Restarting Your Network

Whenever you make a configuration change to your network, you must restart Linux networking services in order for the change to take effect. If you find that annoying, just be thankful that you don't have to restart the entire computer. Simply restarting the network services is sufficient.

You can restart the network services from a GNOME desktop by following these steps:

1. Choose System → Administration → Services.
   The Service Configuration window appears.
2. Select the Network service.
   You have to scroll down the list of services to find it.
3. Click the Restart button.
   The service is stopped and then started again. When finished, a small dialog box appears, displaying the message, "Network restart successful."
4. Click OK.
   You return to the Service Configuration window.
5. Close the Service Configuration window.

If you prefer working in a command shell, you can restart the network by entering the command service network restart. This results in a display similar to the following:

Shutting down interface eth0: 		[ OK ]
Shutting down loopback interface: 	[ OK ]
Setting network parameters: 		[ OK ]
Bringing up loopback interface: 	[ OK ]
Bringing up interface eth0: 		[ OK ]