UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Total newbie here!!

How do I view and alter network settings (ip address, subnet mask and default gateway) in UNIX?

Thanks in advance..

Depends on which version of Unix you are using.

In general your best bet is to try ifconfig. In Solaris ifconfig -a will show you everything. Do a man ifconfig if you are on another version to see which options you need. You can also change network settings on the fly with ifconfig.

If you want to change settings permanently (i.e. so after rebooting it comes up with the new settings) you need to change some config files. Again, since I know Solaris best I can tell you that you'd need to change files like
/etc/hosts
/etc/hostname.hme0
/etc/defaultrouter
/etc/netmasks
or maybe some others depending on exactly what you were trying to do. For different versions of Unix or Linux the filenames might be different.

Thanks for your reply rhfrommn.

The UNIX version is Sinix 5.41. LAN users connect to this box using terminal emulation software. I need (for networking reasons) to alter the ip address of the UNIX server so that it fits in with a specific ip address range and holds that address after rebooting and then re-configure the terminal emulation software to connect to the new ip address.

IF anyone is familiar with this UNIX version and can outline how this should be done I would be forever in your debt!!

I had not even heard of it till this post - looks like it's about the same as most of the rest but I doubt I could explain it well enough so go to the admin guide - network for assistance.