Laying the Foundation: The localhost Interface

The first thing that needs to be in place before you can successfully connect to a network or even to the Internet is a localhost interface, sometimes called a loopback interface, but more commonly referenced as lo. The TCP/IP protocol (see the section “Networking with TCP/IP” later in this chapter) uses this interface to assign an IP address to your computer and is needed for Ubuntu to establish a PPP interface.

Get Ubuntu Unleashed 2014 Edition: Covering 13.10 and 14.04,Ninth Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.