While troubleshooting a network, you can ping the gateway reliably but cannot browse the Internet. What is the most likely issue?

In this scenario, the ability to ping the gateway reliably indicates that the local network setup and the connection to the router are functioning correctly. However, the inability to browse the Internet suggests there is an issue beyond the gateway itself. This leads to the conclusion that the Domain Name System (DNS) is crucial for translating human-readable addresses (like www.example.com) into IP addresses that can be used for routing packets over the Internet.

When DNS is not available or improperly configured, your device can successfully communicate with local devices, such as the gateway, but it cannot resolve domain names to IP addresses required for accessing web pages. As a result, while basic connectivity exists, Internet browsing will fail due to the inability to translate domain names, leading to websites not loading despite a stable connection.

Other options might lead to connectivity issues as well, but they would manifest differently. For example, if a masquerading rule were not applied, this would prevent internal network traffic from being translated for Internet access, but you would typically see connection failures rather than just browsing issues. Similarly, a lack of an IP address would prevent any connectivity, not just browsing. A blocking firewall could cause issues too, but that would likely result in failure to reach the gateway or initial connection points.