Error in Sybex Linux+ guide?

hiddenknight821

Is it just me or did anybody notice the error the author, Roderick Smith made when he said the netstat command is the Swiss Army knife of network tool? He mentioned this a few times. This can be found on page 413 and 481.

I've read many sources claiming that it's really netcat command that's the Swiss Army knife. I can see how he gets them mixed up due to similar pronunciation. Is he not wrong? Because I never heard of this until I read his book.

5ekurity

I don't know that it's an 'error' as much as it is the author's opinion of netstat and the functionality it provides...but netstat and netcat are two very different tools.

hiddenknight821

I assumed it's an error, because of the similar spelling and pronunciation. From what I understand, the netstat command is simply a tool to display connectivity information occurring in the system, and that's the only thing it does. Display information and nothing more. I'm not sure how that's defined as a Swiss army knife. It's a bad opinion, IMO.

The netcat command, on the the other hand, is pretty versatile. You can craft packets, create HTTP requests, and scan TCP/UDP ports, create client/server sockets, transfer files, and etc. This command can be considered a superset of telnet command. In that respect, I can understand how it can be claimed as the Swiss army knife of networking tool. If you do a google search, "linux swiss army knife", you'd see netcat listed, but netstat is nowhere to be found in the top search results.