50 Linux Networking Commands Every DevOps Engineer Should Master

ifconfig – Shows network interfaces and their IP addresses.
ip a – Displays IP address information.
ping – Sends ICMP echo requests to test network connectivity.
traceroute – Traces the route packets take to reach a destination.
nslookup – Queries DNS to get information about domain names.
dig – Performs DNS lookups with more detailed output.
netstat – Shows network connections, routing tables, and statistics.
ss – Displays socket statistics, replacing netstat.
hostname – Displays or sets the system’s hostname.
ip link – Displays or configures network interfaces.

ip addr show – Displays all IP addresses assigned to interfaces.
ifdown – Takes a network interface down.
ifup – Brings a network interface up.
ip link set dev up/down – Enables or disables a network interface.
ip route – Displays or modifies the IP routing table.
route – Displays or manipulates the routing table.
ip link show – Shows the status of network interfaces.
nmcli – Manages network interfaces using NetworkManager.
ethtool – Displays or modifies Ethernet device settings.
iwconfig – Configures wireless network interfaces.

tcpdump – Captures network packets in real-time.
wireshark – A graphical tool for analyzing network packets.
tshark – Command-line version of Wireshark.
ngrep – Searches network traffic for patterns.
nmap – Network exploration tool and security scanner.
iperf – Measures network bandwidth between two hosts.
bmon – Monitors bandwidth usage on network interfaces.
iftop – Real-time bandwidth monitoring.
vnstat – Monitors network traffic and bandwidth usage.
mtr – Combines traceroute and ping for network diagnostics.

iptables – Configures network packet filtering rules (firewall).
ufw – Simplified firewall management tool.
firewalld – Manages firewall dynamically using zones.
ip rule – Manages routing policy database.
ip maddr – Shows or manages multicast addresses.
ip neighbor – Displays neighbor (ARP) tables.
arp – Displays and modifies the system's ARP table.
bridge – Manages network bridge devices.
conntrack – Monitors and manages connection tracking tables.
ip xfrm – Manages IPsec policies.

host – Queries DNS servers for specific records.
resolvectl – Queries the systemd resolver.
systemctl restart network – Restarts networking services.
systemctl restart NetworkManager – Restarts NetworkManager.
chattr +i /etc/resolv.conf – Prevents changes to DNS configuration.
dnsmasq – Lightweight DNS, DHCP, and router advertisement server.
named-checkconf – Checks DNS configuration files for errors.
named-checkzone – Verifies zone files for DNS.
curl – Fetches web pages and data via HTTP, FTP, and more.
wget – Downloads files over HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP.