# Linux Networking commands

This page contains a large list of Linux networking commands and links to more elaborate documentation.
## ___________________

### Links to Linux networking commands: explanations and examples
[](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/linux-network-commands-cheat-sheet/)  
[](https://phoenixnap.com/kb/linux-network-commands)  
[](https://itsfoss.com/basic-linux-networking-commands/)  


### Networking commands

| Command                  | Description                                                                                |
|--------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| aria2                    | downloading just about everything. Torrents included.                                      |
| arpwatch                 | Ethernet Activity Monitor.                                                                 |
| bmon                     | bandwidth monitor and rate estimator.                                                      |
| bwm-ng                   | live network bandwidth monitor.                                                            |
| curl                     | transferring data with URLs. (or try httpie)                                               |
| darkstat                 | captures network traffic, usage statistics.                                                |
| dhclient                 | Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Client                                                 |
| dig                      | query DNS servers for information.                                                         |
| dstat                    | replacement for vmstat, iostat, mpstat, netstat and ifstat.                                |
| ethtool                  | utility for controlling network drivers and hardware.                                      |
| gated                    | gateway routing daemon.                                                                    |
| host                     | DNS lookup utility.                                                                        |
| hping                    | TCP/IP packet assembler/analyzer.                                                          |
| ibmonitor                | shows bandwidth and total data transferred.                                                |
| ifstat                   | report network interfaces bandwidth.                                                       |
| iftop                    | display bandwidth usage.                                                                   |
| ip (PDF file)            | a command with more features that ifconfig (net-tools).                                    |
| iperf3                   | network bandwidth measurement tool. (above screenshot Stacklinux VPS)                      |
| iproute2                 | collection of utilities for controlling TCP/IP.                                            |
| iptables                 | take control of network traffic.                                                           |
| IPTraf                   | An IP Network Monitor.                                                                     |
| iputils                  | set of small useful utilities for Linux networking.                                        |
| iw                       | a new nl80211 based CLI configuration utility for wireless devices.                        |
| jwhois (whois)           | client for the whois service.                                                              |
| lsof -i                  | reveal information about your network sockets.                                             |
| mtr                      | network diagnostic tool.                                                                   |
| ncat                     | improved re-implementation of the venerable netcat.                                        |
| netcat                   | networking utility for reading/writing network connections.                                |
| nethogs                  | a small ‘net top’ tool.                                                                    |
| Netperf                  | Network bandwidth Testing.                                                                 |
| netplan                  | Netplan is a utility for easily configuring networking on a linux system.                  |
| netsniff-ng              | Swiss army knife for daily Linux network plumbing.                                         |
| net-tools                | utilities include: arp, hostname, ifconfig, netstat, rarp, route, etc.                     |
| netwatch                 | monitoring Network Connections.                                                            |
| ngrep                    | grep applied to the network layer.                                                         |
| nload                    | display network usage.                                                                     |
| nmap                     | network discovery and security auditing.                                                   |
| nmcli                    | a command-line tool for controlling NetworkManager and reporting network status.           |
| nmtui                    | provides a text interface to configure networking by controlling NetworkManager.           |
| nslookup                 | query Internet name servers interactively.                                                 |
| ping                     | send icmp echo_request to network hosts.                                                   |
| route                    | show / manipulate the IP routing table.                                                    |
| slurm                    | network load monitor.                                                                      |
| smokeping                | keeps track of your network latency.                                                       |
| snort                    | Network Intrusion Detection and Prevention System.                                         |
| socat                    | establishes two bidirectional byte streams and transfers data between them.                |
| speedometer              | Measure and display the rate of data across a network.                                     |
| speedtest-cli            | test internet bandwidth using speedtest.net                                                |
| ss                       | utility to investigate sockets.                                                            |
| ssh                      | secure system administration and file transfers over insecure networks.                    |
| tcpdump                  | command-line packet analyzer.                                                              |
| tcptrack                 | Displays information about tcp connections on a network interface.                         |
| telnet                   | user interface to the TELNET protocol.                                                     |
| tracepath                | very similar function to traceroute.                                                       |
| traceroute               | print the route packets trace to network host.                                             |
| vnStat                   | network traffic monitor.                                                                   |
| websocat                 | Connection forwarder from/to web sockets to/from usual sockets, in style of socat.         |
| wget                     | retrieving files using HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and FTPS.                                          |
| Wireless Tools for Linux | includes iwconfig, iwlist, iwspy, iwpriv and ifrename.                                     |
| Wireshark                | network protocol analyzer.                                                                 |


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