nixCraft Poll

Topics

FreeBSD: How To Start / Restart / Stop Network and Routing Service

Posted by Vivek Gite [Last updated: April 8, 2008]

FreeBSD is a Unix-like free operating system. You can install to choose third party software on FreeBSD from the Ports Collection. Many services such as POP3 server daemons, IMAP, etc. could be started using the inetd.

However, networking can be stop or started using special script located in /etc/rc.d/ directory. This directory includes script to stop or start network, and other services such as SSH server.

FreeBSD 5.x/6.x and above version - start or stop network

FreeBSD 5.x/6.x and above version comes with netif script to start, restart, stop network service. You need to login as a root user. Then you can use following commands:

To start FreeBSD network service:
# /etc/rc.d/netif start
To stop FreeBSD network service:
# /etc/rc.d/netif stop
To restart FreeBSD network service:
# /etc/rc.d/netif restart

Manual method using ifconfig

To stop network card (NIC) on-fly:
# ifconfig network-interface down
To start network card (NIC) on fly:
# ifconfig network-interface up
To list down network interface:
# ifconfig -d
To list up network interface:
# ifconfig -u

FreeBSD Update / restart routing tables / service

It is also necessary to update routing table after restating networking service, enter:
# /etc/rc.d/routing restart

How do I restart network service over ssh session?

You need to type the commands as follows in order to avoid any problems:
# /etc/rc.d/networking restart && /etc/rc.d/routing restart

FreeBSD 4.x and prior version only - start, restart, stop network service

1) To start network service under FreeBSD you need to copy special
script as follows:

# cp /usr/share/examples/etc/netstart /etc/network

2) Execute script:

. /etc/network

OR

sh /etc/network

Please note that script will do all necessary work for you i.e. it will start network, routing, firewall etc.

Want to stay up to date with the latest Linux tips, news and announcements? Subscribe to our free e-mail newsletter or RSS feed to get all updates. You can Email this page to a friend.

You may also be interested in other helpful articles:

Discussion on This Article:

  1. Anonymous Says:

    Whats the difference between /etc/netstart and /etc/rc.d/netif for restarting networking?

  2. nixcraft Says:

    /etc/netstart is old method and does not support all the options (like stop, restart etc), which is now supported by /etc/rc.d/netif script. Ease of use is main difference between two.

  3. ELF Says:

    Thank you very mach :-)

Leave a Reply

We encourage your comments, and suggestions. But please stay on topic, be polite, and avoid spam. Thank you very much for stopping by our site!

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture. Click on the picture to hear an audio file of the word.
Click to hear an audio file of the anti-spam word

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Copyright © 2004-2008 nixCraft. All rights reserved - TOS/Disclaimer - Privacy policy - Sitemap - Powered by Open source software.