If config is used to configure kernal resident network interfaces. It is often used within startup scripts and/or [[http://www.puppylinux.org/wikka/Network_Wizards/|Network Wizards]]/managers. It is considered obsolete on many versions of linux but still wildly used and supported.

Puppylinux uses this in many of it's networking wizards (and their corresponding networking startup scripts) both for code stability with older versions of puppylinux and because the functionality is built into BusyBox, which is a core part of puppylinux. 

The typical replacement for ifconfig (part of [[net-tools]]) is [[iproute2]]. Iproute2 is avaivalbe as a pet package on puppylinux and is required for some advaned networking such as having multiple default gateways.

Some common uses of ifconfig are

==Bring Up an Interface==
e.g.
%%ifconfig eth0 up%%
(one might need to do this to troubleshoot a network wizard)

==Setting Up a Static IP==
e.g.
%%ifconfig eth0 172.30.10.101 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 172.30.10.255%%
(recommended for fixed local networks)

==Bring Down an Interface==
e.g.
%%ifconfig eth0 down%%
(simplifies troubleshooting routing issues.  )


=== Man Pages ===

via [[https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?ifconfig%288%29|freeBSD.org]]
via [[https://linux.die.net/man/8/ifconfig|linux.die.net]]

=== Also on this wiki ===

[[HowToWifiFromCommand|How to configure wifi from the commandline - Intro]]


=== External Links ===

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ifconfig 

==Categories==
CategoryNetworking
CategoryNetworkingCLIUtilities