During a ping sweep to identify live hosts, you receive responses from only Unix-like systems. Which statement is most accurate?

During a ping sweep to identify live hosts, you receive responses from only Unix-like systems. Which statement is most accurate?

• A. Only Unix and Unix-like systems will reply to this scan
• B. Only Windows systems will reply to this scan
• C. A switched network will not respond to packets sent to the broadcast address
• D. Only IBM AS/400 will reply to this scan

Answer: (A)

A ping sweep sends ICMP Echo Requests to a range of addresses to see which hosts answer with ICMP Echo Replies. If you’re getting responses only from Unix-like systems, that means those hosts are replying to the ICMP echo while many Windows hosts are not replying—likely because their ICMP Echo responses are blocked by firewall rules or security policies. In this context, the observation is best described by saying that only Unix and Unix-like systems will reply to this scan, since they typically have ICMP echo responses enabled and reachable in this environment. The other statements don’t align with what you observed: Windows hosts are not the ones replying here; the behavior isn’t about switching hardware blocking broadcast addresses in general, and IBM AS/400 is not the sole or likely source of replies in this scenario.

A ping sweep sends ICMP Echo Requests to a range of addresses to see which hosts answer with ICMP Echo Replies. If you’re getting responses only from Unix-like systems, that means those hosts are replying to the ICMP echo while many Windows hosts are not replying—likely because their ICMP Echo responses are blocked by firewall rules or security policies. In this context, the observation is best described by saying that only Unix and Unix-like systems will reply to this scan, since they typically have ICMP echo responses enabled and reachable in this environment.

The other statements don’t align with what you observed: Windows hosts are not the ones replying here; the behavior isn’t about switching hardware blocking broadcast addresses in general, and IBM AS/400 is not the sole or likely source of replies in this scenario.