How Can I Support Apple Internet
Understanding the Functioning of Internet Addressing
When using the Internet, it is common to have a Public IPv4 address such as 105.36.54.220 or an IPv6 address like 2000:5f1:bc34:1d2f:55b:2e0b:6c80:6f5c. You can verify this information by visiting https://test-ipv6.com/. However, for individuals who are not well-versed in technology, conveying these addresses or even mentioning MAC addresses like ec:88:74:f5:c5:c2 can be prone to errors and quickly becomes complex. Furthermore, this method does not provide any historical data, especially when past issues have occurred.
Navigating the World Wide Web
In order to access a website such as https://jerde-smith.name, you first contact a DNS server to convert the host segment (jerde-smith) combined with the Top Level Domain (name) of the URL into an IP address, such as 181.251.106.18. Whenever you make web requests, your computer and browser transmit their type, for example: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 9.0; AOL 9.7; AOLBuild 4343.19; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/5.0; FunWebProducts)
Significance of Default Gateways
The default gateway is typically an automatically configured address through DHCP. It assigns a default gateway such as 10.107.238.252 (although they usually end in .1 or .254 depending on the scope size), and this is the point where your computer sends all of its traffic for further routing. For IPv6 connectivity, an in-depth tutorial is available at how-to-fix-ipv6-connectivity/, but you can verify on Mac or Linux 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 10.107.238.252 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 fe80:5ed9:dc8a:538b:d442%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): {64.1.220.52, 202.9.50.235}
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 ec:88:74:f5:c5:c2
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 37:11:50:35:5d:0e
}
Resolving Issues with Wired and Wireless Connections
When it comes to transmitting data to your router, you may be using either a wired or wireless (Wi-Fi) medium at the physical and data layer.
Tips for Apple macOS / OSX Users
Regardless of whether you are using OSX or macOS versions such as 10.12.5, 11.1.9, or 12.1.8, 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 essential, especially for teams that have adopted remote work and Work From Anywhere (WFA).
Utilizing Built-in Commands for Assistance
One useful tool on OSX/macOS is the sudo wdutil info command, which provides a dump of current wireless-related settings to the CLI, and can also generate specific logs for troubleshooting purposes. In addition, the sysdiagnose tool can be used to generate a wide range of logs, although much of it is only relevant at a specific point in time in relation to wireless, similar to wdutil.
Running the command sudo nohup /usr/bin/sysdiagnose -u & will execute it in the background and write logs to /var/tmp/<blah>.tar.gz for you. If you prefer to run it interactively (even though there is not much interaction), you can use the sudo /usr/bin/sysdiagnose command, which 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 Finder with Cmd+Shift+G. Keep in mind that the file sizes are approximately 300MB or more.
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