Hosts not accepted (in dolphin network panel)
 

I'm new to networking.

I try to connect my pc and my netbook. Edited /etc/hosts on both machines adding identical lines like this

On the PC dolphin shows in the tab "places / network" an entry "netbook". Clicking on that it tries to connect with an address like this

Where does it get the "/home/me/ part from? Or the "me@" by the way?
Why not sftp://me:password...
I read that the sftp port should be 115 (not the 22 of ftp) by the way...

Part two of my woes follows right here:
On the netbook dolphin shows in the tab "places / network" no entry "PC" at all, even after a reboot. Doesn't /etc/hosts get read? What the... Why? What is going on?

I looked at the firewalls, both machines have identical (default) settings.

I'm aware that alls this has (a) perfectly simple reason(s) but I simply can't figure it (them) out. Grrrr. :mad:

sftp runs over ssh which uses 22 as its default port and ftp uses port 21. Simple file transfer protocol uses port 115 which is not the same thing as sftp. The purpose of the hosts file is basically a manual way to resolve host names to IP addresses.

I assume by connect you want to share files between the two computers. The typical methods / protocols used are nfs, sftp and samba i.e CIFS/SMB (windows networking). Those desired services must be running on your PCs as well as the firewall allowing access to those ports. If samba or windows PCs are not running then network places will be empty.

Confusing... What does "sftp" stand for, then? I know, but why is "netbook" known to "PC" but not vice versa with identical hosts files? I have not real network, just two computers and a cable, nothing sophisticated is called for.

On "PC" everything seems to be fine, dolphin tries to connect -- with a timeout. The address / URI "sftp://me@192.168.2.101:22/home/me/" is correct, as far as I can see.

Can you please have a look at the questions after the second [CODE] block in my original post, perhaps you know some answers there -- thanks in advance :).

sftp - secure file transfer protocol. "sftp://me@192.168.2.101:22/home/me/" a timeout would indicate that either ssh is not running or the firewall is not configured to allow ssh traffic or ssh is configured to run on a different port (not 22) on the laptop. The syntax for a sftp connection is username@host:port/path. I don't know why you have already have a saved shortcut unless you unknowingly saved it. The file browser uses sftp:// to indicate the protocol/connection type.

As a point of reference the syntax for sftp command line client is
sftp username@host:path (port 22 is the default if different use the -p option)

You have not specified as to what you mean by "connect". As stated in my first post some type of service needs to be running on both computers. Again some of the methods for file sharing is samba, nfs or sftp. The network in the file browser is typically for windows / samba shares. The other protocols are not "browseable"

Hello michaelk, sorry to be back only this late, but I was out of town for a few days and then my connection was down due to bad weather...

I checked: sshd is running, ports are open on 22. So that is not the reason.

I found out, it is from the olden times when I used openSUSE 12.3. Then it worked *sigh*.

No password required?

I want to do it as described in the openSUSE manual, chapter 27.3 (dolphin section):
http://activedoc.opensuse.org/book/o...rans.crossover

Something in the connection doesn't seem to work, though networkmanager sees it and labels it running/connected. How can I check whether the "connection is established" as demanded in the openSUSE manual?

I have no windows I just want to connect two machines running under openSUSE 13.2 / KDE using a simple cable. All the powerful features of nfs or samba are not really necessary as far as I understand it.

Make sure you can log in using ssh from the command line from each computer.
ssh username@ip_address (password required)

If that works you can try sftp:
sftp username@ip_address

Okay:

So the error is the same as in the GUI, i.e. "timeout" of the connection. Or did I do anything the wrong way?

If the computers are connected using just an ethernet cable have you verified that networking is configured correctly?
Can you ping the other computer using the ping command?

ping pc or ping netbook (depending on which computer you type the command).

Look at the output of the ifconfig command, is the ethernet adapter actually assigned an IP address?

Hmm. Ping:

And here ifconfig:

So, network unreachable, funny IP-address assigned (by whom?). So I tried that address:

Umm. Do I use these IPs? Do they change? How are they assigned? Why are the /etc/hosts files ignored?

Btw. the same works on the netbook (with IP 169.254.7.42, which belongs to PC ... *sigh*). What do you suggest now?

<edit> Okay, I tried it. It works after getting rid of a popup, saying that the authenticity of the computer "netbook" could not be established. Yes. Ummm. Bewildering :scratch:. </edit>

The hosts file resolves IP addresses to a name. So when you type in PC in the browser for example it actually uses 192.198.2.100. The hosts file does not configure i.e. assign your network adapters an IP address. How to do that depends on the distribution. You need to assign each PC with a static IP address. The how to depends on the distribution but most have a GUI wizard if running a desktop.

If a computer does not have a permanent IP address i.e static then in most cases they are assigned one automatically via a DHCP server i.e. from a home router or an ISP. When the computer boots up the DHCP client requests an IP address from the server. If a server does not respond then the client has a fail over mode whereby it assigns itself an unused private address in the range 169.254.0.0/16.

So yes you can use the 169.254.x.x addresses but they might change every time the computer is started.

Ah, my error.

OpenSUSE has at least two :rolleyes:. In YAST2 the functionality is disabled though. One can do it in networkmanager I think / edit connection / edit / Tab &quot;IP-V4&quot; / manual -> new connection (then enter the IP, netmask and gateway)... but I didn't (see below).

That's no solution here, since this is only two computers and a cable ;).

They don't change. So I'll just use them. I just wish I knew how they were assigned.

Thank you for your help and patience, michaelk :) I'll mark this thread as solved now.