Exam N10-008 topic 1 question 220 discussion

B wouldnt result in you getting a APIPA address. It would more likely cause mulitple IP conflicts and effect more than one person. C would effect more than one person and again, wouldnt result in you getting an APIPA address. D would also not give you an APIPA adress and you still might be able to communicate over the network, although with a different set of issues to deal with. A is the most likely answer. An APIPA address is assigned to a device when it cannot obtain a valid IP address from a DHCP server.

Bing AI picks (A): "The technician notes that the workstation is showing an Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) address on the network interface. APIPA is a DHCP fail-safe mechanism that allows DHCP clients to obtain IP addresses even when DHCP servers are not functional. The APIPA address range is 169.254.0.1 to 169.254.254.255 with a default subnet mask of 255.255.0.0 Therefore, the most likely issue the workstation is experiencing is DHCP exhaustion or a rogue DHCP server. However, since the technician has verified that the VLAN assignment is correct and that the network interface has connectivity, it is more likely that the issue is DHCP exhaustion. -An incorrect subnet mask would not cause an APIPA address to be assigned to the workstation.  -A DNS server outage would not cause an APIPA address to be assigned to the workstation either."

Answer is A

It's asking about what the workstation is experiencing, not what the DHCP server is experiencing. If the subnet mask is wrong on the workstation it will still give an APIPA address. I appreciate all explanations!

DHCP exhaustion could be a reason A rogue DHCP server could also give invalid IP and could result in APIPA fall back Also a wrong subnet mask could also cause this But, I will go for DHCP exhaustion (even though the question does not say others also face the issue.)

APIPA (Automatic Private IP Addressing) is a feature built into Windows operating systems that allows a computer to automatically assign itself an IP address when it is unable to obtain one through DHCP. When DHCP exhaustion occurs, new clients that attempt to join the network will not be able to obtain an IP address from the DHCP server, and as a result, the computer will use an APIPA address to communicate on the network.

What is DHCP exhaustion? Each DHCP request with a different MAC address is regarded by the DHCP server as a new network client request. If the attacker sends an ample number of requests, the server's address pool will ultimately be exhausted. Hence, new network clients will be denied the DHCP service and will be unable to join the network.