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13 Linux Network Configuration and

Troubleshooting Commands
Computers are connected in a network to exchange information or resources each other. Two or
more computer connected through network media called computer network. There are number of
network devices or media are involved to form computer network. Computer loaded with Linux
Operating System can also be a part of network whether it is small or large network by
its multitasking and multiuser natures. Maintaining of system and network up and running is a
task of System / Network Administrators job. In this article we are going to review frequently
used network configuration and troubleshoot commands in Linux.

Linux Network Configuration and Troubleshooting Commands

1. ifconfig
ifconfig (interface configurator) command is use to initialize an interface, assign IP Address to
interface and enable or disable interface on demand. With this command you can view IP
Address and Hardware / MAC address assign to interface and also MTU (Maximum
transmission unit) size.
# ifconfig
eth0

Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0C:29:28:FD:4C

inet addr:192.168.50.2 Bcast:192.168.50.255
Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:fe28:fd4c/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:6093 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:4824 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:6125302 (5.8 MiB) TX bytes:536966 (524.3 KiB)
Interrupt:18 Base address:0x2000

lo

Link encap:Local Loopback

inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:480 (480.0 b) TX bytes:480 (480.0 b)

ifconfig with interface (eth0) command only shows specific interface details like IP Address, MAC
Address etc. with -a options will display all available interface details if it is disable also.
# ifconfig eth0
eth0

Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:0C:29:28:FD:4C

inet addr:192.168.50.2 Bcast:192.168.50.255
Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::20c:29ff:fe28:fd4c/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:6119 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:4841 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:6127464 (5.8 MiB) TX bytes:539648 (527.0 KiB)
Interrupt:18 Base address:0x2000

Assigning IP Address and Gateway

Assigning an IP Address and Gateway to interface on the fly. The setting will be removed in case
of system reboot.
# ifconfig eth0 192.168.50.5 netmask 255.255.255.0

Enable or Disable Specific Interface

To enable or disable specific Interface, we use example command as follows.

Enable eth0
# ifup eth0

Disable eth0
# ifdown eth0

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Setting MTU Size

By default MTU size is 1500. We can set required MTU size with below command.
Replace XXXX with size.
# ifconfig eth0 mtu XXXX

Set Interface in Promiscuous mode

Network interface only received packets belongs to that particular NIC. If you put interface
in promiscuousmode it will received all the packets. This is very useful to capture packets and
analyze later. For this you may require superuser access.
# ifconfig eth0 - promisc

2. PING Command
PING (Packet INternet Groper) command is the best way to test connectivity between two nodes.
Whether it is Local Area Network (LAN) or Wide Area Network (WAN). Ping use ICMP (Internet
Control Message Protocol) to communicate to other devices. You can ping host name of ip
address using below command.
# ping 4.2.2.2
PING 4.2.2.2 (4.2.2.2)
64 bytes from 4.2.2.2:
64 bytes from 4.2.2.2:
64 bytes from 4.2.2.2:

56(84) bytes of data.

icmp_seq=1 ttl=44 time=203 ms
icmp_seq=2 ttl=44 time=201 ms
icmp_seq=3 ttl=44 time=201 ms

OR
# ping www.tecmint.com
PING tecmint.com (50.116.66.136) 56(84)
64 bytes from 50.116.66.136: icmp_seq=1
64 bytes from 50.116.66.136: icmp_seq=2
64 bytes from 50.116.66.136: icmp_seq=3

bytes of data.
ttl=47 time=284 ms
ttl=47 time=287 ms
ttl=47 time=285 ms

In Linux ping command keep executing until you interrupt. Ping with -c option exit after N number
of request (success or error respond).
# ping -c 5 www.tecmint.com
PING tecmint.com (50.116.66.136) 56(84) bytes of data.
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64
64
64
64
64

bytes
bytes
bytes
bytes
bytes

from
from
from
from
from

50.116.66.136:
50.116.66.136:
50.116.66.136:
50.116.66.136:
50.116.66.136:

icmp_seq=1
icmp_seq=2
icmp_seq=3
icmp_seq=4
icmp_seq=5

ttl=47
ttl=47
ttl=47
ttl=47
ttl=47

time=285
time=285
time=285
time=285
time=285

ms
ms
ms
ms
ms

--- tecmint.com ping statistics --5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss, time 4295ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 285.062/285.324/285.406/0.599 ms

3. TRACEROUTE Command
traceroute is a network troubleshooting utility which shows number of hops taken to reach
destination also determine packets traveling path. Below we are tracing route to global DNS server
IP Address and able to reach destination also shows path of that packet is traveling.
# traceroute 4.2.2.2
traceroute to 4.2.2.2 (4.2.2.2), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 192.168.50.1 (192.168.50.1) 0.217 ms 0.624 ms 0.133 ms
2 227.18.106.27.mysipl.com (27.106.18.227) 2.343 ms 1.910 ms 1.799 ms
3 221-231-119-111.mysipl.com (111.119.231.221) 4.334 ms 4.001 ms 5.619 ms
4 10.0.0.5 (10.0.0.5) 5.386 ms 6.490 ms 6.224 ms
5 gi0-0-0.dgw1.bom2.pacific.net.in (203.123.129.25) 7.798 ms 7.614 ms 7.378
ms
6 115.113.165.49.static-mumbai.vsnl.net.in (115.113.165.49) 10.852 ms 5.389
ms 4.322 ms
7 ix-0-100.tcore1.MLV-Mumbai.as6453.net (180.87.38.5) 5.836 ms 5.590 ms
5.503 ms
8 if-9-5.tcore1.WYN-Marseille.as6453.net (80.231.217.17) 216.909 ms 198.864
ms 201.737 ms
9 if-2-2.tcore2.WYN-Marseille.as6453.net (80.231.217.2) 203.305 ms 203.141
ms 202.888 ms
10 if-5-2.tcore1.WV6-Madrid.as6453.net (80.231.200.6) 200.552 ms 202.463 ms
202.222 ms
11 if-8-2.tcore2.SV8-Highbridge.as6453.net (80.231.91.26) 205.446 ms 215.885
ms 202.867 ms
12 if-2-2.tcore1.SV8-Highbridge.as6453.net (80.231.139.2) 202.675 ms 201.540
ms 203.972 ms
13 if-6-2.tcore1.NJY-Newark.as6453.net (80.231.138.18) 203.732 ms 203.496 ms
202.951 ms
14 if-2-2.tcore2.NJY-Newark.as6453.net (66.198.70.2) 203.858 ms 203.373 ms
203.208 ms
15 66.198.111.26 (66.198.111.26) 201.093 ms 63.243.128.25 (63.243.128.25)
206.597 ms 66.198.111.26 (66.198.111.26) 204.178 ms
16 ae9.edge1.NewYork.Level3.net (4.68.62.185) 205.960 ms 205.740 ms 205.487
ms

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17 vlan51.ebr1.NewYork2.Level3.net (4.69.138.222) 203.867 ms

vlan52.ebr2.NewYork2.Level3.net (4.69.138.254) 202.850 ms
vlan51.ebr1.NewYork2.Level3.net (4.69.138.222) 202.351 ms
18 ae-6-6.ebr2.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.141.21) 201.771 ms 201.185 ms
201.120 ms
19 ae-81-81.csw3.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.134.74) 202.407 ms 201.479 ms ae92-92.csw4.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.148.46) 208.145 ms
20 ae-2-70.edge2.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.155.80) 200.572 ms ae-490.edge2.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.155.208) 200.402 ms ae-160.edge2.NewYork1.Level3.net (4.69.155.16) 203.573 ms
21 b.resolvers.Level3.net (4.2.2.2) 199.725 ms 199.190 ms 202.488 ms

4. NETSTAT Command
Netstat (Network Statistic) command display connection info, routing table information etc. To
displays routing table information use option as -r.
# netstat -r
Kernel IP routing table
Destination
Gateway
Genmask
Flags
MSS Window
192.168.50.0
*
255.255.255.0
U
0 0
0
link-local
*
255.255.0.0
U
0 0
0
default
192.168.50.1
0.0.0.0 UG 0 0
0

irtt Iface
eth0
eth0
eth0

For more examples of Netstat Command, please read our earlier article on 20 Netstat Command
Examples in Linux.

5. DIG Command
Dig (domain information groper) query DNS related information like A Record, CNAME, MX
Record etc. This command mainly use to troubleshoot DNS related query.
# dig www.tecmint.com; <<>> DiG 9.8.2rc1-RedHat-9.8.2-0.10.rc1.el6 <<>>
www.tecmint.com
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<

For more examples of Dig Command, please read the article on 10 Linux Dig Commands to Query
DNS.

6. NSLOOKUP Command
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nslookup command also use to find out DNS related query. The following examples shows A
Record (IP Address) of tecmint.com.
# nslookup www.tecmint.com
Server:
4.2.2.2
Address:
4.2.2.2#53
Non-authoritative answer:
www.tecmint.com canonical name = tecmint.com.
Name:
tecmint.com
Address: 50.116.66.136

For more NSLOOKUP Command, read the article on 8 Linux Nslookup Command Examples.

7. ROUTE Command
route command also shows and manipulate ip routing table. To see default routing table in Linux,
type the following command.
# route
Kernel IP routing table
Destination
Gateway
Genmask
Flags Metric Ref
192.168.50.0
*
255.255.255.0
U
0
0
link-local
*
255.255.0.0
U
1002
0
default
192.168.50.1
0.0.0.0
UG
0
0

Use
0
0
0

Iface
eth0
eth0
eth0

Adding, deleting routes and default Gateway with following commands.

Route Adding
# route add -net 10.10.10.0/24 gw 192.168.0.1

Route Deleting
# route del -net 10.10.10.0/24 gw 192.168.0.1

Adding default Gateway

# route add default gw 192.168.0.1

8. HOST Command
host command to find name to IP or IP to name in IPv4 or IPv6 and also query DNS records.
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# host www.google.com
www.google.com
www.google.com
www.google.com
www.google.com
www.google.com
www.google.com

has
has
has
has
has
has

address 173.194.38.180
address 173.194.38.176
address 173.194.38.177
address 173.194.38.178
address 173.194.38.179
IPv6 address 2404:6800:4003:802::1014

Using -t option we can find out DNS Resource Records like CNAME, NS, MX, SOA etc.
# host -t CNAME www.redhat.com
www.redhat.com is an alias for wildcard.redhat.com.edgekey.net.

9. ARP Command
ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) is useful to view / add the contents of the kernels ARP
tables. To see default table use the command as.
# arp -e
Address
192.168.50.1

HWtype
ether

HWaddress
Flags Mask
00:50:56:c0:00:08
C

Iface
eth0

10. ETHTOOL Command

ethtool is a replacement of mii-tool. It is to view, setting speed and duplex of your Network
Interface Card (NIC). You can set duplex permanently in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfgeth0 with ETHTOOL_OPTS variable.
# ethtool eth0
Settings for eth0:
Current message level: 0x00000007 (7)
Link detected: yes

11. IWCONFIG Command

iwconfig command in Linux is use to configure a wireless network interface. You can see and
set the basic Wi-Fi details like SSID channel and encryption. You can refer man page of iwconfig to
know more.
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# iwconfig [interface]

12. HOSTNAME Command

hostname is to identify in a network. Execute hostname command to see the hostname of your
box. You can set hostname permanently in /etc/sysconfig/network. Need to reboot box once set
a proper hostname.
# hostname
tecmint.com

13. GUI tool system-config-network

Type system-config-network in command prompt to configure network setting and you will get
nice Graphical User Interface (GUI) which may also use to configure IP
Address, Gateway, DNS etc. as shown below image.
# system-config-network

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This article can be useful for day to day use of Linux Network administrator in Linux / Unix-like
operating system. Kindly share through our comment box if we missed out.

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