How Do You Fix Apple Connectivity
Functioning of Internet Addressing
When using the Internet, individuals may be assigned a Public IPv4 address such as 255.134.23.160 or an IPv6 address like 2000:a4bc:6805:36da:bb3c:338b:a6c7:752f. Verification of these addresses can be done on https://test-ipv6.com/. However, conveying these addresses or MAC addresses like 1e:ae:0f:2a:32:ab to those who lack technical knowledge can lead to errors and complexity. Moreover, this does not provide any historical data, particularly from earlier issues.
Navigating the Internet
In order to access a website like https://leffler.biz, the process begins with contacting a DNS server to convert the host section (leffler) combined with the Top Level Domain (biz) of the URL into an IP address such as 168.61.241.237. Each web request is sent with the computer and browser type, for example: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/7.0; AS; rv:11.0) like Gecko
Significance of Default Gateways
The default gateway is typically an address that is automatically configured through DHCP. A default gateway such as 10.230.138.169 (usually ending in .1 or .254 based on the scope size) is used by the computer to send all its traffic for onward routing. For IPv6, an in-depth guide can be found on how-to-fix-ipv6-connectivity/, but on Mac or Linux, it can be verified 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 10.230.138.169 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 fe80:7450:2073:d2a8:96b9%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): {222.9.148.135, 107.55.8.230}
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 1e:ae:0f:2a:32:ab
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 c9:a2:6b:dd:87:cf
}
Fixing Connection Issues with Wired and Wireless Networks
When transmitting data to your router, you have the option to use either a wired or wireless (Wi-Fi) medium at the physical and data layer.
Troubleshooting Techniques for Apple macOS / OSX
Regardless of whether you are using OSX or macOS version 10.12.7, 11.3.9, or 12.0.7, there is a wide array of tools available for troubleshooting. However, these tools do not provide a set of correlated values over time. This is where automated remote troubleshooting becomes valuable, especially for teams engaged in remote work and Work From Anywhere (WFA).
Utilizing Built-in Scripts for Assistance
One useful tool on OSX/macOS is the sudo wdutil info, which provides a command-line dump of current wireless settings and can be set up to generate specific logs for troubleshooting purposes. Furthermore, the sysdiagnose tool offers a more comprehensive option for generating various logs (although much of it is only relevant to wireless settings, similar to wdutil).
To run it in the background and generate logs in /var/tmp/<blah>.tar.gz, use the command sudo nohup /usr/bin/sysdiagnose -u &. If you prefer to run it interactively, use sudo /usr/bin/sysdiagnose, which will issue 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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