Intermediate · 8 min · practise every command in the built-in terminal

Network Commands

hostname — Machine name

hostname              # Show hostname
hostname -I           # Show all IP addresses
hostname -f           # Fully qualified domain name

ip — Modern network info

ip addr               # Show all network interfaces and IPs
ip addr show eth0     # Specific interface
ip route              # Show routing table
ip link               # Link layer info

ifconfig (older)

ifconfig              # All interfaces
ifconfig eth0         # Specific interface

ping — Test connectivity

ping google.com       # Ping until Ctrl+C
ping -c 4 google.com  # Ping 4 times only
ping -i 2 host        # Ping every 2 seconds

ss / netstat — Open ports

ss -tlnp              # TCP listening ports with process
ss -tulnp             # TCP+UDP listening
netstat -tlnp         # Older equivalent

/etc/hosts — Local DNS

cat /etc/hosts

Add entries to resolve hostnames locally:

192.168.1.100  myserver.local

nslookup / dig — DNS lookup

nslookup google.com
dig google.com
dig +short google.com A   # Just the IP

Practice tasks

  1. Show your hostname
  2. View network interface information
  3. View your network interfaces the older way
  4. Test connectivity to a host with exactly 4 pings

Commands in this lesson

Networking