Chapter 5. Network setup

The hostname resolution is currently supported by the NSS (Name Service Switch) mechanism too. The flow of this resolution is the following.

For example, "/etc/hosts" looks like the following.

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.1.1 <host_name>

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1     ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

Each line starts with a IP address and it is followed by the associated hostname.

The IP address 127.0.1.1 in the second line of this example may not be found on some other Unix-like systems. The Debian Installer creates this entry for a system without a permanent IP address as a workaround for some software (e.g., GNOME) as documented in the bug #719621.

The <host_name> matches the hostname defined in the "/etc/hostname".

For a system with a permanent IP address, that permanent IP address should be used here instead of 127.0.1.1.

For a system with a permanent IP address and a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) provided by the Domain Name System (DNS), that canonical <host_name>.<domain_name> should be used instead of just <host_name>.

The "/etc/resolv.conf" is a static file if the resolvconf package is not installed. If installed, it is a symbolic link. Either way, it contains information that initialize the resolver routines. If the DNS is found at IP="192.168.11.1", it contains the following.

nameserver 192.168.11.1

The resolvconf package makes this "/etc/resolv.conf" into a symbolic link and manages its contents by the hook scripts automatically.

For the PC workstation on the typical adhoc LAN environment, the hostname can be resolved via Multicast DNS (mDNS, Zeroconf) in addition to the basic files and dns methods.

The hostname resolution via deprecated NETBios over TCP/IP used by the older Windows system can be provided by installing the winbind package. The "/etc/nsswitch.conf" file should have stanza like "hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4 wins" to enable this functionality. (Modern Windows system usually use the dns method for the hostname resolution.)

	Note
	The expansion of generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) in the Domain Name System is underway. Watch out for the name collision when chosing a domain name used only within LAN.

The network interface name, e.g. eth0, is assigned to each hardware in the Linux kernel through the user space configuration mechanism, udev (see Section 3.3, “The udev system”), as it is found. The network interface name is referred as physical interface in ifup(8) and interfaces(5).

In order to ensure each network interface to be named persistently for each reboot using MAC address etc., there is a rules file "/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules". This file is automatically generated by the "/lib/udev/write_net_rules" program, probably run by the "persistent-net-generator.rules" rules file. You can modify it to change naming rule.

	Caution
	When editing the "/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules" rules file, you must keep each rule on a single line and the MAC address in lowercase. For example, if you find "FireWire device" and "PCI device" in this file, you probably want to name "PCI device" as eth0 and configure it as the primary network interface.

Let us be reminded of the IPv4 32 bit address ranges in each class reserved for use on the local area networks (LANs) by rfc1918. These addresses are guaranteed not to conflict with any addresses on the Internet proper.

	Note
	If one of these addresses is assigned to a host, then that host must not access the Internet directly but must access it through a gateway that acts as a proxy for individual services or else does Network Address Translation (NAT). The broadband router usually performs NAT for the consumer LAN environment.

Although most hardware devices are supported by the Debian system, there are some network devices which require DFSG non-free firmware to support them. Please see Section 9.9.6, “Hardware drivers and firmware”.

The typical modern home and small business network, i.e. LAN, are connected to the WAN (Internet) using some consumer grade broadband router. The LAN behind this router is usually served by the dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) server running on the router.

Just install the isc-dhcp-client package for the Ethernet served by the dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP).

See dhclient.conf(5).

The configuration script pppconfig configures the PPP connection interactively just by selecting the following.

	Caution
	The "<isp_name>" value of "provider" is assumed if pon and poff commands are invoked without arguments.

You can test configuration using low level network configuration tools as the following.

$ sudo pon <isp_name>
...
$ sudo poff <isp_name>

See "/usr/share/doc/ppp/README.Debian.gz".

iface <config_name> <address_family> <method_name>
 <option1> <value1>
 <option2> <value2>
 ...

For the basic configuration, the mapping stanza is not used and you use the network interface name as the network configuration name (See Section 5.6.5, “The mapping stanza”).

	Warning
	Do not define duplicates of the "iface" stanza for a network interface in "/etc/network/interfaces".

After preparing the system by Section 5.4.1, “The DHCP connection with the Ethernet”, the network interface served by the DHCP is configured by creating the configuration entry in the "/etc/network/interfaces" file as the following.

allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

When the Linux kernel detects the physical interface eth0, the allow-hotplug stanza causes ifup to bring up the interface and the iface stanza causes ifup to use DHCP to configure the interface.

The wireless LAN (WLAN for short) provides the fast wireless connectivity through the spread-spectrum communication of unlicensed radio bands based on the set of standards called IEEE 802.11.

The WLAN interfaces are almost like normal Ethernet interfaces but require some network ID and encryption key data to be provided when they are initialized. Their high level network tools are exactly the same as that of Ethernet interfaces except interface names are a bit different like eth1, wlan0, ath0, wifi0, … depending on the kernel drivers used.

	Tip
	The wmaster0 device is the master device which is an internal device used only by SoftMAC with new mac80211 API of Linux.

Here are some keywords to remember for the WLAN.

In case of the DHCP served IP on WLAN connection, the "/etc/network/interfaces" file entry should be as the following.

allow-hotplug ath0
iface ath0 inet dhcp
 wpa-ssid homezone
 # hexadecimal psk is encoded from a plaintext passphrase
 wpa-psk 000102030405060708090a0b0c0d0e0f101112131415161718191a1b1c1d1e1f

See "/usr/share/doc/wpasupplicant/README.modes.gz".

You need to install the wireless-tools package to support the WLAN with the old WEP. (Your consumer grade router may still be using this insecure infrastructure but this is better than nothing.)

	Caution
	Please note that your network traffic on WLAN with WEP may be sniffed by others.

In case of the DHCP served IP on WLAN connection, the "/etc/network/interfaces" file entry should be as the following.

allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp
 wireless-essid Home
 wireless-key1 0123-4567-89ab-cdef
 wireless-key2 12345678
 wireless-key3 s:password
 wireless-defaultkey 2
 wireless-keymode open

See "/usr/share/doc/wireless-tools/README.Debian".

You need to configure the PPP connection first as described before (see Section 5.4.3, “The PPP connection with pppconfig”). Then, add the "/etc/network/interfaces" file entry for the primary PPP device ppp0 as the following.

iface ppp0 inet ppp
 provider <isp_name>

You need to configure the alternative PPP connection with wvdial first as described before (see Section 5.4.4, “The alternative PPP connection with wvdialconf”). Then, add the "/etc/network/interfaces" file entry for the primary PPP device ppp0 as the following.

iface ppp0 inet wvdial

For PC connected directly to the WAN served by the PPPoE, you need to configure system with the PPPoE connection as described before (see Section 5.4.5, “The PPPoE connection with pppoeconf”). Then, add the "/etc/network/interfaces" file entry for the primary PPPoE device eth0 as the following.

allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet manual
 pre-up /sbin/ifconfig eth0 up
 up ifup ppp0=dsl
 down ifdown ppp0=dsl
 post-down /sbin/ifconfig eth0 down
# The following is used internally only
iface dsl inet ppp
 provider dsl-provider

Unless the output of the ifconfig(8) command for an interface does not have a line like following example, it can not be used as a part of IPV4 network.

  inet addr:192.168.11.2  Bcast:192.168.11.255  Mask:255.255.255.0

	Note
	For the Ethernet device connected to the PPPoE, the output of the ifconfig(8) command lacks a line which looks like above example.

The ifplugd package is an older automatic network configuration tool which can manage only Ethernet connections. This solves unplugged/replugged Ethernet cable issues for mobile PC etc. If you have NetworkManager or Wicd (see Section 5.2, “The modern network configuration for desktop”) installed, you do not need this package.

This package runs a daemon and replaces auto or allow-hotplug functionalities (see Table 5.10, “List of stanzas in "/etc/network/interfaces"”) and starts interfaces upon their connection to the network.

Here is how to use the ifplugd package for the internal Ethernet port, e.g. eth0.

Now, the network reconfiguration works as you desire.

	Tip
	The arguments for the ifplugd(8) command can set its behaviors such as the delay for reconfiguring interfaces.

Basic network configuration commands in Section 5.5.1, “The command syntax simplified” require the network configuration name token of the iface stanza to match the network interface name in the "/etc/network/interfaces".

Advanced network configuration commands enables separation of the network configuration name and the network interface name in the "/etc/network/interfaces" as the following.

We skipped explaining the mapping stanza in the "/etc/network/interfaces" in Section 5.5.2, “The basic syntax of "/etc/network/interfaces"” to avoid complication. This stanza has the following syntax.

mapping <interface_name_glob>
 script <script_name>
 map <script_input1>
 map <script_input2>
 map ...

This provides advanced features to the "/etc/network/interfaces" file by automating the choice of the configuration with the mapping script specified by <script_name>.

Let's follow the execution of the following.

$ sudo ifup eth0

When the "<interface_name_glob>" matches "eth0", this execution produces the execution of the following command to configure eth0 automatically.

$ sudo ifup eth0=$(echo -e '<script_input1> \n <script_input2> \n ...' | <script_name> eth0)

Here, script input lines with "map" are optional and can be repeated.

	Note
	The glob for mapping stanza works like shell filename glob (see Section 1.5.6, “Shell glob”).

Here is how to switch manually among several network configurations without rewriting the "/etc/network/interfaces" file as in Section 5.5.13, “The basic network reconfiguration” .

For all the network configuration you need to access, you create a separate stanza in "/etc/network/interfaces" file as the following.

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface config1 inet dhcp

iface config2 inet static
 address 192.168.11.100
 netmask 255.255.255.0
 gateway 192.168.11.1
 dns-domain example.com
 dns-nameservers 192.168.11.1

iface pppoe inet manual
 pre-up /sbin/ifconfig eth0 up
 up ifup ppp0=dsl
 down ifdown ppp0=dsl
 post-down /sbin/ifconfig eth0 down

# The following is used internally only
iface dsl inet ppp
 provider dsl-provider

iface pots inet ppp
 provider provider

Please note the network configuration name which is the token after iface does not use the token for the network interface name. Also, there are no auto stanza nor allow-hotplug stanza to start the network interface eth0 automatically upon events.

Now you are ready to switch the network configuration.

Let's move your PC to a LAN served by the DHCP. You bring up the network interface (the physical interface) eth0 by assigning the network configuration name (the logical interface name) config1 to it by the following.

$ sudo ifup eth0=config1
Password:
...

The interface eth0 is up, configured by DHCP and connected to LAN.

$ sudo ifdown eth0=config1
...

The interface eth0 is down and disconnected from LAN.

Let's move your PC to a LAN served by the static IP. You bring up the network interface eth0 by assigning the network configuration name config2 to it by the following.

$ sudo ifup eth0=config2
...

The interface eth0 is up, configured with static IP and connected to LAN. The additional parameters given as dns-* configures "/etc/resolv.conf" contents. This "/etc/resolv.conf" is better manged if the resolvconf package is installed.

$ sudo ifdown eth0=config2
...

The interface eth0 is down and disconnected from LAN, again.

Let's move your PC to a port on BB-modem connected to the PPPoE served service. You bring up the network interface eth0 by assigning the network configuration name pppoe to it by the following.

$ sudo ifup eth0=pppoe
...

The interface eth0 is up, configured with PPPoE connection directly to the ISP.

$ sudo ifdown eth0=pppoe
...

The interface eth0 is down and disconnected, again.

Let's move your PC to a location without LAN or BB-modem but with POTS and modem. You bring up the network interface ppp0 by assigning the network configuration name pots to it by the following.

$ sudo ifup ppp0=pots
...

The interface ppp0 is up and connected to the Internet with PPP.

$ sudo ifdown ppp0=pots
...

The interface ppp0 is down and disconnected from the Internet.

You should check the "/etc/network/run/ifstate" file for the current network configuration state of the ifupdown system.

	Warning
	You may need to adjust numbers at the end of eth*, ppp*, etc. if you have multiple network interfaces.

Here, each environment variable, "$IF_<OPTION>", is created from the name for the corresponding option such as <option1> and <option2> by prepending "$IF_", converting the case to the upper case, replacing hyphens to underscores, and discarding non-alphanumeric characters.

	Tip
	See Section 5.5.2, “The basic syntax of "/etc/network/interfaces"” for <address_family>, <method_name>, <option1> and <option2>.

The ifupdown-extra package (see Section 5.5.14, “The ifupdown-extra package”) uses these environment variables to extend the functionality of the ifupdown package. The ifmetric package (see Section 5.6.2, “The ifmetric package”) installs the "/etc/network/if-up.d/ifmetric" script which sets the metric via the "$IF_METRIC" variable. The guessnet package (see Section 5.6.8, “Mapping with guessnet”), which provides simple and powerful framework for the auto-selection of the network configuration via the mapping mechanism, also uses these.

Note

For more specific examples of custom network configuration scripts using these environment variables, you should check example scripts in "/usr/share/doc/ifupdown/examples/*" and scripts used in ifscheme and ifupdown-scripts-zg2 packages. These additional scripts have some overlaps of functionalities with basic ifupdown-extra and guessnet packages. If you install these additional scripts, you should customize these scripts to avoid interferences.

Instead of manually choosing configuration as described in Section 5.6.6, “The manually switchable network configuration”, you can use the mapping mechanism described in Section 5.6.5, “The mapping stanza” to select network configuration automatically with custom scripts.

The guessnet-ifupdown(8) command provided by the guessnet package is designed to be used as a mapping script and provides powerful framework to enhance the ifupdown system.

This dual usage of the "/etc/network/interfaces" file by the mapping script, guessnet-ifupdown, and the original network configuration infrastructure, ifupdown, does not cause negative impacts since guessnet options only export extra environment variables to scripts run by the ifupdown system. See details in guessnet-ifupdown(8).

	Note
	When multiple guessnet option lines are required in "/etc/network/interfaces", use option lines started with guessnet1, guessnet2, and so on, since the ifupdown package does not allow starting strings of option lines to be repeated.

Iproute2 commands offer complete low-level network configuration capabilities. Here is a translation table from obsolete net-tools commands to new iproute2 etc. commands.

See ip(8) and IPROUTE2 Utility Suite Howto.

The Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) value can be determined experimentally with ping(8) with "-M do" option which sends ICMP packets with data size starting from 1500 (with offset of 28 bytes for the IP+ICMP header) and finding the largest size without IP fragmentation.

For example, try the following

$ ping -c 1 -s $((1500-28)) -M do www.debian.org
PING www.debian.org (194.109.137.218) 1472(1500) bytes of data.
From 192.168.11.2 icmp_seq=1 Frag needed and DF set (mtu = 1454)

--- www.debian.org ping statistics ---
0 packets transmitted, 0 received, +1 errors

Try 1454 instead of 1500

You see ping(8) succeed with 1454.

This process is Path MTU (PMTU) discovery (RFC1191) and the tracepath(8) command can automate this.

	Tip
	The above example with PMTU value of 1454 is for my previous FTTP provider which used Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) as its backbone network and served its clients with the PPPoE. The actual PMTU value depends on your environment, e.g., 1500 for the my new FTTP provider.

For the DHCP (see Section 5.5.4, “The network interface served by the DHCP”), you can replace pertinent iface stanza lines in the "/etc/network/interfaces" with the following.

iface eth0 inet dhcp
 pre-up /sbin/ifconfig $IFACE mtu 1454

For the static IP (see Section 5.5.5, “The network interface with the static IP”), you can replace pertinent iface stanza lines in the "/etc/network/interfaces" with the following.

iface eth0 inet static
 address 192.168.11.100
 netmask 255.255.255.0
 gateway 192.168.11.1
 mtu 1454
 dns-domain example.com
 dns-nameservers 192.168.11.1

For the direct PPPoE (see Section 5.4.5, “The PPPoE connection with pppoeconf”), you can replace pertinent "mtu" line in the "/etc/ppp/peers/dsl-provider" with the following.

mtu 1454

The maximum segment size (MSS) is used as an alternative measure of packet size. The relationship between MSS and MTU are the following.

	Note
	The iptables(8) (see Section 5.9, “Netfilter infrastructure”) based optimization can clamp packet size by the MSS and is useful for the router. See "TCPMSS" in iptables(8).

The TCP throughput can be maximized by adjusting TCP buffer size parameters as described in "TCP Tuning Guide" and "TCP tuning" for the modern high-bandwidth and high-latency WAN. So far, the current Debian default settings serve well even for my LAN connected by the fast 1G bps FTTP service.