For static IP addressing, issue the following command as the root: ifconfig -a gives you details of all interface devices and configurations. In order to receive details of only one Ethernet device, execute ifconfig ethO. The following is an example output:

[root@gnubox slynux]# ifconfig ethO
ethO Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:IC:23:FB:37:22
inet addr:192.168.0.2 Bcast:l92.168.0.255 Mask:255.255.255.0 inet6 addr: fe80::2Ic:23ff:fefb:3722/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU1500 Metric:l
RX packets:9724 errors:O dropped:O overruns:O frame:O TX packets:2720 errors:O dropped:O overruns:O carrier:O collisions:O txqueuelen: 1000
RX bytes:2400589 (2.2 MiB) TX bytes:645396 (630.2 KiB) Interrupt: 17

Now, let us go about sett:ing the subnet mask. This is done easily with ifconfig, as follows:

Now that the IP address and subnet mask is configured (or reconfigured), how do you get your Ethernet up (i.e., available) and down? The ifup and ifdown commands help you with that as follows: