ITPEC FE Subject A April 2025 Question 26
An administrator of a small network is testing the new network. Which of the following is the correct combination of the network management tools to be inserted in the blanks below?
The administrator first tests reachability of a remote host using A, and determines the path that packets take to the destination with B
Explanation
A: ping, B: traceroute — ping checks whether a remote host answers, traceroute lists the routers on the way to it.
- •
pingsends ICMP echo requests and waits for echo replies, so it tests reachability and round-trip time - •
traceroutesends packets with increasing TTL values; each router that discards one reports back, which reveals the path hop by hop - •
netstatshows the local machine's own connections, listening ports and routing table; it sends nothing to a remote host
Answer (c)
Why not others:
- •(a) netstat, ping and (b) netstat, traceroute — netstat only reports local state, so it cannot test whether a remote host is reachable
- •(d) traceroute, ping — ping reports only whether the host replies, not the routers in between, so it cannot determine the path in blank B
Key rule: For reachability use ping, for the route use traceroute (tracert on Windows), and for the local machine's connections use netstat.
Networks · AI-written, may contain errors
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