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Linux Networking commands

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

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Geeks for Geeks
Linux network commands
Linux basic 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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Last modified: 24 November 2025