ssh: Could not resolve hostname [hostname]: nodename nor servname provided, or not known

Question

I am trying to set up a VPN with a Raspberry Pi, and the first step is gaining the ability to ssh into the device from outside my local network. For whatever re

Answer 1

For me, the problem was a typo on my ~/.ssh/config file. I had:

Host host1:
  HostName 10.10.1.1
  User jlyonsmith

The problem was the : after the host1 - it should not be there. ssh gives no warnings for typos in the ~/.ssh/config file. When it can't find host1 it looks for the machine locally, can't find it and prints the cryptic error message.