EXPERIMENT NO.

01
AIM: To study and implement basic networking commands in Linux.
THEORY:
1) HOSTNAME:
Description:
hostname is used to display the system's DNS name, and to display or set its hostname
or NIS (Network Information Services) domain name.
When called without any arguments, hostname will display the name of the system as
returned by the gethostname function.
When called with one argument or with the --file option, hostname will set the system's
host name using the sethostname function. Only the superuser can set the host name.
Option:
hostname with no options displays the machines host name
hostname d displays the domain name the machine belongs to
hostname f displays the fully qualified host and domain name
hostname i displays the IP address for the current machine
Syntax:
hostname [-v] [-a|--alias] [-d|--domain] [-f|--fqdn|--long] [-A|--all-fqdns] [-i|--ipaddress] [-I|--all-ip-addresses] [-s|--short] [-y|--yp|--nis]

2) PING:
Description:
ping is a simple way to send network data to, and receive network data from, another
computer on a network. It is frequently used to test, at the most basic level, whether
another system is reachable over a network, and if so, how much time it takes for that
data to be exchanged.
The ping utility uses the ICMP protocol's mandatory ECHO_REQUEST datagram to
elicit an ICMP ECHO_RESPONSE from a host or gateway. ECHO_REQUEST
datagrams ("pings") have an IP and ICMP header, followed by a struct timeval and then
an arbitrary number of "pad" bytes used to fill out the packet.
Option:
-a
Audible ping.
-A
Adaptive ping. Interpacket interval adapts to round-trip time, so that effectively
not more than one (or more, if preload is set) unanswered probe is present in the

network. Minimal interval is 200msec for not super-user. On networks with low rtt this
mode is essentially equivalent to flood mode.
-b
Allow pinging a broadcast address.
-B
Do not allow ping to change source address of probes. The address is bound to
one selected when ping starts.
-c
count Stop after sending count ECHO_REQUEST packets. With deadline
option, ping waits for count ECHO_REPLY packets, until the timeout expires.
-d
Set the SO_DEBUG option on the socket being used. Essentially, this socket
option is not used by Linux kernel.

Syntax:
ping [-LRUbdfnqrvVaAB] [-c count] [-m mark] [-i interval] [-l preload]
[-p pattern] [-s packetsize] [-t ttl] [-w deadline] [-F flowlabel]
[-I interface] [-M hint] [-N nioption] [-Q tos] [-S sndbuf]
[-T timestamp option] [-W timeout] [hop ...] destination

3) IFCONFIG:
Description:
Ifconfig is used to configure the kernel-resident network interfaces. It is used at boot
time to set up interfaces as necessary. After that, it is usually only needed when
debugging or when system tuning is needed.
If no arguments are given, ifconfig displays the status of the currently active
interfaces. If a single interface argument is given, it displays the status of the given
interface only; if a single -a argument is given, it displays the status of all interfaces,
even those that are down. Otherwise, it configures an interface.
Options:
-a
-s
-v
Syntax:

display all interfaces which are currently available, even if down

display a short list (like netstat -i)
be more verbose for some error conditions

ifconfig [-v] [-a] [-s] [interface]

4) NETSTAT:
Description:
netstat ("network statistics") is a command-line tool that displays network connections
(both incoming and outgoing), routing tables, and a number of network interface
(network interface controller or software-defined network interface) and network
protocol statistics. It is available on Unix-like operating systems including OS X, Linux,
Solaris, and BSD, and on Windows NT-based operating systems including Windows
XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.
It is used for finding problems in the network and to determine the amount of traffic on
the network as a performance measurement.
Option:
--verbose , -v Tell the user what is going on by being verbose. Especially print some
useful information about unconfigured address families.
--wide , -W Do not truncate IP addresses by using output as wide as needed. This is
optional for now to not break existing scripts.
--numeric , -n Show numerical addresses instead of trying to determine symbolic host,
port or user names.

--numeric-hosts
shows numerical host addresses but does not affect the resolution
of port or user names.
--numeric-ports
shows numerical port numbers but does not affect the resolution
of host or user names.
--numeric-users
shows numerical user IDs but does not affect the resolution of
host or port names.
--protocol=family , -A
Specifies the address families (perhaps better described
as low level protocols) for which connections are to be shown. family is a comma (',')
separated list of address family keywords like inet, unix, ipx, ax25, netrom, and ddp.
This has the same effect as using the --inet, --unix (-x), --ipx, --ax25, --netrom, and -ddp options.

Syntax:
netstat [address_family_options] [--tcp|-t] [--udp|-u] [--raw|-w]
[--listening|-l] [--all|-a] [--numeric|-n] [--numeric-hosts]
[--numeric-ports] [--numeric-users] [--symbolic|-N]
[--extend|-e[--extend|-e]] [--timers|-o] [--program|-p]
[--verbose|-v] [--continuous|-c]

5) NSLOOKUP:
Description:
nslookup, which stands for "name server lookup", is a useful tool for finding out
information about a named domain.
Nslookup is a program to query Internet domain name servers. Nslookup has two
modes: interactive and non-interactive. Interactive mode allows the user to query name
servers for information about various hosts and domains or to print a list of hosts in a
domain. Non-interactive mode is used to print just the name and requested information
for a host or domain.
By default, nslookup will translate a domain name to an IP address (or vice versa).
Option:

host [server] Look up information for host using the current default server or using
server, if specified. If host is an Internet address and the query type is A or PTR, the
name of the host is returned. If host is a name and does not have a trailing period, the
search list is used to qualify the name. To look up a host not in the current domain,
append a period to the name.
server domain
lserver domain
Change the default server to domain; lserver uses the initial
server to look up information about domain, while server uses the current default server.
If an authoritative answer can't be found, the names of servers that might have the
answer are returned.
Root not implemented
finger not implemented
ls
not implemented
view not implemented

Syntax:
nslookup [-option] [name | -] [server]

6) ARP:
Description:
arp manipulates or displays the kernel's IPv4 network neighbor cache. It can add entries
to the table, delete one, or display the current content.
ARP stands for Address Resolution Protocol, which is used to find the address of a
network neighbor for a given IPv4 address.
Option:
-v, --verbose Tell the user what is going on by being verbose.

-n, --numeric shows numerical addresses instead of trying to determine symbolic host,
port or user names.
-H type, --hw-type type
When setting or reading the ARP cache, this optional
parameter tells arp which class of entries it should check for. The default value of this
parameter is ether (i.e. hardware code 0x01 for IEEE 802.3 10Mbps Ethernet). Other
values might include network technologies such as ARCnet (arcnet) , PROnet (pronet)
, AX.25 (ax25) and NET/ROM (netrom).
-a Use alternate BSD style output format (with no fixed columns).
-D, --use-device
Instead of a hw_addr, the given argument is the name of an
interface. arp will use the MAC address of that interface for the table entry. This is
usually the best option to set up a proxy ARP entry to yourself.

Syntax:
arp [-vn] [-H type] [-i if] -a [hostname]

7) RARP:
Description:
Rarp manipulates the kernel's RARP table in various ways. The primary options are
clearing an address mapping entry and manually setting up one. For debugging
purposes, the rarp program also allows a complete dump of the RARP table.
Option:
-V Display the version of RARP in use.
-v Tell the user what is going on by being verbose.
-a
--list Lists the entries in the RARP table.
-d hostname
--delete hostname
Remove all RARP entries for the specified host.
-s hostname hw_addr
Syntax:
rarp [-V] [--version] [-h] [--help]
rarp -a
rarp [-v] -d hostname ...
rarp [-v] [-t type] -s hostname hw_addr

8) ROUTE:
Description:
In computer networking, a router is a device responsible for forwarding network traffic.
When datagrams arrive at a router, the router must determine the best way to route them
to their destination.
On Linux, BSD, and other Unix-like systems, the route command is used to view and
make changes to the kernel routing table. The command syntax is different on different
systems; here, when it comes to specific command syntax, we'll be discussing the Linux
version.
Options:
-A family use the specified address family (eg 'inet'; use 'route --help' for a full list).
-F
operate on the kernel's FIB (Forwarding Information Base) routing table. This is
the default.
-C
operate on the kernel's routing cache.
-v
select verbose operation.
-n
show numerical addresses instead of trying to determine symbolic host names.
This is useful if you are trying to determine why the route to your nameserver has
vanished.
-e
use netstat-format for displaying the routing table. -ee will generate a very long
line with all parameters from the routing table.
del
delete a route.
add
add a new route.
target the destination network or host. You can provide IP addresses in dotted decimal
or host/network names.
-net the target is a network.
-host the target is a host.
Syntax:
route [-v] [-A family] add [-net|-host] target [netmask Nm] [gw Gw]
[metric N] i [mss M] [window W] [irtt I] [reject] [mod] [dyn]
[reinstate] [[dev] If]

9) DIG:
Description:
dig (which stands for domain information groper) is a flexible tool for interrogating
DNS name servers. It performs DNS lookups and displays the answers that are returned
from the name server(s) that were queried. Most DNS administrators use dig to

troubleshoot DNS problems because of its flexibility, ease of use and clarity of output.
Other lookup tools tend to have less functionality than dig.
Although dig is normally used with command-line arguments, it also has a batch mode
of operation for reading lookup requests from a file. A brief summary of its commandline arguments and options is printed when the -h option is given. Unlike earlier
versions, the BIND 9 implementation of dig allows multiple lookups to be issued from
the command line.

Option:
The -b option sets the source IP address of the query to address. This must be a valid
address on one of the host's network interfaces or "0.0.0.0" or "::". An optional port
may be specified by appending "#<port>"
The -f option makes dig operate in batch mode by reading a list of lookup requests to
process from the file filename. The file contains a number of queries, one per line. Each
entry in the file should be organized in the same way they would be presented as queries
to dig using the command-line interface.
The -m option enables memory usage debugging.
The -4 option forces dig to only use IPv4 query transport. The -6 option forces dig to
only use IPv6 query transport.
Syntax:
dig [@server] [-b address] [-c class] [-f filename] [-k filename]
[-m] [-p port#] [-q name] [-t type] [-x addr] [-y [hmac:]name:key]
[-4] [-6] [name] [type] [class] [queryopt...]

10) HOST:
Description:
host is a simple utility for performing DNS lookups. It is normally used to convert
names to IP addresses and vice versa. When no arguments or options are given, host
prints a short summary of its command line arguments and options.
name is the domain name that is to be looked up. It can also be a dotted-decimal IPv4
address or a colon-delimited IPv6 address, in which case host will by default perform a
reverse lookup for that address. server is an optional argument which is either the name
or IP address of the name server that host should query instead of the server or servers
listed in /etc/resolv.conf.
Option:
-a
The -a (all) option is equivalent to setting the -v option and asking host to make
a query of type ANY.
-C
When the -C option is used, host will attempt to display the SOA records for
zone name from all the listed authoritative name servers for that zone. The list of name
servers is defined by the NS records that are found for the zone.
-c class
The -c option instructs host to make a DNS query of class class. This
can be used to lookup Hesiod or Chaosnet class resource records. The default class is
IN (Internet).
-d
Verbose output is generated by host when the -d or -v option is used. The two
options are equivalent. They have been provided for backwards compatibility. In
previous versions, the -d option switched on debugging traces and -v enabled verbose
output.
-I
The -i option specifies that reverse lookups of IPv6 addresses should use the
IP6.INT domain as defined in RFC1886. The default is to use IP6.ARPA.
Syntax:
host [-aCdlnrsTwv] [-c class] [-N ndots] [-R number] [-t type] [-W wait]
[-m flag] [-4] [-6] {name} [server]

CONCLUSION: Thus, I studied and implemented basic networking commands used in

Linux Operating System.