Can SSH with IP but not host name?

Question

When I SSH directly to the server's IP address, it works. (ssh michael@10.1.10.129) For reference, here is the resulting prompt:

michael@noranetserver:~$

However ssh-ing by name doesn't work like so:

ssh michael@noranetserver
ssh: Could not resolve hostname noranetserver: nodename nor servname provided, or not known

Why would this be?

You could try nslookup and see if the 'noranetserver' is in the names list. nslookup noranetserver if it is not that may be the reason. — No Time, May 16, 2014 at 17:00
Is nslookup preinstalled on most UNIX-likes? Or must I download it? — PopKernel, May 16, 2014 at 17:02
It returned ** server can't find noranetserver: NXDOMAIN Does that mean anything? — PopKernel, May 16, 2014 at 17:39
Sucky think about SSH: Using NAT (especially on port overload), and DHCP make it hard to SSH because of the constant changed, vs a home network where you can set stuff up how you want. :/ hope that answer below helped. — No Time, May 16, 2014 at 20:07

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-13 12:23:50Z

9

You could try adding 10.1.10.129 noranetserver to /etc/hosts, to make the computer you connect from aware of the server hostname.

There are other ways as well, as pointed out in the following questions: 1 and 2.

CommunityBot

1

answered May 16, 2014 at 18:34

mikewhatever

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1

Is there a more universal way to do this? I was hoping to using the computer's hostname for a variety of other things on the network. I can't hold on to the static IP indefinitely, I just convinced my superior to let me use one as a stopgap measure.
– PopKernel
May 16, 2014 at 18:37
1

Sure, there are other ways to make the server advertise its hostname. Please refer to the following questions: 1 and 2.
– mikewhatever
May 16, 2014 at 18:47

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Itachi · Accepted Answer · 2017-06-02 06:39:32Z

0

Try avahi-daemon package, it just work as a service.

answered Jun 2, 2017 at 6:39

Itachi

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2 Answers 2