I have a Server 16.04, minimal install, running perfectly with one exception. When I change it to use a static ip it loses the ability to connect with other machines (both real and Vms) via their hostnames. I'm pretty sure it is the server because the other machines can ping each other via hostnames but the Ubuntu cannot, I have tried this install on both a real machine and a virtual machine both same, it works perfectly on dhcp but as soon as I assign a static ip no hostname comms. The static configuration follows most guides out there and everything else works when in static mode, I can ping by ip both internal and external and access shares etc so I am stumped after a week of chasing this. Solutions tried, most out there, flushing caches frequently and utilising alternate measures such as winbind+nsswitch, didn't work. the reason this is important is I am trying to use guacamole to control my nas and several machines running a mix of windows and Linux and would have to set the config to use static addresses and only use static on the network to enable this.
ps I should mention that when I try hostnames (ie ping win8) they are resolved to an external site that handles 404 errors (presumably for my isp) again this does not happen when I ping from a windows machine with the same dns server entries.
# The primary network interface
auto enp0s3
iface enp0s3 inet static
# static
address 192.168.1.98
netmask 255.255.255.0
#network 192.168.1.0
#broadcast 192.168.1.255
gateway 192.168.1.254
dns-nameservers 192.168.1.254
