To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
See "man sudo_root" for details.

alex@alex-Satellite-L755:~$ ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr e8:9a:8f:88:1a:2b
          inet addr:192.168.1.16  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::ea9a:8fff:fe88:1a2b/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:87869 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:58794 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:3
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:126957575 (126.9 MB)  TX bytes:4485635 (4.4 MB)
          Interrupt:43

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:24 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:24 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:1440 (1.4 KB)  TX bytes:1440 (1.4 KB)

alex@alex-Satellite-L755:~$