Linux Networking – Lesson 1
Please open your Zorin terminal and run:
ip a
🧠 What this command shows
It is the Linux version of:
👉 show ip interface brief
You will see:
interface names (like enp0s3, lo)
IP addresses
UP / DOWN state
✅ Very important points
You will see something like:
2: enp0s3
This is your real network interface (VirtualBox NIC).
And you will also see:
lo
This is:
👉 loopback interface (just like [Link] concept in networking)
✅ Now run this:
ip route
🧠 This is equivalent to:
👉 show ip route
You will see:
default gateway
connected networks
Look for a line starting with:
default via ...
That is your default gateway.
👉 how to bring an interface up/down in Linux (very useful and very similar to CCNA).
Please run only this one command in your Zorin terminal:
ip a
👉 shutdown / no shutdown (interface up & down).
👉 enp0s3
This is exactly the VirtualBox network adapter.
shutdown / no shutdown (from CCNA).
✅ Bring interface DOWN (like shutdown)
Run:
sudo ip link set enp0s3 down
✅ Check status
ip a show enp0s3
You will see:
state DOWN
✅ Bring interface UP (like no shutdown)
Run:
sudo ip link set enp0s3 up
Check again:
ip a show enp0s3
You will see:
state UP
🧠 CCNA mapping (for your understanding)
Cisco Linux
shutdown ip link set enp0s3 down
no shutdown ip link set enp0s3 up
⚠️Important note for you (VirtualBox)
When you bring the interface down:
👉 your internet inside the VM will disconnect
👉 but it is safe
✅ Next small command (very important)
Now run:
ip route
You already learned this is similar to:
👉 show ip route
Linux Networking – Lesson 1
Please open your Zorin terminal and run:
ip a
🧠 What this command shows
It is the Linux version of:
👉 show ip interface brief
You will see:
interface names (like enp0s3, lo)
IP addresses
UP / DOWN state
✅ Very important points
You will see something like:
2: enp0s3
This is your real network interface (VirtualBox NIC).
And you will also see:
lo
This is:
👉 loopback interface (just like [Link] concept in networking)
✅ Now run this:
ip route
🧠 This is equivalent to:
👉 show ip route
You will see:
default gateway
connected networks
Look for a line starting with:
default via ...
That is your default gateway.
👉 What is the name of your main network interface?
(example: enp0s3, eth0, etc.)
After that, I will show you the Linux equivalent of:
👉 shutdown / no shutdown (interface up & down).
enp0s3
Perfect, Sir — thank you.
So your main Linux interface is:
👉 enp0s3
This is exactly the VirtualBox network adapter.
Now I will show you the Linux equivalent of:
shutdown / no shutdown (from CCNA).
✅ Bring interface DOWN (like shutdown)
Run:
sudo ip link set enp0s3 down
✅ Check status
ip a show enp0s3
You will see:
state DOWN
✅ Bring interface UP (like no shutdown)
Run:
sudo ip link set enp0s3 up
Check again:
ip a show enp0s3
You will see:
state UP
🧠 CCNA mapping (for your understanding)
Cisco Linux
shutdown ip link set enp0s3 down
no shutdown ip link set enp0s3 up
⚠️Important note for you (VirtualBox)
When you bring the interface down:
👉 your internet inside the VM will disconnect
👉 but it is safe
✅ Next small command (very important)
Now run:
ip route
You already learned this is similar to:
👉 show ip route
✅ Now next command (very useful for you)
Run:
ping -c 4 [Link]
This is like:
ping default-gateway
🧠 Note
Linux ping keeps running forever by default,
so we use:
-c 4
(only 4 packets)
✅ Now test outside connectivity
Run:
ping -c 4 [Link]
✅ Linux command: ss
(this replaces netstat in modern Linux)
Run this:
ss -lnt
🧠 CCNA style meaning
This shows:
👉 listening TCP ports on your machine
Very similar idea to:
netstat -an
or checking which services are open.
Break it:
-l listening
-n numeric (no DNS)
-t TCP only
✅ You can also see both TCP and UDP
Run:
ss -ln
🧠 What you should notice
You will see lines like:
LISTEN
and local addresses such as:
[Link]:xxxx
[Link]:xxxx
This is very important for server and security work.
🧠 Small concept (important for you)
[Link]
→ service is listening only on localhost
[Link]
→ service is listening on all interfaces
This is exactly how we decide:
👉 can a service be accessed from the network or not
✅ Linux equivalent of traceroute
Run:
traceroute [Link]
If the command is not found, install it once:
sudo apt install traceroute
Then run again:
traceroute [Link]
🧠 CCNA mapping
This is exactly like:
tracert
in Windows
and like:
traceroute
on Cisco devices.
It shows:
👉 hop-by-hop path to the destination.
⚠️Important note for your VirtualBox NAT
Because you are using NAT, you will usually see:
first hop → something like
[Link]
(the VirtualBox gateway)
That is normal.
✅ One very small but important Linux command (last for
today)
Run:
ip neigh
🧠 Why this is important for you
This is the Linux ARP table.
It is equivalent to:
👉 show ip arp
You will see entries like:
IP address
MAC address
interface (enp0s3)
ip neigh → Linux ARP table
✅ Command
ip neigh
✅ Purpose
This command shows the neighbor table.
In networking terms, this is the:
👉 ARP table
✅ CCNA mapping
Linux Cisco
ip neigh show ip arp
✅ Typical output (conceptual)
You will see lines like:
[Link] dev enp0s3 lladdr 52:54:00:12:34:56 REACHABLE
✅ Meaning of each part
Part Meaning
[Link] IP address of neighbor (your gateway in VirtualBox)
dev enp0s3 interface used
lladdr MAC address
REACHABLE / STALE / DELAY ARP state
✅ Very important for you
This table is built using:
👉 ARP (Address Resolution Protocol)
Linux automatically creates this entry when:
you ping a device
or send traffic
✅ Important states you may see
State Meaning
REACHABLE entry is valid and recently used
STALE entry exists but not recently used
✅ Practical understanding
When you ran:
ping [Link]
and then:
ip neigh
you should see:
👉 [Link] in the list
This confirms:
✔ Layer-2 resolution is working
✅ Why this is important for CCNA people
If:
ping fails
but route exists
You can verify:
👉 is ARP resolving or not
Exactly same troubleshooting logic as Cisco.
🔹 2. nmcli → Network Manager command line
This is very important for desktop Linux such as Zorin / Ubuntu.
✅ What is nmcli?
nmcli is the command-line tool of:
👉 NetworkManager
It controls:
interfaces
IP configuration
connections
DHCP
✅ Show all network connections
nmcli con show
You will see:
a connection name
device name
type (ethernet, wifi)
Example idea:
Wired connection 1 enp0s3 ethernet
✅ Show device status
nmcli dev status
This shows:
| Device | Type | State | Connection |
------|------
enp0s3 | ethernet | connected | Wired connection 1
This is very useful to confirm:
👉 is the interface connected at NetworkManager level
✅ Bring interface down (NetworkManager way)
nmcli dev disconnect enp0s3
✅ Bring interface up again
nmcli dev connect enp0s3
🧠 Important note for you
You already learned:
sudo ip link set enp0s3 down
That is kernel-level control.
But:
nmcli dev disconnect
is desktop / manager level control.
In real Linux systems:
👉 nmcli is preferred.
✅ Show IP settings of a connection
First see the connection name:
nmcli con show
Then:
nmcli con show "Wired connection 1"
(Use your exact connection name)
This shows:
IPv4 method
IPv6 method
DNS
gateway
✅ Check if DHCP is used
Inside the connection output you will see:
[Link]: auto
This means:
👉 DHCP
✅ Change IPv4 to manual (static IP concept – for lab use)
Example (do not apply now unless you want to practice later):
nmcli con mod "Wired connection 1" [Link] manual \
[Link] [Link]/24 \
[Link] [Link] \
[Link] [Link]
Then apply:
nmcli con up "Wired connection 1"
🧠 CCNA mapping
This is equal to:
configuring IP address
subnet mask
gateway
DNS
on a PC in Packet Tracer.
✅ Return to DHCP again
nmcli con mod "Wired connection 1" [Link] auto
nmcli con up "Wired connection 1"
✅ Very important conceptual difference (must
remember)
Tool Role
ip low-level network stack control
nmcli network manager / connection control
In real Linux desktops:
👉 you mostly use nmcli
✅ Final short summary for your notes
ARP table
ip neigh
Equivalent to:
show ip arp
Show routing
ip route
Show interfaces
ip a
Interface up/down (kernel)
sudo ip link set enp0s3 down
sudo ip link set enp0s3 up
Interface connect/disconnect (NetworkManager)
nmcli dev disconnect enp0s3
nmcli dev connect enp0s3
Show connections
nmcli con show
Show device status
nmcli dev status
Show full IP configuration
nmcli con show "connection-name"