How Can I Fix Apple Issues
The Functioning of Internet Addressing
When using the internet, you are assigned a Public IPv4 address such as 19.31.231.214 or an IPv6 address like 2000:17c7:d053:9bc0:d4b5:b662:2d72:ffe8. This can be verified at https://test-ipv6.com/. However, for individuals who are not well-versed in technology, conveying these addresses or even referencing MAC addresses like 7d:f9:b0:1d:08:d6 can be prone to mistakes and can become complex quickly. Furthermore, this method does not provide any historical data, especially from past issues.
Navigating the Internet
To access a website such as https://wilderman.org, you first connect to a DNS server to convert the host portion (wilderman) combined with the Top Level Domain (org) of the URL into an IP address like 164.25.207.192. Whenever there are requests for webpages, your computer and browser send their types, such as Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; SG; rv:1.9.2.4) Gecko/20101104 Netscape/9.1.0285
Understanding the Significance of Default Gateways
The default gateway is typically an automatically assigned address through DHCP. It could be a default gateway similar to 192.168.110.107 (although they usually end in .1 or .254 based on the scope size), and it is the point where your computer channels all its traffic to be routed further. For IPv6, a comprehensive guide can be found here, and you can verify it on Mac or Linux using:
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 192.168.110.107 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 fe80:9ca6:1052:cf20:49f%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): {91.17.123.154, 147.52.217.182}
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 7d:f9:b0:1d:08:d6
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 6a:99:a2:7d:4a:8d
}
Resolving Wired and Wireless Connectivity Issues
When it comes to transmitting data to your router, you might be utilizing a wired or wireless (Wi-Fi) medium at the physical and data layer.
Effective Solutions for Apple macOS / OSX
Irrespective of whether you are using OSX/macOS versions like 10.13.5, 11.4.7, or 12.2.7, there are numerous troubleshooting tools available. However, manual actions and scripts fail to provide a set of correlated values over time. This is where the significance of automated remote troubleshooting comes into play, particularly for teams that are inclined towards remote work and Work From Anywhere (WFA).
Useful Built-in Tools for Assistance
A highly beneficial tool in OSX/macOS is sudo wdutil info, which provides a dump of current wireless settings to the CLI and can also be configured to generate specific logs for troubleshooting purposes. In addition, the sysdiagnose tool offers a more comprehensive option for generating a wide range of logs, although it mainly focuses on point-in-time wireless related data similar to wdutil.
To run sysdiagnose in the background and generate logs in /var/tmp/<blah>.tar.gz, use the command sudo nohup /usr/bin/sysdiagnose -u &. For an interactive mode, you can run sudo /usr/bin/sysdiagnose, which will trigger a privacy warning and then open Finder in the correct location for you to access the logs. However, be mindful of the file sizes, which can be around 300MB.
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