Linux Networking Commands II

In this segment, you will be introduced to a few more networking commands that are frequently used in Linux such as:

• traceroute tracks the route packets taken from an IP network on their way to a given host.
• netstat prints network connections, routing tables, interface statistics and all other network details.
• nslookup is a way to query Internet domain name servers.

The functions of all the commands discussed in the video above can be summarised as follows:

1. traceroute: This command is used to trace the path that the packet takes from your computer to the one specified by you. When a packet is sent, it hops from one location to another until it reaches its destination. This command shows the number of hops that the packet takes along with the time duration between each hop. This can help us resolve networking problems.
2. netstat: This command provides information about the network connections, the ports that are in use and the processes that are using these ports. It can be used to list out all the network connections on a system.
3. nslookup: This stands for the name Server Lookup. This command is used to retrieve information about the DNS (Domain Name System) server, including the domain name or any other DNS record. This information can be used to solve various problems related to DNS.
4. host: This command is used for DNS lookup operations. It is used to convert host names into IP addresses and vice versa.
5. Arp: This stands for Address Resolution Protocol. This command is used to manipulate the ARP cache present in the system. It is generally used to resolve the IP address to its MAC (Media Access Control) address.