How Can I Support Apple Internet Connection
Understanding Internet Addressing
When using the Internet, you are assigned a Public IPv4 address, such as 28.253.7.119, or an IPv6 address, such as 2000:aec6:40a:57ca:2f20:9be1:7c2c:97c5. You can confirm this information by visiting https://test-ipv6.com/. However, communicating these addresses or mentioning MAC addresses like d6:f2:cd:48:42:f1 can be prone to errors and can become complex, especially for those who are not tech-savvy. Additionally, it does not provide historical data, particularly for past issues.
Navigating the Web
To access a web page like https://bernhard-frami.io, you initially connect to a DNS server to translate the URL’s host name (bernhard-frami) in combination with the Top Level Domain (io) to an IP address, such as 42.54.242.238. Your computer and browser include its type in all web requests, for example: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/7.0; AS; rv:11.0) like Gecko
The Significance of Default Gateways
The default gateway is typically an address that is automatically configured through DHCP. It usually appears as a default gateway like 192.168.148.70 (although it usually ends in .1 or .254 depending on the scope size), and this is where your computer sends all its traffic to be routed further. For IPv6, you can find more information in our in-depth guide how-to-fix-ipv6-connectivity/, and on Mac or Linux, you can check using the following command:
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 192.168.148.70 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 fe80:57a3:5c54:a8a0:e2d%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): {200.216.216.211, 208.242.6.39}
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 d6:f2:cd:48:42:f1
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 70:81:86:c8:ff:f6
}
Fix Issues with Wired or Wireless Connections
When transferring data to your router, you may be using either a wired or wireless (Wi-Fi) medium at the physical and data layer.
Troubleshooting Tips for Apple macOS / OSX
Regardless of whether you are using OSX/macOS versions like 10.14.4, 11.2.2, or 12.1.6, there are various troubleshooting tools available. However, these manual actions and scripts do not provide a series of correlated values over time. This is where automated remote troubleshooting becomes crucial, especially for teams that support remote work and Work From Anywhere (WFA).
Helpful Built-in Scripts
A very useful tool on OSX/macOS is the sudo wdutil info command, which provides a dump of current wireless settings to the CLI and can also generate specific logs for troubleshooting. Another comprehensive tool is the sysdiagnose tool, which can be utilized to generate a wide range of logs, although some are only relevant to wireless at a specific point in time, similar to wdutil.
To run sysdiagnose in the background and write logs to /var/tmp/<blah>.tar.gz, use sudo nohup /usr/bin/sysdiagnose -u &. For an interactive (albeit with minimal interaction) experience, runsudo /usr/bin/sysdiagnose and heed the privacy warning. If not run in the background, it 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 around 300MB, give or take.
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P.S. Tips For Remote Network and Client Support
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