Docker Networking Basics

In this lab you’ll explore Docker’s networking model and the CLI commands used to manage container networks.

Tasks:

• Task 1: The docker network command
• Task 2: List networks
• Task 3: Inspect a network
• Task 4: Understand network drivers

Task 1: The docker network command

The docker network command is the main command for configuring and managing container networks.

Run docker network --help to see the available sub-commands.

$ docker network --help
Usage:  docker network COMMAND

Manage networks

Commands:
  connect     Connect a container to a network
  create      Create a network
  disconnect  Disconnect a container from a network
  inspect     Display detailed information on one or more networks
  ls          List networks
  prune       Remove all unused networks
  rm          Remove one or more networks

Run 'docker network COMMAND --help' for more information on a command.

The key operations are: create and rm to manage networks, connect and disconnect to attach containers, and inspect and ls to view details.

Task 2: List networks

Run docker network ls to view existing container networks on your Docker host.

$ docker network ls
NETWORK ID          NAME                DRIVER              SCOPE
1befe23acd58        bridge              bridge              local
726ead8f4e6b        host                host                local
ef4896538cc7        none                null                local

Every Docker installation comes with these three default networks:

Network	Driver	Purpose
bridge	bridge	Default network for containers. Provides isolated networking on a single host via a Linux bridge (virtual switch).
host	host	Removes network isolation — the container shares the host’s network stack directly.
none	null	No networking. The container has a loopback interface only.

Each network has a unique ID and NAME, and is associated with a single driver. Notice that the “bridge” and “host” networks share the same name as their respective drivers.

Task 3: Inspect a network

Use docker network inspect to view configuration details of a network. These details include the name, ID, driver, subnet info, connected containers, and more.

$ docker network inspect bridge
[
    {
        "Name": "bridge",
        "Id": "021ef0405d164d1fff9b6453fd7015dee7bcc9fa4f2d0166cbadac3db3fa0c3b",
        "Created": "2026-03-07T18:21:12.273457708Z",
        "Scope": "local",
        "Driver": "bridge",
        "EnableIPv4": true,
        "EnableIPv6": false,
        "IPAM": {
            "Driver": "default",
            "Options": null,
            "Config": [
                {
                    "Subnet": "172.17.0.0/16",
                    "Gateway": "172.17.0.1"
                }
            ]
        },
        "Internal": false,
        "Attachable": false,
        "Ingress": false,
        "ConfigFrom": {
            "Network": ""
        },
        "ConfigOnly": false,
        "Options": {
            "com.docker.network.bridge.default_bridge": "true",
            "com.docker.network.bridge.enable_icc": "true",
            "com.docker.network.bridge.enable_ip_masquerade": "true",
            "com.docker.network.bridge.host_binding_ipv4": "0.0.0.0",
            "com.docker.network.bridge.name": "docker0",
            "com.docker.network.driver.mtu": "65535"
        },
        "Labels": {},
        "Containers": {}
    }
]

Key things to notice:

• The Subnet (172.17.0.0/16) defines the IP range available to containers
• The Gateway (172.17.0.1) is the IP of the Linux bridge (docker0) on the host
• enable_ip_masquerade means containers can reach the internet through NAT
• enable_icc (inter-container communication) allows containers on this network to talk to each other

NOTE: The command syntax is docker network inspect <network>, where <network> can be either the network name or ID.

Task 4: Understand network drivers

Docker uses a pluggable networking architecture. The built-in drivers handle most use cases:

Driver	Scope	Use Case
bridge	Local	Containers on a single host that need to communicate. The most common driver.
host	Local	When you need maximum network performance and don’t need isolation (container shares host networking).
overlay	Swarm	Multi-host networking for Docker Swarm services.
macvlan	Local	When containers need to appear as physical devices on the network (each gets its own MAC address).
none	Local	Disable networking entirely.

You can see which drivers are available with docker info.

$ docker info --format ''
[bridge host ipvlan macvlan null overlay]

For the kickstart workshop, we’ll focus on the bridge driver since it’s the most commonly used and the foundation for understanding Docker networking.

Next Steps

For the next step in the tutorial, head over to Bridge Networking