A network technician is provisioning hardware for a newly expanded office space that house… — CompTIA A+ (Core 1 & Core 2)

A network technician is provisioning hardware for a newly expanded office space that houses two separate logical subnets: $192.168.10.0/24$ for administration and $192.168.20.0/24$ for production. The technician connects all client workstations to a central networking device. While hosts within the administration subnet can communicate with one another, cross-subnet communication to the production network fails completely. Additionally, clients attempting to obtain dynamic configurations across the subnet boundary fail to locate a central provider and fall back to $169.254.x.x$ self-assigned addresses. Which network hardware device must be installed to forward packets between these distinct logical subnets?

RouterAnswer
B
Unmanaged Layer 2 Switch
C
DNS Server
D
APIPA Gateway

Answer

Router

A router operates at OSI Layer 3 (Network Layer) and uses logical IP network addresses to determine packet forwarding paths between separate subnets. Because the administration (

192.168.10.0/24

) and production (

192.168.20.0/24

) networks are distinct logical subnets, a router is required to connect them and manage inter-subnet communication.

Step-by-Step Solution

Analyze the network failure described in the scenario

Hosts within the same IP subnet (

192.168.10.0/24

) can communicate locally, but communication between different subnets (

192.168.10.0/24

and

192.168.20.0/24

) fails.

Layer 2 devices maintain communication within a single broadcast domain, but traffic moving between distinct IP subnets requires Layer 3 network layer processing.

Evaluate the missing functional capability

Inter-subnet communication requires reading IP packet headers and making forwarding decisions based on destination IP networks rather than destination MAC addresses.

Only a Layer 3 routing device (or Layer 3 switch) inspects IP headers to route packets across subnets and forward DHCP relay requests.

Select the appropriate network hardware device

Installing a router fulfills the requirement to connect separate IP subnets and enable inter-subnet traffic flow.

Routers operate at OSI Layer 3 and exist specifically to interconnect separate logical networks.

Key Concept

Layer 2 vs Layer 3 Network Hardware Boundaries

Question

Answer

Step-by-Step Solution

Key Concept

Common Mistakes

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