Basic Networking Commands In Linux With Practical Examples

Linux provides powerful networking commands to configure, test, monitor, and troubleshoot networks. These commands are essential for system administrators, DevOps engineers, and anyone preparing for Linux interviews.

Networking commands in linux with examples

ip – Modern Network Configuration Tool

Used to view and manage network interfaces, IP addresses, and routes.

Show IP address

bash

ip a

Show routing table

bash

ip route

Bring interface up/down

bash

sudo ip link set eth0 up
sudo ip link set eth0 down

ifconfig – Legacy Interface Tool

(Deprecated but still used)

View interfaces

bash

ifconfig

Assign IP address

bash

sudo ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.100

ping – Check Network Connectivity

Tests if a host is reachable.

bash

ping google.com
ping 8.8.8.8

traceroute – Track Network Path

Shows the route packets take.

bash

traceroute google.com

ss – Socket Statistics (Modern netstat)

Show all listening ports

bash

ss -l

Show TCP connections

bash

ss -t

Also read about Networking in Linux: Types, Advantages, and Disadvantages

netstat – Network Statistics (Legacy)

bash

netstat -tulnp

Shows:

• Open ports
• Listening services
• PIDs

nmcli – NetworkManager CLI

Used on modern desktops/servers.

Show connections

bash

nmcli con show

Connect to Wi-Fi

bash

nmcli dev wifi connect "MyWiFi" password "12345678"

iwctl – Wireless Control (Arch-based)

bash

iwctl
station wlan0 scan
station wlan0 connect MyWiFi

hostname – Show or Set Hostname

bash

hostname
hostnamectl set-hostname server1

curl – Test Web Services

bash

curl https://example.com

wget – Download from Network

bash

wget https://example.com/file.zip

scp – Secure File Transfer

bash

scp file.txt user@192.168.1.10:/home/user/

ssh – Remote Login

bash

ssh user@192.168.1.10

nslookup – DNS Lookup

bash

nslookup google.com

Also read about How To Configure Network In Linux Command Line for Beginners

dig – Advanced DNS Query

bash

dig google.com

tcpdump – Packet Analyzer

bash

sudo tcpdump -i eth0

nmap – Network Scanner

bash

nmap 192.168.1.1

Scans open ports.

ethtool – NIC Info

bash

ethtool eth0

arp – ARP Table

bash

arp -a

route – Routing Table (Legacy)

bash

route -n

Most Important Commands for Interviews

Command	Purpose
ip a	Show IP
ping	Connectivity
ss	Ports
netstat	Connections
traceroute	Path
nmcli	Network config
ssh	Remote login
scp	File transfer
curl	Web test
nmap	Scan

Real-World Scenarios

Check internet:

bash

ping 8.8.8.8

Find open ports:

bash

ss -tulnp

Copy file to server:

bash

scp backup.tar user@server:/data/

Troubleshoot DNS:

bash

dig google.com

Also read about What Is Network Security & Why Network Security is Important

Advanced linux networking

Beyond basic IP addresses, advanced Linux networking encompasses high-performance packet processing, sophisticated traffic control, and Software-Defined Networking (SDN). At this point, Linux behaves more like a top-tier enterprise router or data center switch than a computer.

Network Namespaces (The Foundation of Containers)

You can make separate replicas of the network stack using network namespaces. This is the “magic” that enables a Docker container to be entirely independent of the host and have its own IP address and routing table.

• A virtual “patch cable” that connects two namespaces is represented by virtual Ethernet (veth) pairs. The two ends are positioned in the host’s bridge and the container, respectively.

• Command: ip netns add [name]

Advanced Routing with IPRoute2

Basic routing manages “Destination A to Gateway B,” but advanced routing makes use of Policy-Based Routing (PBR). This lets you route traffic according to a user’s IP address, the kind of traffic (port), or even the source IP.

• Multiple Routing Tables: With multi-WAN configurations, you can have separate tables for several ISPs.
• Routing Rules: You can instruct Linux to use the VPN if traffic originates from the Accounting department and the conventional fiber otherwise by using an IP rule.

Quality of Service (QoS) and Traffic Control (TC)

TC is the name of the “Traffic Control” system that comes with Linux. Traffic may be shaped, scheduled, and prioritized with its help.

• Queuing Disciplines (qdisc): To evaluate how applications perform in challenging environments, you might mimic packet loss or network lag (latency).
• You can limit the bandwidth required for a Zoom call so that a background backup activity doesn’t “choke” it.

Bonding and Bridging

• Combining two physical network cards into a single logical interface is known as bonding (link aggregation). This offers higher throughput and redundancy (the link remains intact even if one cable breaks).

• Bridging is the process of turning a Linux computer into a network switch. For virtual machine environments (KVM/QEMU), this is necessary in order for VMs to show up on the local network as actual devices.

BPF and XDP (The High-Speed Frontier)

You may run code inside the Linux kernel without altering the kernel source code to a ground-breaking technology called eBPF (Extended Berkeley Packet Filter).

Packet processing at the lowest level directly at the network driver is made feasible by XDP (eXpress Data Path). Millions of malicious packets can be dropped by the system every second before they even reach the main operating system when it is utilized for DDoS prevention.

Overlay Networks (VXLAN)

It frequently need to extend a local network over several physical sites in contemporary data centers. Layer 2 Ethernet frames are encapsulated into Layer 3 UDP packets via VXLAN (Virtual Extensible LAN). As a result, “Virtual Machine A” in New York can believe that it is connected to the same local switch as “Virtual Machine B” in London.

Also read about Network Switching: How Switches Connect For Device Networks