How To Fix Common Wifi Connectivity

Understanding the Functioning of Internet Addressing When using the Internet, it is common to receive a Public IPv4 address such as 154.82.181.107 or an IPv6 address like 2000:28f6:3c21:ad43:6086:b458:2a0d:5f67. You can verify this information by visiting https://test-ipv6.com/. However, sharing these addresses with individuals who are not tech-savvy or even mentioning MAC addresses like 77:3d:ea:a9:c7:45 can lead to errors and can become complex quickly. Understanding the Functioning of Internet Addressing When using the Internet, it is common to receive a Public IPv4 address such as 154.82.181.107 or an IPv6 address like 2000:28f6:3c21:ad43:6086:b458:2a0d:5f67. You can verify this information by visiting https://test-ipv6.com/. However, sharing these addresses with individuals who are not tech-savvy or even mentioning MAC addresses like 77:3d:ea:a9:c7:45 can lead to errors and can become complex quickly.

Understanding the Functioning of Internet Addressing

When using the Internet, it is common to receive a Public IPv4 address such as 154.82.181.107 or an IPv6 address like 2000:28f6:3c21:ad43:6086:b458:2a0d:5f67. You can verify this information by visiting https://test-ipv6.com/. However, sharing these addresses with individuals who are not tech-savvy or even mentioning MAC addresses like 77:3d:ea:a9:c7:45 can lead to errors and can become complex quickly. Moreover, this method does not provide any historical data, particularly regarding past issues.

When attempting to access a website such as https://ratke.biz, the first step involves reaching out to a DNS server to convert the host part (ratke) along with the Top Level Domain (biz) of the URL into an IP address, for example, 116.223.191.128. Your computer and browser include information about their type with each web request, such as Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; SG; rv:1.9.2.4) Gecko/20101104 Netscape/9.1.0285.

Significance of Default Gateways

Typically, your default gateway is an address that is automatically configured through DHCP. This default gateway, like 192.168.73.64 (although they generally end in .1 or .254 based on the scope size), is where your computer forwards all its traffic to be further routed. For IPv6, detailed information on this topic can be found here. You can also perform this check on Mac or Linux by using the following command:

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  192.168.73.64    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:e928:d3c8:eead:eaa5%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): {115.191.71.253, 190.110.220.170}
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 77:3d:ea:a9:c7:45
  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 84:e4:02:cb:ee:e5
}

Fixing Connectivity Issues for Wired or Wireless Networks

When it comes to transmitting data to your router, you might be utilizing either a wired or wireless (Wi-Fi) medium at the physical and data layer.

Troubleshooting for Apple macOS / OSX Users

Irrespective of whether you are running OSX/macOS versions such as 10.13.7, 11.3.2, or 12.2.2, there are various troubleshooting tools available. However, these manual actions and scripts do not provide a set of correlated values over a period of time. This is where automated remote troubleshooting becomes invaluable, especially for teams that are inclined towards remote work and Work From Anywhere (WFA) environments.

Leveraging Built-in Scripts for Assistance

One extremely useful tool on OSX/macOS is the sudo wdutil info command, which offers a dump of current wireless settings to the CLI, and can also be configured to generate specific logs for troubleshooting purposes. Moreover, the sysdiagnose tool can be used to generate a multitude of logs, although most of the data relates specifically to wireless and is only relevant at a specific point in time, similar to wdutil.

Running sudo nohup /usr/bin/sysdiagnose -u & in the background will generate logs in /var/tmp/<blah>.tar.gz. If you prefer to run it interactively, you can use the sudo /usr/bin/sysdiagnose command, which will prompt a privacy warning. If not running 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 mindful of the file sizes, which range from about 300MB.

Possibly Helpful Videos

Video Title Channel
Benefits of WPA3, Enhanced Open, and Easy Connect P. Ebbecke, P. Correll WLPC Prague 2018 Wireless LAN Professionals
Next Generation Troubleshooting with Meraki Wireless Devin Barger WLPC Prague 2018 Wireless LAN Professionals
Bad Wi-Fi? Are you SURE it's a wireless problem? Here's how to find out Wireless LAN Professionals
TIP OpenWifi Demo Network Setup for WLPC Drew Lentz WLPC Prague 2022 Wireless LAN Professionals
Wireless Association & Authentication Pass-Fail Brian Long WLPC US Phoenix 2017 Wireless LAN Professionals
Table 1.0 - Video Help



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