How do I interpret 'netstat -a' output

Question

Some things look strange to me:

• What is the distinction between 0.0.0.0, 127.0.0.1, and [::]?
• How should each part of the foreign address be read (part1:part2)?
• What does a state Time_Wait, Close_Wait mean?
• etc.

Could someone give a quick overview of how to interpret these results?

Answer 1

For those seeing [::] in their netstat output, I'm betting your machine is running IPv6; that would be equivalent to 0.0.0.0, i.e. listen on any IPv6 address.