I am new to OpenSUSE and networking in general, so I apologize if I seem woefully ignorant. I have recently been put in charge of a computer (running OpenSUSE) at my work that needs to be accessible to ssh. After upgrading it from version 11.3 to 13.2, I have been having issues with its network connection. When I ping the name that it should have (xxx.yyy.zzz.edu) I wait a minute and get 100% packet loss. I have tried using YaST Network Settings to switch from DHCP to a static IP with the old name and IP address. However, when I do this, I simply lose my internet connection. When I switch back to DHCP, I can access the internet again. If somebody could tell me what I am doing wrong, I would be very appreciative.
Hi
When settings a static IP you also need to add the gateway (router address) as well as DNS servers (nameservers) all those relevant tabs are in YaST network settings.
You also need to ensure that port 22 (or alternate) is open in the firewall on the system (if it’s running) and then also ensure that the router is configured to forward the port defined on the router to the static ip address. I would assume that is not set to port 22 on the router/gateway eg on internet side 12222 forwarded to your ip address port 22, you would need that info from how ever maintains the gateway/router.
You may want to spend some time reading up on computer networking, some basic knowledge and tools.
Know what network subnetting is, so that if you configure an address manually it’s in the subnet. A router/gateway isn’t required at this point if you’re trying to just establish connectivity within a small physical network, but a proper IP address with a proper subnet is critical.
Know that initially you need to test basic network connectivity using only IP addresses, typically using the PING utility. Using hostnames is an added layer on top of IP addresses which is dependent on a number of things to work… and can get complicated since hostnames can rely on broadcasts, nameservers, host file configuration and name resolution caches to function correctly.
Once you get some basics under your belt, then you can use some basic utilities on your openSUSE to also verify local configurtion like
ip addr or ifconfig - To display your current IP address, subnet, interfaces and misc other info
route - if you are testing or need verification whether you are pointing to network different than what your machine is connected to.
YAST- A unique openSUSE tool that can easily assist configuring various settings on your machine including networking.