Convention in Linux for network interface simple and clear.
eth for cable connection
ath or wifi for wireless connection
l0 for loopback
sample from my ubuntu feisty fawn box :
alamsyah@alamsyah-laptop:~$ ifconfig -a
ath0 Link encap:Ethernet� HWaddr 00:14:A4:70:02:3E
inet addr:192.168.12.100� Bcast:192.168.12.255� Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::214:a4ff:fe70:23e/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST� MTU:1500� Metric:1
RX packets:8945 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:6503 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:5854116 (5.5 MiB)� TX bytes:1133161 (1.0 MiB)
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet� HWaddr 00:0A:E4:F1:CC:ED
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST� MTU:1500� Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)� TX bytes:0 (0.0 b)
Interrupt:23 Base address:0xe000
eth0:avah Link encap:Ethernet� HWaddr 00:0A:E4:F1:CC:ED
inet addr:169.254.12.119� Bcast:169.254.255.255� Mask:255.255.0.0
UP BROADCAST MULTICAST� MTU:1500� Metric:1
Interrupt:23 Base address:0xe000
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1� Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING� MTU:16436� Metric:1
RX packets:5 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:5 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:346 (346.0 b)� TX bytes:346 (346.0 b)
wifi0 Link encap:UNSPEC� HWaddr 00-14-A4-70-02-3E-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST� MTU:1500� Metric:1
RX packets:32735 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:1029
TX packets:7184 errors:3 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:199
RX bytes:8904760 (8.4 MiB)� TX bytes:1307198 (1.2 MiB)
Interrupt:17
Network interface identification in FreeBSD slightly different from Linux,
card from 3com recognized as xl , fxp , bge for intel, rl for dlink or realtek and so on, for full list of supported network interface by FreeBSD,
you can see from /sys/i386/conf/GENERIC
# PCI Ethernet NICs.
device de # DEC/Intel DC214x (Tulip)
device em # Intel PRO/1000 adapter Gigabit Ethernet Card (Wiseman)
device txp # 3Com 3cR990 (Typhoon)
device vx # 3Com 3c590, 3c595 (Vortex)
# PCI Ethernet NICs that use the common MII bus controller code.
# NOTE: Be sure to keep the device miibus� line in order to use these NICs!
device miibus # MII bus support
device dc # DEC/Intel 21143 and various workalikes
device fxp # Intel EtherExpress PRO/100B (82557, 82558)
device pcn # AMD Am79C97x PCI 10/100 NICs
device rl # RealTek 8129/8139
device sf # Adaptec AIC-6915 (Starfire)
device sis # Silicon Integrated Systems SiS 900/SiS 7016
device ste # Sundance ST201 (D-Link DFE-550TX)
device tl # Texas Instruments ThunderLAN
device tx # SMC EtherPower II (83c170 EPIC)
device vr # VIA Rhine, Rhine II
device wb # Winbond W89C840F
device xl # 3Com 3c90x (Boomerang, Cyclone)
device bce # Broadcom BCM5706/BCM5708 Gigabit Ethernet
device bge # Broadcom BCM570x (Tigon III)
# ISA Ethernet NICs.
# device ed requires device miibus
device ed0 at isa disable port 0�280 irq 10 iomem 0xd8000
device ex
device ep
device fe0 at isa disable port 0�300
# Xircom Ethernet
device xe
# PRISM I IEEE 802.11b wireless NIC.
device awi
# WaveLAN/IEEE 802.11 wireless NICs. Note: the WaveLAN/IEEE really
# exists only as a PCMCIA device, so there is no ISA attachment needed
# and resources will always be dynamically assigned by the pccard code.
device wi
# Aironet 4500/4800 802.11 wireless NICs. Note: the declaration below will
# work for PCMCIA and PCI cards, as well as ISA cards set to ISA PnP
# mode (the factory default). If you set the switches on your ISA
# card for a manually chosen I/O address and IRQ, you must specify
# those parameters here.
device an
if you have two fxp card you’ll see this on ifconfig :
fxp0
fxp1
if you have one xl card and one rl card then you’ll see this :
xl0
rl0
you need this information for tweaking kernel purpose, just add # for commenting in kernel file, for example :
#device wi
simple way to make your kernel slim and fast 