Studyledge

The Internet and the World Wide Web: Question 9

Syllabus 5.1

Multiple choice 1 mark

Amir is on a video call using an app on his laptop, and the call is running smoothly with no problems. He then opens his web browser and types "ww.bramblecafe-orders.com" (missing a letter) into the address bar. The page fails to load, and the browser displays a "server not found" message.

What does this situation best indicate?

Choose an answer to check it, then compare with the worked solution below.
Show worked solution Hide worked solution

Worked solution

Step 1: Read the evidence carefully

Amir’s video call, which also needs an internet connection, is working normally, so his device does have a working route onto the internet. The only thing that has gone wrong is loading one specific, mistyped address.

Step 2: Connect this to how a browser locates a page

Before a browser can contact a web server, it must ask a domain name server (DNS) to translate the typed domain name into the matching IP address. Because Amir typed “ww.bramblecafe-orders.com” instead of the real domain name, there is no matching entry for the DNS to find, so it cannot return an IP address for the browser to use. The browser therefore cannot reach any web server at all for this address, and reports “server not found”.

Step 3: Rule out the distractors

  • Option B is contradicted by the still-working video call, which proves the internet connection itself is fine.
  • Option C wrongly assumes the real web server has failed, when in fact the browser never even attempted to contact it, because the mistyped domain name could not be resolved by DNS in the first place.
  • Option D blames the browser software itself, but the video call and DNS explanation show the fault lies with the specific, incorrect domain name rather than the browser being broken.

Final answer

The correct statement is option A: DNS could not match the mistyped domain name to an IP address, even though Amir’s internet connection is otherwise working.