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Question

Difficulty: MediumWired and Wireless Network Issues

A network administrator deploys a new internal web portal hosted on an office server at IP address 192.168.10.50. Users across the organization report that typing http://hrportal.local into their browser address bar returns a 'Server Not Found' error, but entering http://192.168.10.50 opens the portal immediately. Which of the following services is MOST likely misconfigured or offline?

  1. Domain Name System (DNS)Answer
  2. B
    Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
  3. C
    Layer 2 Ethernet Switch
  4. D
    Port forwarding configuration for HTTPS port 443

Answer

Domain Name System (DNS) is the service responsible for mapping hostnames to IP addresses, which explains why direct IP access works while hostname access fails.
Domain Name System (DNS) translates human-readable hostnames into computer-readable IP addresses. When a user can connect to a server via its direct IP address but receives a server error when using its hostname, the network path and web server are operational, pointing directly to a DNS record or server resolution failure.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the diagnostic symptoms described in the scenario
Direct IP address HTTP connections (http://192.168.10.50) succeed, confirming physical cabling, Layer 2 switching, Layer 3 routing, and web server software are functional.
Eliminates lower-level physical/data link network transport issues and basic server availability problems.
2
Evaluate the specific failure mode
Connections using the hostname (http://hrportal.local) fail to locate the destination server.
Indicates that the client computer cannot translate the human-readable hostname into the destination server's numerical IP address.
3
Identify the network protocol responsible for name resolution
Domain Name System (DNS) converts domain names and hostnames into IP addresses.
A missing A record or unreachable DNS server directly produces 'Server Not Found' errors for hostnames while allowing direct IP access.

Key Concept

Troubleshooting DNS Name Resolution Issues
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Topics

Wired and Wireless Network Issues

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