Network administrators need to manage and maintain devices on the campus network.

The protocol that cannot directly modify device configurations such as interface IP addresses or device names is SFTP , so option C is correct. SFTP is a secure file transfer protocol that runs over SSH and is mainly used to upload, download, and manage files between a client and a network device. It is commonly used for tasks such as transferring configuration files, system software, patches, or log files, but it does not itself provide an interactive or structured configuration modification mechanism.

By contrast, STelnet allows secure remote CLI login, through which an administrator can directly enter commands to change device settings. NETCONF is specifically designed for network configuration management and can modify configurations in a structured manner. SNMP can also modify certain managed object values through write operations when permissions and MIB support allow it, although in practice it is used more often for monitoring. HCIA-Datacom distinguishes between management-plane protocols based on their roles: interactive access, structured configuration, monitoring, and file transfer. This question checks whether the learner can identify SFTP as a file transfer tool rather than a direct configuration protocol.

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