100-150 Question 64
Single answerA company is setting up a new internal network for its employees. The network administrator decides to assign IP addresses from the 192.168.0.0/24 range to all devices within the office. When one of the employees tries to access a public website, the web server logs show the IP address of the company’s router instead of the employee's assigned IP address. Why is this behavior occurring?
- A
The assigned IP addresses are private and require Network Address Translation (NAT) to communicate with public networks.
- B
The company’s router is blocking private IP addresses from accessing the internet.
- C
The assigned IP addresses are public and do not require NAT for internet communication.
- D
The company is using a proxy server, which masks the internal IP addresses of employees.
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
In this scenario, the company is using private IP addresses (192.168.0.0/24), which are non-routable on the public internet. These private addresses must be translated to a public IP address using Network Address Translation (NAT) to enable communication with public servers. This is why the web server logs show the public IP address of the company’s router instead of the employee's private IP address.
- A. Correct.
Private IP addresses (like those in the 192.168.0.0/24 range) are not routable on the public internet. NAT is required to translate these private addresses into a public IP address before communication with public networks.
- B. Incorrect.
While routers can block traffic based on certain rules, this is not the reason in this scenario. The behavior described is due to the use of private IP addresses and NAT.
- C. Incorrect.
The IP addresses assigned (192.168.0.0/24) are private IP addresses, not public. Therefore, NAT is required for internet communication.
- D. Incorrect.
A proxy server could mask internal IP addresses, but the scenario does not mention the use of a proxy server. This behavior is due to NAT handling the translation of private to public IPs.