2.5 Testing the FreeBSD system

Congratulations! Once you have made it to this point, the FreeBSD system is configured as a network-connected Unix system! If you made any changes to the /etc/rc.conf file you should probably re-boot your FreeBSD system. This will accomplish two important objectives:



Once the system has been rebooted you should test the network interfaces.

2.5.1 Verifying the operation of the loopback device

To verify that the loopback device is configured correctly, log in as 'root' and enter:

    # ping localhost


You should see:

    # ping localhost
    PING localhost.my.domain. (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
    64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=0.219 ms
    64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=0.287 ms
    64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=0.214 m
    [...]
messages scroll by until you hit Ctrl-C to stop the madness.

2.5.2 Verifying the operation of the Ethernet Device

To verify that the Ethernet device is configured correctly, enter:

    # ping curly


You should see:

    # ping curly
    PING curly.my.domain. (192.168.1.1): 56 data bytes
    64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=0.219 ms
    64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=0.200 ms
    64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=255 time=0.187 ms
    [...]
messages.

One important thing to look at in these two examples is that the names (loopback and curly) correctly correlate to their IP addresses (127.0.0.1 and 192.168.1.1). This verifies that the /etc/hosts files is correct.

If the IP address for "curly" is not 192.168.1.1 or the address for "localhost" is not 127.0.0.1, return to Section 2.4 and review your entries in '/etc/hosts'.

If the names and addresses are indicated correctly in the result of the ping command but there are errors displayed then something is amiss with the interface configuration(s). Return to Chapter 2 and verify everything again.

If everything here checks out, proceed with the next section.

This, and other documents, can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/.

For questions about FreeBSD, read the documentation before contacting <questions@FreeBSD.org>.
For questions about this documentation, e-mail <doc@FreeBSD.org>.