How Can I Check Apple Internet Connection
Explaining the Process of Internet Addressing
When navigating the internet, you may be assigned a Public IPv4 address such as 205.13.202.17 or an IPv6 address like 2000:b05e:c8d7:21e3:bba1:296d:a8cc:7ec8. One way to verify this is by visiting https://test-ipv6.com/. However, for those who are not technologically inclined, communicating these addresses, or even referencing MAC addresses like a3:a6:8a:90:51:f6, can be prone to mistakes and quickly become complex. Moreover, this approach does not provide any historical data, particularly with past issues.
Navigating the Web
When attempting to access a webpage like https://bartell.name, you first connect to a DNS server to convert the host section (bartell) combined with the Top Level Domain (name) of the URL to an IP address, such as 112.201.61.54. In every web request, your computer and browser sends its type, for instance:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/7.0; AS; rv:11.0) like Gecko
Understanding the Significance of Default Gateways
Your default gateway is typically an address assigned automatically through DHCP. This results in a default gateway like 192.168.104.38 (commonly ending in .1 or .254 depending on the scope size), where your computer forwards all its traffic for routing. For IPv6, detailed instructions can be found at how-to-fix-ipv6-connectivity/, but you can verify on Mac or Linux using:
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IPv4 Routes and the Host IPv4 Route Table (inc. VPN)
netstat -rn -f inet | egrep -i "default|0/1|128.0/1"
0/1 172.18.12.193 UGScg utun3 default 192.168.104.38 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.
IPv6 Routes and the Host IPv6 Route Table (inc. VPN)
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 fe80:138d:c3bd:c7da:e59d%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.
Debugging DHCP for both IPv4 and IPv6
To get a look at the low level DHCP configuration (Mac/Linux):
ipconfig getpacket en0
...
domain_name_server (ip_mult): {167.115.65.49, 119.2.190.198}
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 a3:a6:8a:90:51:f6
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 a8:64:08:a6:4d:83
}
Fixing Connectivity Issues for Wired or Wireless Connections
When it comes to sending data to your router, there are two options available: using a wired connection or a wireless (Wi-Fi) connection.
Resolving Problems on Apple macOS / OSX
No matter which version of OSX/macOS you are using - whether it’s 10.11.8, 11.2.7, or 12.2.2 - there are various troubleshooting tools at your disposal. However, these manual actions and scripts do not provide a continuous stream of correlated data over time. This is where automated remote troubleshooting becomes invaluable, especially for teams that have embraced remote work and Work From Anywhere (WFA) policies.
Utilizing Pre-installed Scripts for Assistance
A highly useful tool on OSX/macOS is the sudo wdutil info command, which provides a dump of the current wireless settings to the CLI and can also be configured to generate specific logs for troubleshooting purposes. Furthermore, the sysdiagnose tool can be used to generate a wide range of logs, although many of these are only relevant to a specific point in time, similar to wdutil.
To run the sysdiagnose tool in the background and have it write logs to /var/tmp/<blah>.tar.gz, use the command: sudo nohup /usr/bin/sysdiagnose -u &. Alternatively, if you prefer to run it interactively, use the command: sudo /usr/bin/sysdiagnose. When not run in the background, the tool should open Finder in the correct location, or you can navigate to /var/tmp using Finder with Cmd+Shift+G. Keep in mind that the file sizes are approximately 300MB.
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