removing the default gateway configuration

motherwolf

I'm studying a practice exam for 291 and have come across the following scenario. You have a web server named SRV A on the 10.9.8.0 subnet with a default gateway of 10.9.8.6. There is another server SRV B along with various clients on a 10.9.7.0 network connected to the same router. You want configure the TCP/IP properties of SRV A to prevent the clients of the 10.9.7.0 network form accessing confidential info. on that server. Now the answer states that by configuring SRV A with no default gateway, nobody from the 10.9.7.0 subnet will be able to establish a connection to SRV A. To me, that doesn't make sense. If SRV A is configured with no default gateway, doesn't that mean that it is confined and only able to communicate on the 10.9.8.0 subnet? The clients on the 10.9.7.0. subnet should still be able to establish a connection to SRV A, right? I would greatly appreciate some insight, thanks.

Danman32

A conversation is a two way street. It is true that the clients in the .7 network would be able to send SRV A a packet, but what good would that do if SRV A could not reply? That would be like you calling someone who can hear you, but their mike is busted so you can't hear them.

Now I agree there would be better ways of securing SRV A, but with the given scenario, removing the gateway from SRV A would prevent others from getting a reply from SRV A. Of course it wouldn't be able to work on the internet either, but perhaps that's part of the intent.