Assigning a static ip address to Red Hat Enterprise Linux guest on VMware does not work

Issue

• Assigned Static IP address to a Red Hat Enterprise Linux guest - for accessing WAN.
• When 'route' command is executed, it takes almost 1 minute for the command to return a result showing the default route.
• Able to ping the default route, however, not able to get out to another system on the same subnets or into the system, using the SSH protocol.
• The system is currently not accessible from the outside networks.