ifconfig and interfaces

macos interface ip ifconfig
lollercoaster picture lollercoaster · Jul 6, 2011 · Viewed 49.7k times · Source

just a question for my understanding. on my mac when I use ifconfig command on my mac I get the following interfaces:

  • en0
  • en1
  • lo0
  • fw0
  • vment0
  • vment1

I don't understand why there are so many. I understand that eth0 would be for LAN connections, and that en0 is the wireless connection. But macbook only has one airport..so why en1 as well? not sure what vments are for either.

Answer

Mehrdad Afshari picture Mehrdad Afshari · Jul 6, 2011

There's no eth0 on default configuration of OS X. By default, en0 and en1 are your physical network connections (wired and wireless LAN). lo0 is the loopback interface. fw0 is the IP over Firewire interface; and vmnet interfaces are installed by VMware for network communication with virtual machines.

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