Linux networking commands. How to get information about your network and ip addresses.

  1. Some useful Linux networking commands.
  2. How to do a reverse lookup of an IP address with the dig command
  3. Using the ifconfig command
  4. Using the ipcalc command to get information about an IP address
  5. Use the arp command to get the arp routing table

Some useful Linux networking commands.

How to do a reverse lookup of an IP address with the dig command

The dig -x command will perform a reverse lookup of an IP address. Just use this command and you can find out what the hostname of the IP is.

jason@jason-desktop:~$ dig 8.8.8.8
 
; <<>> DiG 9.10.3-P4-Ubuntu <<>> 8.8.8.8
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 3984
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1
 
;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 65494
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;8.8.8.8.			IN	A
 
;; Query time: 93 msec
;; SERVER: 127.0.0.53#53(127.0.0.53)
;; WHEN: Sat Sep 16 12:10:04 AEST 2017
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 36

Using the ifconfig command

The ifconfig command is used to get the IP addresses associated with your networking interfaces. Here you can see the eth0 ethernet adapter that has the IP address of 192.168.1.5. This is 11000000.10101000.00000001.00000101 in binary.

jason@jason-desktop:~$ ifconfig
enp0s25: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.1.2  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
        inet6 fe80::5afa:8eba:e6f6:fba8  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        inet6 fdc8:1451:5fa9:4700:80e0:31d9:68af:bb35  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0<global>
        inet6 fdc8:1451:5fa9:4700:cdb5:2a0a:91c7:16e6  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0<global>
        inet6 fdc8:1451:5fa9:4700:7163:b140:65a4:ae4e  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0<global>
        ether d0:50:99:0d:ab:0f  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 4641369  bytes 6763162659 (6.7 GB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 3422758  bytes 283587787 (283.5 MB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device interrupt 20  memory 0xf3200000-f3220000  
 
enp3s0: flags=4099<UP,BROADCAST,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        ether 00:13:46:3a:02:83  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 0  bytes 0 (0.0 B)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
 
lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        inet6 ::1  prefixlen 128  scopeid 0x10<host>
        loop  txqueuelen 1000  (Local Loopback)
        RX packets 41990  bytes 2557336 (2.5 MB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 41990  bytes 2557336 (2.5 MB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0

Here I am only showing results for one interface.

jason@jason-desktop:~$ ifconfig enp0s25
enp0s25: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.1.2  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.1.255
        inet6 fe80::5afa:8eba:e6f6:fba8  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>
        inet6 fdc8:1451:5fa9:4700:80e0:31d9:68af:bb35  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0<global>
        inet6 fdc8:1451:5fa9:4700:cdb5:2a0a:91c7:16e6  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0<global>
        inet6 fdc8:1451:5fa9:4700:7163:b140:65a4:ae4e  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x0<global>
        ether d0:50:99:0d:ab:0f  txqueuelen 1000  (Ethernet)
        RX packets 4663205  bytes 6795159019 (6.7 GB)
        RX errors 0  dropped 0  overruns 0  frame 0
        TX packets 3439047  bytes 284948229 (284.9 MB)
        TX errors 0  dropped 0 overruns 0  carrier 0  collisions 0
        device interrupt 20  memory 0xf3200000-f3220000

The ifconfig command is the best way by far to get your IP address.

Using the ipcalc command to get information about an IP address

Here I am using the ipcalc 192.168.1.1 command to get the binary value of that IP address. The IP address has 4 groups of 8 bits which makes up a 32bit IP address. Newer versions of the ipcalc command have different command-line parameters to the older versions and this is why I created this page.

jason@jason-desktop:~$ ipcalc 192.168.1.1
Address:   192.168.1.1          11000000.10101000.00000001. 00000001
Netmask:   255.255.255.0 = 24   11111111.11111111.11111111. 00000000
Wildcard:  0.0.0.255            00000000.00000000.00000000. 11111111
=>
Network:   192.168.1.0/24       11000000.10101000.00000001. 00000000
HostMin:   192.168.1.1          11000000.10101000.00000001. 00000001
HostMax:   192.168.1.254        11000000.10101000.00000001. 11111110
Broadcast: 192.168.1.255        11000000.10101000.00000001. 11111111
Hosts/Net: 254                   Class C, Private Internet

Use the arp command to get the arp routing table

jason@jason-desktop:~$ arp -n
Address                  HWtype  HWaddress           Flags Mask            Iface
192.168.1.1              ether   c8:14:51:5f:a9:47   C                     enp0s25

This is what the arp -a command looks like on Cygwin.

Homer@bejiitas $ arp -a
 
Interface: 192.168.1.4 --- 0x5
  Internet Address      Physical Address      Type
  192.168.1.1           84-c9-b2-bd-c2-e7     dynamic
  192.168.1.2           4c-0f-6e-5d-e1-25     dynamic
  192.168.1.5           08-00-27-85-68-81     dynamic
  192.168.1.255         ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff     static
  224.0.0.22            01-00-5e-00-00-16     static
  224.0.0.251           01-00-5e-00-00-fb     static
  224.0.0.252           01-00-5e-00-00-fc     static
  239.255.255.250       01-00-5e-7f-ff-fa     static
  255.255.255.255       ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff     static
 
Interface: 192.168.56.1 --- 0xc
  Internet Address      Physical Address      Type
  192.168.56.255        ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff     static
  224.0.0.22            01-00-5e-00-00-16     static
  224.0.0.251           01-00-5e-00-00-fb     static
  224.0.0.252           01-00-5e-00-00-fc     static
  239.255.255.250       01-00-5e-7f-ff-fa     static

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