A user with a custom hosts file is having difficulty connecting to a locally hosted site on a small office network. The technician cannot ping the…

The user's computer uses a custom hosts file to resolve the server's hostname to a specific IP address. This is a static, manual mapping. The inability to ping the server by its hostname suggests that the IP address listed in the hosts file is no longer correct for the server. This commonly occurs when a server is configured to use DHCP, which can assign it a different IP address upon lease renewal or reboot. For a server hosting a site or service, best practice is to assign a static IP address to ensure its network location remains constant and predictable for all clients, including those with manual configurations like a hosts file.

B. An APIPA address is a symptom of a DHCP failure; the core best practice for a server is to use a static IP, which avoids reliance on DHCP altogether.

C. The failure to ping indicates a network layer connectivity or name resolution problem, which must be solved before application-layer services can be reached.

D. The scenario provides no information about a secondary NIC, making its status irrelevant to troubleshooting the described connectivity issue.

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1. Microsoft Corporation. (2021). Configure IPv4 properties. Microsoft Docs. In the section "To configure IPv4 to use a static IP address

" the documentation outlines the procedure for setting a static IP

a standard practice for servers to ensure consistent network accessibility. This aligns with the need for a predictable IP for the hosts file entry. (Reference: learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/networking/technologies/dhcp/dhcp-deploy-w-existing-static-ip)

2. Kurose

J. F.

& Ross

K. W. (2021). Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach (8th ed.). Pearson. Chapter 4

Section 4.3.2

"DHCP: The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol

" contrasts dynamic address assignment with static assignment. The text explains that static assignment is necessary for network elements that need to be reachable at a fixed address

such as servers.

3. University Information Technology Services (UITS)

Indiana University. (2023). At IU

when is it appropriate to use a static IP address? UITS Knowledge Base. The document states

"Static IP addresses are necessary for devices that need to be consistently accessible

such as servers (web servers

application servers

etc.)... If you use DHCP for a server

it might be assigned a different IP address after a reboot

which would make it inaccessible to clients trying to reach it at its old address." This directly supports the rationale for the correct answer. (Reference: kb.iu.edu/d/aiau)