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Difficulty: MediumNetwork Host Services and Server Roles

A systems administrator notices that several workstation computers in a newly established branch office fail to authenticate to the enterprise domain controller. Further inspection reveals that the system clocks on the affected workstations differ by more than six minutes from the domain controller clock, breaking time-sensitive authentication protocols. Which network server role should be configured to automatically synchronize local clocks across all host devices on the network?

  1. Network Time Protocol (NTP) serverAnswer
  2. B
    Domain Name System (DNS) server
  3. C
    Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server
  4. D
    Syslog server

Answer

Network Time Protocol (NTP) server
The correct answer is the Network Time Protocol (NTP) server. NTP operates over UDP port 123 and is specifically designed to synchronize system time and clock offsets across host computers on a network. Modern network authentication protocols enforce a strict maximum clock tolerance (typically 5 minutes) to prevent replay attacks; when client clocks drift beyond this limit, authentication fails until NTP synchronization is established.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the root cause of the authentication failure described in the scenario
The workstations are failing domain authentication due to a time skew (clock difference) exceeding five minutes between client computers and the domain controller.
Security and authentication protocols (such as Kerberos) require system clocks to be tightly synchronized to prevent replay attacks.
2
Determine which network host service is responsible for clock synchronization
Network Time Protocol (NTP) uses UDP port 123 to synchronize client clocks with authoritative reference time sources.
Deploying an NTP server ensures all host devices automatically maintain consistent system times across the network.

Key Concept

Network Host Services - Network Time Protocol (NTP) Server Role
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Topics

Network Host Services and Server Roles

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