Recently while trying to acquire a static IP (ethernet), my internet got disabled (not sure how, but it just...didn't work after that).

"No biggie" I thought, "I'll just change everything back to how it was."

No go. Firefox displays "Address not found", and other internet based apps wouldn't connect either. I ping to my router and IP addresses of websites, but pinging to the actual DNS (google.com, etc) it returns an unknown host. Firefox responds the same way, it loads Google's IP just fine, but google.com apparently doesn't exist.

I've fiddled around in YaST network settings for about an hour now trying to fix the settings with no avail. I've seen some posts with similar issues but the solutions were irrelevant to me. I would love to have my internet back

Thanks to all who have read!

The domain name server that your system uses is listed in the line:

nameserver IP.ADDRESS.HERE

of the file /etc/resolv.conf. Each distro has its own mechanism for configuring this file.

If that line does not exist, no DNS (unless the system itself is running its own DNS).

If the IP address of the DNS server in /etc/resolv.conf is not responsive, no DNS. Or if it points to your routers internal (cheapo, bad) DNS, and your router is unable to return queries, no DNS. Your router obtains its DNS settings for DHCP handout via either you, or via DHCP itself from your ISP.

You'll have to help us understand which of these is scenarios reflects your situation.

You can always edit /etc/resolv.conf and add the correct nameserver line with a know working, fast, responsive, usable DNS server. Your system may overwrite on the next net up/down, but you're just trying to test to see what is wrong so don't worry about that for now.

You can have up to 3 nameserver lines in your /etc/resolv.conf. But the second is tried only after 10 seconds of no response from the 1st, and the 3rd only 10 seconds beyond that. So, long delays with unresponsive DNS servers.

Sounds like nameserver configuration. Sometimes dhcp does not get a correct setting for this from a router, or maybe you needed to set it statically when setting your static IP.

check the file /etc/resolv.conf to see what the nameserver setting is. Mine looks like:

nameserver 203.21.20.20

but yours will need to be different


I am not sure where Yast would configure this setting, but you can edit /etc/resolv.conf manually as root.

If you do not know the IP address of your DNS server, you can:

ask your ISP

check it from a MS Windows operating system (yeah ok "boo hiss microsoft" etc etc) by typing ipconfig /all in a prompt window

sorry to cross-post, Mr C, you type faster than me

Such a simple solution

Not sure what screwed it up, but it's fixed! A reboot did nothing different, it seems like OpenSUSE kept what I put in the file.

Thanks!