# network connect Usage: docker network connect [OPTIONS] NETWORK CONTAINER Connects a container to a network --help=false Print usage Connects a running container to a network. You can connect a container by name or by ID. Once connected, the container can communicate with other containers in the same network. ```bash $ docker network connect multi-host-network container1 ``` You can also use the `docker run --net=` option to start a container and immediately connect it to a network. ```bash $ docker run -itd --net=multi-host-network busybox ``` You can pause, restart, and stop containers that are connected to a network. Paused containers remain connected and a revealed by a `network inspect`. When the container is stopped, it does not appear on the network until you restart it. The container's IP address is not guaranteed to remain the same when a stopped container rejoins the network. To verify the container is connected, use the `docker network inspect` command. Use `docker network disconnect` to remove a container from the network. Once connected in network, containers can communicate using only another container's IP address or name. For `overlay` networks or custom plugins that support multi-host connectivity, containers connected to the same multi-host network but launched from different Engines can also communicate in this way. You can connect a container to one or more networks. The networks need not be the same type. For example, you can connect a single container bridge and overlay networks. ## Related information * [network inspect](network_inspect.md) * [network create](network_create.md) * [network disconnect](network_disconnect.md) * [network ls](network_ls.md) * [network rm](network_rm.md) * [Understand Docker container networks](../../userguide/networking/dockernetworks.md)