When using the Internet, individuals may be assigned a Public IPv4 address, such as 211.235.106.197
, or an IPv6 address, like 2000:447:a984:9739:7653:c53:ece4:a5b
. Verification of these addresses can be conducted at https://test-ipv6.com/. However, relaying these addresses and MAC addresses, such as 19:6c:08:7f:9b:76
, to those less familiar with technology can be prone to error and become complex. Furthermore, this method does not provide any historical data, particularly for previous issues that occurred.
In order to access a web page, such as https://grady-smith.io, individuals must first contact a DNS server to convert the host portion (grady-smith) combined with the Top Level Domain (io) of the URL to an IP address, such as 194.217.130.246
. All web requests from computers and browsers include the user’s type, for example: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; SG; rv:1.9.2.4) Gecko/20101104 Netscape/9.1.0285
The default gateway is typically an address automatically configured via DHCP. A default gateway may appear as 192.0.0.73
(although they generally end in .1 or .254 depending on the scope size), and it is where the computer sends all of its traffic to be routed onwards. For information on checking default gateways for IPv6
, refer to our in-depth guide at how-to-fix-ipv6-connectivity/, or use the following command on Mac or Linux:
netstat -rn -f inet | egrep -i "default|0/1|128.0/1"
0/1 172.18.12.193 UGScg utun3 default 192.0.0.73 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.
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:b599:6e60:3706:7fe3%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.
To get a look at the low level DHCP configuration (Mac/Linux):
ipconfig getpacket en0
... domain_name_server (ip_mult): {141.99.245.126, 175.113.219.111} 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 19:6c:08:7f:9b:76 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 ad:68:cf:a1:e0:52 }
When it comes to sending data to your router, you may use either a wired or wireless (Wi-Fi) medium at the physical and data layers.
No matter which version of macOS or OSX you are operating on, whether it’s 10.15.1
, 11.2.2
, or 12.2.3
, there are various troubleshooting tools available. However, these manual actions and scripts do not provide a set of correlated values over time. This is where automated remote troubleshooting becomes valuable, especially for teams that embrace remote work and Work From Anywhere (WFA).
On OSX/macOS, the sudo wdutil info
tool is extremely useful as it provides a dump of current wireless-related settings to the CLI and can also be configured to generate specific logs for troubleshooting. Additionally, the sysdiagnose
tool can be used to produce a wide range of logs, although many of them are only related to the wireless settings and are not continuous over time like wdutil.
To run sysdiagnose
in the background and write the logs to /var/tmp/<blah>.tar.gz
, you can use the following command: sudo nohup /usr/bin/sysdiagnose -u &
. If you prefer to run it interactively, you can use sudo /usr/bin/sysdiagnose
, which will give a privacy warning. When run in the foreground, it should open Finder in the correct location, otherwise, you can navigate to /var/tmp
or use Finder with Cmd+Shift+G to locate the path. However, be cautious of the file sizes, which are typically around 300MB.
Digital work requires reliable connectivity. Whether for low latency or regular data streams, Wi-Fi, DNS, and network issues cause teams to lose time and productivity. Even worse is when support teams waste time trying to recreate and isolate issues! See how PanSift saves time, money, and frustration on all sides with instant remote troubleshooting 🏠🏝🛰.
2 x free macOS agents
No registration, immediate live demo!