From: Riccardo Facchini
I agree that the virtual interface method that i suggested is deprecated, but bear in mind that "potential for the method to become unsupported (i.e. not work) in the future." doesn't mean it will happen in the near future (i.e. less than an year). Check Cisco routers, they've been using it for years. Of course Cisco is not OS and is not Linux.... ;-)
Agreed, I just think it is a consideration that one has to make when choosing a solution.
I'm not sure about what problems Damon refers to; I'll have to investigate. I myself I'm using the trick at a home box I have for experimentation, and it works perfectly well. I have a home IP range different from the office IP range, and my office laptop has a fixed IP address I don't want to change when I get home... so I added a virtual IP address to the home box I refer to that mimics the SMB box I have in the office... this way I was able to "feel" at "office" when I'm home...
I did not need to use a completely different network when setting up mine, and this may be a reason to use the deprecated method. I don't know. I like the newer method for the simple reason; that it is all in a single file and therefore slightly easier to manage (IMHO). I'm not sure whether this method is supported by YaST though. Although I see information about the virtual interfaces when I go into the relevant section I cannot find any way to add more virtual interfaces or change the settings of the existing ones. Damon