TCP/IP Networking

In Windows you are shown the name of your network card in the TCP/IP configuration. But, Linux names your network card as eth0. If you have more than one network card, Linux will call them eth1, eth2 and so on. Most likely, you’ll have only a single network card. 

Assign an IP address



Click on K>System>Network Configuration. This will launch Network Configurator, a graphical tool for setting up TCP/IP networking in Linux. To assign an IP address to your network card, click on the Interfaces tab and then on eth0. To manually enter the IP address, click on the Edit button. Fill in the IP address and netmask as per your case. For example, 192.168.1.10 and 255.255.255.0, respectively. If you are using DHCP then select DHCP from the drop-down menu ‘Interface configuration protocol’ at the bottom. Select the option Activate interface at boot time. This will activate the network card as soon as you boot into Linux. Click on Done. Finally, click on Save and then on Activate.

Set up names (DNS)



In the Network Configurator, click on the Names tab. Fill in a hostname like test.pcqlabs.net (and the corresponding domain name will be pcqlabs.net). Note that the name assigned is not similar to the Windows machine name–the Netbios name. Here the name assigned is TCP/IP name called hostname. For Nameservers enter the IP address of a DNS (Domain Name Servers), if you are running one on your network, else give a public DNS server address like 202.54.15.1

Set up a gateway



If your network is connected to the Internet through a router or gateway, then click on the Routing tab and for the Default gateway enter the IP address of the gateway machine.

Shekhar Govindarajan