Chapter 10. Networking

Table of Contents
10.1. Networking Overview
10.1.1. The OSI Model
10.1.2. Some popular networking protocols
10.2. Network configuration and information
10.2.1. Configuration of network interfaces
10.2.2. Network configuration files
10.2.3. Network configuration commands
10.2.4. Network interface names
10.2.5. Checking the host configuration with netstat
10.2.6. Other hosts
10.3. Internet/Intranet applications
10.3.1. Server types
10.3.2. Mail
10.3.3. Web
10.3.4. File Transfer Protocol
10.3.5. Chatting and conferencing
10.3.6. News services
10.3.7. The Domain Name System
10.3.8. DHCP
10.3.9. Authentication services
10.4. Remote execution of applications
10.4.1. Introduction
10.4.2. Rsh, rlogin and telnet
10.4.3. The X Window System
10.4.4. The SSH suite
10.4.5. VNC
10.4.6. The rdesktop protocol
10.4.7. Cygwin
10.5. Security
10.5.1. Introduction
10.5.2. Services
10.5.3. Update regularly
10.5.4. Firewalls and access policies
10.5.5. Intrusion detection
10.5.6. More tips
10.5.7. Have I been hacked?
10.5.8. Recovering from intrusion
10.6. Summary
10.7. Exercises
10.7.1. General networking
10.7.2. Remote connections
10.7.3. Security

When it comes to networking, Linux is your operating system of choice, not only because networking is tightly integrated with the OS itself and a wide variety of free tools and applications are available, but for the robustness under heavy loads that can only be achieved after years of debugging and testing in an Open Source project.

Bookshelves full of information have been written about Linux and networking, but we will try to give an overview in this chapter. After completing this, you will know more about

  • Supported networking protocols

  • Network configuration files

  • Commands for configuring and probing the network

  • Daemons and client programs enabling different network applications

  • File sharing and printing

  • Remote execution of commands and applications

  • Basic network interconnection

  • Secure execution of remote applications

  • Firewalls and intrusion detection