220-1102 Question 109
Single answertracertA technician is troubleshooting a user's report that an internal web application at 10.25.8.20 is unreachable from a Windows 11 workstation. The user can access local network resources, but the application times out in the browser. The technician wants to identify the path packets take and determine where communication stops between the workstation and the server. Which command should the technician run first?
- A
tracert 10.25.8.20
- B
ipconfig /release
- C
net use \10.25.8.20\share
- D
nslookup 10.25.8.20
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The best answer is "tracert 10.25.8.20" because tracert is the Windows command-line tool used to trace the route packets take to a destination by sending packets with increasing Time to Live (TTL) values and reporting each router hop along the way. This makes it useful for isolating where a network path fails. In real-world troubleshooting, technicians often use ping to test basic reachability and tracert to identify where along the route communication breaks down. Microsoft documentation describes tracert as a utility for determining the path to a destination and troubleshooting network routing problems. The other options may be useful in different situations, but they do not meet the stated goal of identifying the packet path and failure point.
- A. Correct.
Correct. On Windows, tracert displays the route packets take to a destination and shows each hop along the path. This is the appropriate first step when the goal is to determine where connectivity is failing between the workstation and a remote host. In this scenario, the destination is already known by IP address, so tracert can help identify whether the issue occurs at the local gateway, an intermediate router, or near the destination server.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. ipconfig /release drops the workstation's current DHCP-assigned IPv4 address. That action may disrupt connectivity further and does not provide path information. A technician might choose this if they suspect an IP addressing issue, but the scenario specifically asks for a way to identify the path packets take and where communication stops.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. net use is used to connect to or manage shared network resources, typically SMB shares. It does not trace packet hops or identify routing failures. Someone might pick this because the problem involves network access, but it is unrelated to path analysis for a web application.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. nslookup is used to query DNS information. Because the server is identified by IP address rather than hostname, DNS resolution is not the primary issue being tested here. Even if a hostname were involved, nslookup would only verify name resolution, not show the network route or where packets stop.