How Can I Support Wifi Internet Issues
Functioning of Internet Addressing
When using the Internet, individuals may have a Public IPv4 address such as 216.152.131.91 or an IPv6 address such as 2000:7d2d:456b:34b:ce8b:387d:f52b:ec05. This can be verified using https://test-ipv6.com/. However, conveying these addresses or MAC addresses like ea:ac:f7:40:9d:4e to those who are not technologically savvy can be prone to errors and becomes complex quite quickly. Moreover, this method does not provide any historical data, particularly from past issues.
Approaching the World Wide Web
In order to access a webpage like https://hilll-zulauf.org, the first step is to connect to a DNS server to convert the host part (hilll-zulauf) in combination with the Top Level Domain (org) of the URL to an IP address such as 219.132.80.180. When making requests, the computer and browser actually sends its type with all web requests, for example: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/7.0; AS; rv:11.0) like Gecko
Significance of Standard Gateways
In most cases, the default gateway is an automatically configured address through DHCP. A default gateway such as 172.17.209.6 is obtained (although they usually end in .1 or .254 depending on the scope size) and this is where the computer sends all its traffic to be routed further. For IPv6, a detailed guide can be found at how-to-fix-ipv6-connectivity/, but it can also be checked 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 172.17.209.6 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:e51c:54da:9207:b0ae%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): {103.116.236.159, 108.31.21.42}
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 ea:ac:f7:40:9d:4e
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 7a:32:af:0e:fb:fd
}
Resolving Issues with Wired and Wireless Connections
When it comes to transmitting data to your router, you may be using a wired or wireless (Wi-Fi) medium at the physical and data layer.
Recommended Actions for Apple macOS / OSX Users
Regardless of whether you are using OSX/macOS version 10.11.8, 11.6.4, or 12.3.4, there are various tools available for troubleshooting. However, these manual actions and scripts do not provide a set of correlated values over time. This is where automated remote troubleshooting becomes essential, especially for teams that embrace remote work and Work From Anywhere (WFA).
Utilizing Built-in Scripts for Assistance
A highly useful tool on OSX/macOS is sudo wdutil info, which provides a dump of current wireless-related settings to the CLI. It can also be configured to generate specific logs for troubleshooting purposes. Another comprehensive tool is the sysdiagnose tool, which can generate a wide range of logs, although much of it is point-in-time related to wireless, similar to wdutil.
Running it in the background with sudo nohup /usr/bin/sysdiagnose -u & will write the logs to /var/tmp/<blah>.tar.gz. For an interactive option, you can execute sudo /usr/bin/sysdiagnose which will provide 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.
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