How Do You Support Wifi Issues
The Functionality of Internet Addressing
When using the Internet, you are assigned a Public IPv4 address such as 155.41.187.22 or an IPv6 address like 2000:5db8:b959:bfed:a8be:74d0:f6ad:2376. You can verify these addresses at https://test-ipv6.com/. However, for those who are not familiar with technical aspects, conveying these addresses, and even MAC addresses such as ea:34:52:27:f8:82, can quickly become complicated and prone to errors. Moreover, this method lacks historical data, particularly during previous incidents.
Navigating the Internet
When trying to access a website like https://kerluke.io, your computer initially contacts a DNS server to convert the host part (kerluke) along with the Top Level Domain (io) of the URL into an IP address, like 220.209.132.187. In fact, your computer and browser convey their type with each web request, for example: Opera/9.80 (X11; Linux i686; Ubuntu/14.10) Presto/2.12.388 Version/12.16
The Significance of Default Gateways
The default gateway is typically an automatically configured address through DHCP. This assigns you a default gateway like 172.22.117.152 (usually ending in .1 or .254 based on the scope size), and serves as the point where your computer directs all its traffic for routing. For IPv6, we provide an in-depth guide on how-to-fix-ipv6-connectivity/. However, you can also check 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 172.22.117.152 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 fe80:7635:a85d:daec:b986%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): {50.26.195.36, 83.228.219.248}
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:34:52:27:f8:82
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 94:7c:0d:da:40:e5
}
Fixing Connectivity Issues for Wired and Wireless Networks
When it comes to sending data to your router, you may be using either a wired or wireless (Wi-Fi) medium at the physical and data layer.
Troubleshooting Methods for Apple macOS / OSX Users
Regardless of the version of OSX/macOS you have, whether it’s 10.13.7, 11.3.6, or 12.3.3, there are several tools available for troubleshooting connectivity issues. However, these tools may not provide a series of correlated values over time, especially through manual actions and scripts. This is where automated remote troubleshooting becomes valuable, especially for teams that implement remote work and Work From Anywhere (WFA) policies.
Utilizing Built-in Scripts
One useful tool for troubleshooting on OSX/macOS is sudo wdutil info, which provides a dump of the current wireless settings to the CLI and can be configured to generate specific logs for troubleshooting purposes. Additionally, the sysdiagnose tool can generate a wide range of logs related to wireless (although many are point-in-time logs, similar to wdutil).
To run sysdiagnose in the background and write logs to /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 provide a privacy warning. When not run in the background, it should open Finder in the correct location, or you can manually navigate to /var/tmp using Finder. Keep in mind that the file sizes are generally around 300MB.
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