How Do You Test Apple Internet Connection
Understanding Internet Address Allocation
When using the Internet, you are assigned either a Public IPv4 address, such as 112.38.243.100, or an IPv6 address, like 2000:e530:8193:4d99:fde5:62da:2880:79ab. These assignments can be verified through https://test-ipv6.com/. However, conveying these addresses to those without technical expertise, or even referencing MAC addresses like 76:1f:ba:0c:f7:eb, can be prone to mistakes and become complex. Furthermore, this method does not provide historical data, particularly in instances of past issues.
Navigating the World Wide Web
In order to reach a website, such as https://veum-ruecker.com, you first request information from a DNS server to convert the host portion (veum-ruecker) combined with the Top Level Domain (com) of the URL to an IP address, such as 127.66.238.18. Whenever your computer and browser make web requests, they also transmit information about their type, e.g. Opera/9.80 (X11; Linux i686; Ubuntu/14.10) Presto/2.12.388 Version/12.16
Understanding the Role of Default Gateways
The default gateway is typically an automatically configured address obtained through DHCP. It is commonly a default gateway like 192.168.134.144 (although typically ending in .1 or .254 depending on the scope size) and serves as the point where your computer forwards all its traffic for routing. For IPv6, a detailed guide on how to check on Mac or Linux can be found at how-to-fix-ipv6-connectivity/
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 192.168.134.144 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 fe80:2d60:dddf:67c5:4331%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): {209.32.96.126, 137.162.235.219}
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 76:1f:ba:0c:f7:eb
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 5c:5b:f5:17:7b:2f
}
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.
Troubleshooting Tips for Apple macOS / OSX Users
Regardless of whether you are on OSX/macOS version 10.13.3, 11.6.5, or 12.1.8, there are various tools available for troubleshooting. 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 adopt remote work and Work From Anywhere (WFA).
Utilizing Built-in Scripts for Assistance
A particularly useful tool on OSX/macOS is sudo wdutil info, which provides a dump of current wireless settings to the CLI, and can also be configured to generate specific logs for troubleshooting. Additionally, the sysdiagnose tool can be used to generate a wide range of logs, although much of it is point-in-time only in relation to wireless, similar to wdutil.
To run the sysdiagnose tool 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 the command sudo /usr/bin/sysdiagnose (although there is not much interaction). 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. However, be cautious of the file sizes, which are around 300MB.
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