When using the Internet, you are assigned a Public IPv4 address such as 77.167.153.80
or an IPv6 address like 2000:7d51:beb5:6e04:3c24:9845:8e53:717e
. These addresses can be verified at https://test-ipv6.com/. However, conveying these addresses to individuals who are not well-versed in technology, or even referencing MAC addresses like 96:30:98:80:64:e4
, can be prone to error and can become complex quickly. Additionally, this does not provide any historical data, particularly for past issues.
When aiming to access a website, such as https://hilll.info, the first step is to connect to a DNS server, which translates the host portion (hilll) along with the Top Level Domain (info) of the URL into an IP address like 174.21.139.64
. With every web request, your computer and browser transmit their type, for example: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; SG; rv:1.9.2.4) Gecko/20101104 Netscape/9.1.0285
Normally, your default gateway is assigned as an automatically configured address via DHCP. This default gateway, such as 172.30.18.202
(usually ending in .1 or .254, based on the scope size), is where your computer sends all its traffic to be routed onwards. For IPv6
, detailed guidance is available in our article how-to-fix-ipv6-connectivity/. However, on Mac or Linux systems, you can verify this by running:
netstat -rn -f inet | egrep -i "default|0/1|128.0/1"
0/1 172.18.12.193 UGScg utun3 default 172.30.18.202 UGScg en0 128.0/1 172.18.12.193 UGSc utun3
Note: We are not just looking for the default but also for any VPN that overrides the public v4 address space.
netstat -rn -f inet6 | egrep -i "default|2000::/3"
If you have IPv6 active the above should return at least one route (as per below) via a known interface such as “en0 " on a Mac.
default 9bab:a2b7:68d:52:fa77:f0ac:85c2:bf72%en0 UGcg en0 default fe80::%utun0 UGcIg utun0 default fe80::%utun1 UGcIg utun1 default fe80::%utun2 UGcIg utun2 2000::/3 utun3 USc utun3
Note: We are not just looking for the default but also for any VPN that overrides the public v6 address space.
To get a look at the low level DHCP configuration (Mac/Linux):
ipconfig getpacket en0
... domain_name_server (ip_mult): {142.31.31.191, 124.161.50.253} end (none): ...
So, in the above we are not getting IPv6 DNS servers from the DHCPv4 reply but…
ipconfig getv6packet en0
DHCPv6 REPLY (7) Transaction ID 0x80940b Length 76 Options[4] = { CLIENTID (1) Length 14: DUID LLT HW 1 Time 668691856 Addr 96:30:98:80:64:e4 DNS_SERVERS (23) Length 32: 2606:4700:4700::1111, 2001:4860:4860::8844 DOMAIN_LIST (24) Length 0: Invalid SERVERID (2) Length 10: DUID LL HW 1 Addr 91:cf:a8:3f:da:a4 }
When it comes to transmitting data to your router, you might encounter connectivity issues at the physical and data layer, whether using a wired or wireless (Wi-Fi) medium.
Regardless of the version of OSX/macOS you are running, be it 10.11.3, 11.3.4, or 12.3.7, there are various tools available for troubleshooting. However, these tools may not provide a sequence of correlated values over time, especially for teams embracing remote work and Work From Anywhere (WFA).
A useful script on OSX/macOS is sudo wdutil info
, which provides a dump of current wireless settings to the CLI, and can be configured to generate specific logs for troubleshooting. Additionally, the sysdiagnose
tool can be used to generate a wide range of logs, although many are only relevant at a specific point in time, similar to wdutil.
Running sudo nohup /usr/bin/sysdiagnose -u &
will execute it in the background and write logs to /var/tmp/<blah>.tar.gz
. If you prefer to run it interactively, you can execute sudo /usr/bin/sysdiagnose
and it will display a privacy warning. When not run in the background, it should open Finder in the correct location, or you can navigate to /var/tmp
using Cmd+Shift+G in Finder. However, be cautious of the file sizes, which can be around 300MB.
Digital work requires reliable connectivity. Whether for low latency or regular data streams, Wi-Fi, DNS, and network issues cause teams to lose time and productivity. Even worse is when support teams waste time trying to recreate and isolate issues! See how PanSift saves time, money, and frustration on all sides with instant remote troubleshooting 🏠🏝🛰.
2 x free macOS agents
No registration, immediate live demo!