220-1102 Question 110
Single answerpathpingA help desk technician is troubleshooting complaints that users can reach an internal file server only intermittently from a remote office. Basic connectivity tests show the server sometimes responds to ping, but file copies frequently stall. The technician wants to identify whether packet loss is occurring at a specific router along the route between the remote office PC and the file server. Which command-line tool should the technician use to best gather this information?
- A
pathping
- B
ipconfig /flushdns
- C
net use
- D
nslookup
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
The best choice is pathping because the scenario specifically requires identifying packet loss at a particular point between the client and the server. Unlike ping, which tests only end-to-end reachability, and unlike tracert, which shows the route but not sustained loss statistics, pathping sends packets over time to each hop and reports packet loss information for the path. This makes it especially useful for intermittent network issues where traffic stalls even though occasional pings succeed. Microsoft documentation describes pathping as a utility that traces the route to a destination and computes packet loss statistics at each router, which aligns directly with this troubleshooting requirement.
- A. Correct.
Correct. pathping combines features of ping and tracert by first discovering the route and then measuring packet loss at each hop over time. This makes it well suited for troubleshooting intermittent connectivity and identifying where along the path packet loss is occurring.
- B. Incorrect.
Incorrect. ipconfig /flushdns clears the local DNS resolver cache. This can help if name resolution is using stale records, but it does not test the route or measure packet loss at intermediate hops.
- C. Incorrect.
Incorrect. net use is used to connect to, manage, or disconnect network shares and mapped drives. It is useful for accessing file shares, but it does not analyze packet loss or router-by-router connectivity problems.
- D. Incorrect.
Incorrect. nslookup is used to query DNS records and verify name resolution. While useful if the issue involves resolving the file server's hostname, it does not identify packet loss across network hops.