Linux Networking Commands I

A SysAdmin’s job routinely involves configuring, monitoring, and securing networks. Now we will discuss some commonly used commands to manage Linux networks.

ssh is a protocol, which stands for Secure Shell.

• It provides a secure connection between two hosts.
• It transfers the data into encrypted form between both the hosts, takes the input from another connected system and sends the output to it.
• Since the communication is encrypted, it can also be used in insecure networks.
• It is mainly used to execute commands on a remote machine without using the shell prompt.

Another important command to know about is:
ip: This stands for Internet Protocol. It is used to assign addresses to a network interface and configure the network parameters. The function of this command is similar to that of the ifconfig command; however, ifconfig shows all the interfaces that are enabled or disabled, whereas ipconfig shows the interfaces that are enabled.

In the videos above, you learnt about the functions of some basic networking commands in Linux, which can be summarised as follows:

1. ssh-keygen: This is used to generate a public or private authentication key pair for the ssh protocol and allows the user to connect to a remote system without the use of a password. For each user, a separate key should be generated.
2. ifconfig: This stands for Interface Configuration. This command is used to view and change the configurations of the network interfaces on the system. It can be used to enable or disable the network interface, display current network configuration information, set up an IP address and assign a netmask or a broadcast address to the network interface.
3. ping: This stands for Packet Internet Groper. This command is used to check the connectivity status between a host and a source. It calculates the total time taken to send a packet and receive an acknowledgement from the source. This time is called Latency. Low latency and fast ping means that the connection is fast.