Web design portfolio - Chapter 7 . Installing Linux 271 netmask to
Chapter 7 . Installing Linux 271 netmask to an IP address of 192.168.0.1, for example, the network address would be 192.168.0 and the host address 1. Because 0 and 255 can t be assigned to a particular host, that leaves valid host numbers between 1 and 254 available for this local network. . Activate on boot Some Linux install procedures ask you to indicate if you want the network to start at boot time (you probably do if you have a LAN). . Set the hostname This is the name identifying your computer within your domain. For example, if your computer were named baskets in the handson history.com domain, your full hostname may be baskets.handsonhistory. com. You can either set the domain name yourself (manually) or have it assigned automatically, if that information is being assigned by a DHCP server (automatically via DHCP). . Gateway This is the IP number of the computer that acts as a gateway to networks outside your LAN. This typically represents a host computer or router that routes packets between your LAN and the Internet. . Primary DNS This is the IP address of the host that translates computer names you request into IP addresses. It is referred to as a Domain Name System (DNS) server. You may also have Secondary and Tertiary name servers in case the first one can t be reached. (Most ISPs will give you two DNS server addresses.) Configuring Other Administrative Features Depending on which Linux install you are using, there are other types of information you will be asked to enter. These might involve: . Firewall Most Linux distributions these days use iptables to configure firewalls. Older Linux systems use ipchains. When you configure a default firewall, you typically choose which ports will be open to outside connections on your system (although there are many other things a firewall can be configured to do as well). The iptables firewall facility is described in Chapter 17 when you configure a router/firewall. . Languages While Linux itself doesn t include support for lots of different languages, some Linux distributions (such as Fedora) and desktop environments (such as KDE) offer support for many different languages. Nearly all Linux distributions let you configure language-specific keyboards. . Root password and additional user Every Linux system that uses passwords will have you add at least the root user s password when you install Linux. Some distributions require that you add at least one additional nonroot user as well. Besides the features just mentioned, every distribution needs to have some initial configuration done before you have a fully functional Linux system. See Chapter 4 for information on basic administrative tasks for Linux.
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