Which of the following IP address/default gateway combinations should the administrator have used for the new server?

A server administrator is configuring the IP address on a newly provisioned server in the testing environment.

The network VLANs are configured as follows:

The administrator configures the IP address for the new server as follows:

IP address: 192.168.1.1/24

Default gateway: 192.168.10.1

A ping sent to the default gateway is not successful.

Which of the following IP address/default gateway combinations should the administrator have used for the new server?
A . IP address: 192.168.10.2/24
Default gateway: 192.168.10.1
B . IP address: 192.168.1.2/24
Default gateway: 192.168.10.1
C . IP address: 192.168.10.3/24
Default gateway: 192.168.20.1
D . IP address: 192.168.10.24/24
Default gateway: 192.168.30.1

View Answer

Answer: A

Explanation:

The IP address/default gateway combination that the administrator should have used for the new server is IP address: 192.168.10.2/24 and Default gateway: 192.168.10.1. The IP address and the default gateway of a device must be in the same subnet to communicate with each other. A subnet is a logical division of a network that allows devices to share a common prefix of their IP addresses. The subnet mask determines how many bits of the IP address are used for the network prefix and how many bits are used for the host identifier. A /24 subnet mask means that the first 24 bits of the IP address are used for the network prefix and the last 8 bits are used for the host identifier. Therefore, any IP address that has the same first 24 bits as the default gateway belongs to the same subnet. In this case, the default gateway has an IP address of 192.168.10.1/24, which means that any IP address that starts with 192.168.10.x/24 belongs to the same subnet. The new server has an IP address of 192.168.1.1/24, which does not match the first 24 bits of the default gateway, so it belongs to a different subnet and cannot communicate with the default gateway. To fix this issue, the administrator should change the IP address of the new server to an unused IP address that starts with 192.168.10.x/24, such as 192.168.10.2/24.