simple aliases

hi, i was ust wondering where i should start when i want to write out something simple like :

i want the ls command to always execute "ls -F"

which file would i open and edit to make that permanent, im trying to find out where i can write other commands as well.

for example i wanna make a script or alias or whatever so that i do not ahve to type out : (ifconfig | grep 'inet ' | grep -v 127.0.0.1 | cut -d\ -f2) every time i want to see the ip address.

Put this in your .bashrc file (if you don't have one, make one):
alias ls='ls -f'
Should be able to do something similar for that ifconfig command.