Test Wifi No Access

Understanding Internet Addressing When using the Internet, you are assigned a Public IPv4 address such as 131.35.192.93 or an IPv6 address like 2000:e5f0:350:9390:4f0e:a288:1cbe:8a76. Verification can be done via https://test-ipv6.com/. However, for those not well-versed in technology, conveying these addresses, including MAC addresses like 39:41:24:6d:5b:7d, can quickly become complex. Understanding Internet Addressing When using the Internet, you are assigned a Public IPv4 address such as 131.35.192.93 or an IPv6 address like 2000:e5f0:350:9390:4f0e:a288:1cbe:8a76. Verification can be done via https://test-ipv6.com/. However, for those not well-versed in technology, conveying these addresses, including MAC addresses like 39:41:24:6d:5b:7d, can quickly become complex.

Understanding Internet Addressing

When using the Internet, you are assigned a Public IPv4 address such as 131.35.192.93 or an IPv6 address like 2000:e5f0:350:9390:4f0e:a288:1cbe:8a76. Verification can be done via https://test-ipv6.com/. However, for those not well-versed in technology, conveying these addresses, including MAC addresses like 39:41:24:6d:5b:7d, can quickly become complex. Furthermore, this method does not provide any historical data, particularly regarding past issues.

When accessing a web page such as https://christiansen.biz, a DNS server is initially contacted to convert the host portion (christiansen) together with the Top Level Domain (biz) of the URL to an IP address like 243.9.167.15. With each web request, your computer and browser sends its type like so:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/7.0; AS; rv:11.0) like Gecko

The Significance of Default Gateways

Typically, your default gateway is automatically configured through DHCP. This results in obtaining a default gateway such as 192.0.0.71 (though they generally end in .1 or .254 depending on the scope size), which serves as the location where your computer sends all its traffic to be routed onwards. To explore further on IPv6, refer to our in-depth guide on how-to-fix-ipv6-connectivity/. Additionally, this procedure can be verified on Mac or Linux 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  192.0.0.71    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:fca2:3b7b:b98e:6ae4%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): {13.164.194.103, 127.157.239.248}
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 39:41:24:6d:5b:7d
  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 dd:a5:43:2f:bc:58
}

Fixing Connection Issues for Wired and Wireless Networks

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

Resolving Problems on Apple macOS / OSX

Regardless of whether you are running OSX/macOS 10.14.8, 11.2.9, or 12.2.7, there is a wide array of troubleshooting tools available. However, manual interventions and scripts do not provide a set of correlated values over time. This is where automated remote troubleshooting becomes invaluable, especially for teams that have embraced remote work and Work From Anywhere (WFA).

Useful Built-in Scripts

One extremely useful tool on OSX/macOS is the sudo wdutil info command, which provides a dump of the current wireless settings to the CLI and can be configured to generate specific logs for troubleshooting. Additionally, the more comprehensive sysdiagnose tool can be used to generate a variety of logs related to wireless issues, although much of it is only relevant at a specific point in time, 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, you can use the command sudo /usr/bin/sysdiagnose (although it doesn’t involve much interaction) and it will give a privacy warning. When not run in the background, it should open Finder in the appropriate location, or you can navigate to /var/tmp manually or use Finder with Cmd+Shift+G to point Finder to the path. Keep in mind that the file sizes are approximately 300MB.

Possibly Helpful Videos

Video Title Channel
The Importance of Broadcast/Multicast Filtering in Wi-Fi HD Arjan Koopen WLPC EU Budapest 2016 Wireless LAN Professionals
Do You Have A Wired or Wireless Problem Wireless LAN Professionals
Solving Wi-Fi problems in record time John Anderson WLPC US Phoenix 2017 Wireless LAN Professionals
Troubleshooting in Higher Ed Stefan Kronawithleitner WLPC Prague 2023 Wireless LAN Professionals
What Problem is UWB Trying to Solve with Stephen Cooper Wireless LAN Professionals
Table 1.0 - Video Help



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