Whichever operating system you use, one day you may need to make changes in your network settings. In Linux operating systems, this may seem more complicated than in Windows, but with very simple steps, you can add new network cards to your operating system, and edit or remove your network card from the environment. In this article, we will talk about Network Manager, which will help you manage network settings in Linux.
What is Network Manager?
Network Manager is the tool that helps manage the network configuration of many Linux distributions. It helps with your wired and wireless network configuration and delivers Linux users an uninterrupted Internet experience. Since it is a feature that comes with Linux, different Linux distributors can write their own network tools and offer them to their users. For example; Ubuntu presents its network configurations with the Netplan tool, which supports YAML.
Network Manager tools
- GUI tool (nm-connection-editor)
- Applet (nm-applet)
- Cursor-based Interface (nmtui)
- CLI Interface (nmcli)
For the commands listed below, Network Manager must be running in your operating system. If you are not sure that the Network Manager tool is running, use the following command line on the terminal screen to check:
systemctl status NetworkManager
If it is inactive, run the following command to start the service:
systemctl start NetworkManager
nm-connection-editor
With nm-connection-editor, one of the Network Manager tools, you can add a new network card to your system, change its settings, or remove the network card. You can also edit many other settings such as 802.1x Security, Proxy, and DCB (Data Center Bridging).
nm-applet
It is a systray application that works in GNOME, KDE, and XFCE desktop environments. With this tool, you can view and edit the list of available networks and perform a variety of actions.
nmtui
It is a network configuration tool that you can use on the systems with which you establish an SSH connection or on operating systems that do not have a GUI installed. The arrow buttons on the keyboard allow users easy navigation through a small but functional interface.
nmcli
It is a tool for Linux users who would like to use CLI to edit their network configurations. You can easily create, edit and remove network interfaces. You can see some examples below:
nmcli con show
nmcli general hostname
nmcli general hostname new.cloud7.local