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A workstation being unable to communicate with specific hosts on its private network can indeed be attributed to an incorrect default gateway setting. The default gateway is the device (typically a router) that forwards traffic from the workstation to other networks, including communication to other subnets or external networks. If this setting is incorrect, the workstation may not be able to properly route packets to certain hosts, leading to connectivity issues with specific devices within the network.

An incorrect subnet mask would affect the ability of the workstation to determine which addresses belong to its local network, potentially leading to communication issues as well. However, the primary problem indicated by the scenario focuses on traffic forwarding and routing, which makes the default gateway setting more critical in this case.

While an expired IP lease may lead to connectivity problems, it generally affects the IP address of the workstation itself rather than its ability to communicate only with specific hosts. If the IP address were expired, the workstation would likely struggle to communicate with any hosts on the network.

A connection-specific DNS suffix misconfiguration would primarily impact name resolution rather than direct IP address communication. Since the question specifically concerns communication with hosts rather than resolving names to IP addresses, this option is less relevant to the situation described.

Overall, the default gateway is a fundamental