Networking Fundamentals

As a Linux system administrator, you will be managing systems that use Internet protocols and networking, so it is essential to have a basic understanding of the underlying concepts. The OSI and TCP/IP are the two main models used in networking. Networks have physical and logical addresses, and addresses can be assigned manually or dynamically. IPv4 was the protocol used to address hosts, until the Internet became so large that all the numbers were used. IPv6 was developed to add more addressing capability. Decimal (base 10), Binary (base 2), and Hexadecimal (base 16) are the three numeric methods used to represent addresses to a computer. Port numbers map to different services, such as FTP and HTTP. Linux commands allow detection of the NIC and provide powerful troubleshooting functions.