Networks I

Understanding IP Networks


Before you can configure your Linux system to participate on a
computer network, you have to first install some kind of network
interface and then configure it to work on your particular net- work.
Back in the early days of networking, you could choose from a variety
of network interfaces and network protocols. However, most of the
networks you will work with today will be Ethernet networks using the
IP protocol. In light of this situation, the Linux+/LPIC-1 exam is
heavily focused on using Ethernet boards configured with the IP
protocol in Linux systems. We’re going to spend the first part of this
chapter learning how to do this.



For your Linux+/LPIC-1 exam, you need to be proficient with the IP
protocol (both versions 4 and 6). You need to know how to configure
the protocol such that a system can participate on the network. To
make sure you have the information you need, we’re going to briefly
review IP addressing in this part of this chapter. We’ll cover the
following topics:





• What is a protocol?
• How IPv4 addresses work
• How IPv4 subnet masks work
• Specifying the DNS server and default gateway router addresses
• Using IPv6










LX0-104 Exam Objectives (R)