Chapter 3: Analyzing and Managing Networks

In this chapter, I learned about Linux tools used for analyzing and managing networks. Before I dive into the chapter, I came across some familiar terms such as IP address and subnet. Learning these terms prior made this chapter easier to understand.

ifconfig: displays current network configuration information. Information displayed include the following:

Ethernet0 or eth0, the first wired network connection.
Broadcast address or Bcast, which is the address used to send out information to all IPs on the subnet.
Network mask or net mask which is used to determine what part of the IP address is connected to the local network.
lo (short for loopback address) which is a special software address that connects to your own system.

In addition to the above, ifconfig can be used to change your IP address, network mask, broadcast address and MAC address.

iwconfig: similar to ifconfig but used for wireless network configuration information.

dhclient: requests IP addresses from from a DHCP server.

dig: retrieves DNS information about a target domain.

The exercises in this chapter looked pretty cool but I decided not to do them because of concerns about it would affect my network. With that, I’m moving on to Chapter 4!