side issues like DHCP exhaustion or DNS misconfiguration.
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 smartphone's Wi-Fi antenna is faulty.
Why it's wrong here
A faulty Wi-Fi antenna would severely impair or completely prevent the smartphone from establishing a physical layer connection with the wireless access point. This would typically manifest as an inability to even see available Wi-Fi networks, or if it could, it would fail to associate or maintain a stable connection. The scenario describes the smartphone connecting but lacking internet, which implies a successful association at the physical and data link layers, making an antenna fault less likely.
- ✓
The smartphone is using a wrong or mistyped Wi-Fi password.
Why this is correct
When a smartphone attempts to connect to a secure Wi-Fi network, it first associates with the access point. Following this, a security handshake (e.g., WPA2/WPA3 4-way handshake) occurs, requiring the correct pre-shared key (password). If the password is incorrect, this authentication handshake fails, preventing the device from obtaining a valid IP address from the DHCP server and establishing a secure, encrypted data link. Consequently, the smartphone might display "Connected" to the SSID but will be unable to send or receive internet traffic.
- ✗
The router's DHCP server has run out of IP addresses.
Why it's wrong here
If the router's DHCP server exhausted its pool of available IP addresses, the smartphone would be unable to obtain a valid IP configuration (IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, DNS servers). This would typically result in the smartphone assigning itself an Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) address (169.254.x.x) or simply failing to connect to the network layer. While this prevents internet access, the issue would affect any new device attempting to join the network, not exclusively the smartphone, and the symptom is a lack of IP, not a "connected but no internet" state implying a successful IP acquisition.
- ✗
The smartphone's DNS settings are misconfigured.
Why it's wrong here
Misconfigured DNS settings would specifically hinder the smartphone's ability to resolve domain names into IP addresses. The device would still successfully connect to the Wi-Fi network, obtain a valid IP address, and be able to access internet resources directly by their IP address (e.g., pinging 8.8.8.8 or navigating to an IP-based website). However, attempts to browse websites using domain names (like google.com) would fail, indicating a specific name resolution problem rather than a complete lack of internet connectivity.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1202 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 220-1202 exam.