Are you accessing it from a Mac or Windows computer?
It is a Linux machine
[09:38:46] openhabian@openHABianPi:~$ hostname
openHABianPi
mark@mark-Lenovo:~$ cat /proc/net/arp
IP address HW type Flags HW address Mask Device
192.168.1.8 0x1 0x2 b8:27:eb:ad:62:6d * wlp1s0
192.168.1.5 0x1 0x2 ec:1f:72:cd:83:9f * wlp1s0
192.168.1.1 0x1 0x2 50:04:b8:5e:8a:87 * wlp1s0
I assume this will always assign the IP 192.168.1.8 to that MAC address - i.e. it will be a “static address”. I have a notion it was already doing that since I found that MAC address in the list on the modem.
The avahi is already installed on the Pi and
[13:54:55] openhabian@openHABianPi:~$ cat /etc/nsswitch.conf
# /etc/nsswitch.conf
#
# Example configuration of GNU Name Service Switch functionality.
# If you have the `glibc-doc-reference' and `info' packages installed, try:
# `info libc "Name Service Switch"' for information about this file.
passwd: compat
group: compat
shadow: compat
gshadow: files
**hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns**
networks: files
appears to be the line to edit.
I will mark the question as solved because the static IP - MAC configuration on the router should mean no guess work using ssh or http. avahi is a whole level up and the ability to resolve the openhabpi.local hostname is not critical.
Thanks to all who helped me.