Question

Difficulty: MediumTroubleshooting Methodology

A network technician is investigating an issue where several workstations in a department suddenly lost access to internal file shares. The technician gathered information from users, duplicated the connection failure on a test workstation, and suspected that an unannounced network configuration change caused an IP subnet mismatch. To verify this, the technician examined the local IP configuration on an affected machine and confirmed that its static gateway address was misconfigured. According to the CompTIA 6-step troubleshooting methodology, which of the following actions should the technician take NEXT?

  1. Establish a plan of action to correct the gateway configuration and implement the fix.Answer
  2. B
    Perform a complete functional test on all affected workstations to ensure full network connectivity.
  3. C
    Update the ticketing system with the root cause analysis, corrective actions taken, and final outcome.
  4. D
    Reconfigure the local DNS server settings on the workstations to resolve the IP routing conflict.

Answer

Establish a plan of action to correct the gateway configuration and implement the fix.
The scenario describes a technician who has successfully identified the problem, formed a theory of probable cause, and tested that theory to confirm the root cause (Step 3 of the CompTIA methodology). The immediate next step according to the methodology is Step 4: Establish a plan of action to resolve the problem and implement the solution.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the troubleshooting stage reached in the scenario.
The technician identified the problem (Step 1), established a theory (Step 2), and tested the theory by checking the gateway configuration to confirm the cause (Step 3).
Determining the current step in the CompTIA 6-step troubleshooting methodology is required to select the next logical phase.
2
Identify the next sequential step in the CompTIA 6-step methodology.
Following Step 3 (Test the theory to determine cause), the next step is Step 4 (Establish a plan of action to resolve the problem and implement the solution).
CompTIA troubleshooting rules require completing steps in order without skipping ahead to verification or documentation.

Key Concept

CompTIA 6-Step Troubleshooting Methodology
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