Chapter 7 Configuring Networking 209

Configuring Basic Network Services

3.4 Configure basic network services and settings (e.g., netconfig, linuxconf; settings for TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP)

3.15 Configure access rights (e.g., rlogin NIS, FTP, TFTP, SSH, Telnet)

Basic network services are often configured during the installation of a Linux distribution. Sometimes these services are not completed or need to be changed after installation. To do so, you can choose from several tools to configure basic network services in the Linux operating system. The most common tools are netconfig and linuxconf. Because linuxconf and netconfig are often very similar in usage, they are illustrated together in this chapter. Some distributions use the netconfig as part of the linuxconf suite. Other distributions customize the netconfig and linuxconf programs for their own configuration. You must have root access to use either program; after you have acquired root access, follow these steps:

1.Log in as the root user.

2.Type the command linuxconf.

3.Press Enter to be greeted by the program, as shown in Figure 7-1.

Figure 7-1: The Linux Configuration Screen

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Figure 7-1 shows that the linuxconf program can be used to configure networking, users, file systems, miscellaneous, peripherals, boot, control panel, linuxconf management, date and time, and finally, logs.

4.Select Networking to display the screen shown in Figure 7-2. (Also notice that Figure 7-3 from netconfig is identical.)

Figure 7-2: The Linux Network Configurator from linuxconf

These two screens are identical, but this is not always the case. Figure 7-4 shows the netconfig screen from Red Hat 7.1.

The Red Hat program contains less functionality than the preceding netconfig program; it only allows some basic configurations, as shown in Figure 7-5.

Because the netconfig program has been customized by most distributions, it can be either a very complete configuration program or a very basic one. You should remember that all the settings in the linuxconf program can also be used in the netconfig program. In light of this fact, I won’t discuss any more information related to netconfig, because you can use the information in linuxconf for all versions of the netconfig program.

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Figure 7-3: The Linux Network Configurator from netconfig

Figure 7-4: The Red Hat netconfig Program

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Figure 7-5: The Red Hat Configure TCP/IP Screen

Be sure to practice with several versions of the linuxconf and netconfig programs.

Host name

By selecting the Host name and IP network devices, you can configure networking, including the tasks of setting the host name (this is the Fully Qualified Domain Name, or FQDN) and configuring any NIC(s), as shown in Figure 7-6.

You should enter the host name of your computer and your domain name here. Although most users don’t need a host name and domain, a server that is intended for users to access from the Internet or an intranet should have this information. This information will be used at a DNS (Domain Name System) server to allow the translation of the domain name to the IP address for the system. (For more information on DNS, see the DNS section later in the chapter.)

You can also set up alias names for your host here.