NETWORK SYSTEM & MANAGEMENT
Linux networking commands are used widely to inspect, analyze, maintain,
and troubleshoot the network/s connected to the system.
In this lab manual, you will understand some of the basic networking
commands used in Linux with a detailed explanation of each.
Follow the below-given steps for executing the commands.
1. Connect to the kali Linux machine, created by you, using the RDP
protocol.
2. When prompted for the username and password, enter root as
username and toor as password. The root is the administrator user of
the machine.
3. click on the black box icon (Terminal Emulator) in the top left corner
of the Kali Linux Desktop.
Running the terminal while using the root account, allows you to run
various commands with administrator rights.
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Let’s Understand some network system management commands one by one.
Networking Testing using PING and Tracert
a) Ping
A ping (Packet Internet or Inter-Network Groper) is a basic Internet
program that allows a user to test and verify if a particular destination
IP address exists and can accept requests in computer network
administration.
• min: minimum time to get a response
• avg: average time to get responses
• max: maximum time to get a response
a) To Check Utility Version
Ping -V
b) To test Active machines on Internet
Ping google.com
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you can use an IP address in place of the domain name also.
b) Traceroute
Traceroute command in Linux prints the route that a packet takes to
reach the host. This command is useful when you want to know about
the route and about all the hops that a packet takes. The below image
depicts how the traceroute command is used to reach the Google
(172.217.26.206) host from the local machine and it also prints details
about all the hops that it visits in between.
• How to use Traceroute Command:
Traceroute [options] host-address [pathlength]
Using Linux TCP/IP Network Config Files for setting up a network
There are some important Linux files, which contain setting related to
network configurations. These files may be updated, to change the network
configuration settings. Below is the list of such files.
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File Description
/etc/resolve.conf List DNS servers for Internet domain name
resolution.
/etc/hosts Lists hosts to be resolved locally (not by
DNS).
/etc/nsswitch.conf Lists the order of hostname search.
Typically look at local files, then NIS server,
then DNS server.
Red
Specify network configuration. eg.
Hat/Fedora/CentOS: /etc/sysconfig
Static IP, DHCP, NIS, etc.
/network
Red
Hat/Fedora/CentOS: /etc/sysconfig Specify TCP network information.
/network-scripts/ifcfg-device
Ubuntu/Debian: /etc/network/inte Specify network configuration and devices.
rfaces eg. Static IP and info, DHCP, etc.
Let’s learn about some important network settings, that can be performed
by changing these configuration files.
a) Setting up Physical Interfaces with static values
Go to /etc/Network File and update
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.5
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.254
b) Setting up Interfaces to use DHCP service
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
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c) To Convert DHCP Network Config to Static IP
Go to /etc/Network File
1. Open Network Config File : sudo vi /etc/network/interfaces
2. Find and remove dhcp entry : iface eth0 inet dhcp
3. Append New Network Settings:
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.100
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.1.0
broadcast 192.168.1.255
gateway 192.168.1.254
4. Save and Close the file, Restart the network: sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
