Hi
This is a big problem in openSUSE. This is why I switched to Ubuntu. If you have the 11.1 iso on your hard disk, and if installing from that says 1.2 GB of downloads, then your in for a long update. However there is a difference between the actual download and size on disk. I think what it's showing you is the uncompressed size. Check how many MB has to be downloaded and not how many MB has to be installed.
Instead of using YaST, try zypper. Press Alt and F2, and type gnome-terminal if you are using GNOME or konsole if you are using KDE, and enter the followinf command
sudo zypper up
and press ENTER, provide your root password (if you have set one), or your account password.
If I remember correctly, it should tell you the amount that has to be actually downloaded before you approve.
For further information on zypper please read these two very informative pages
*en.opensuse.org/Zypper/Usage
*en.opensuse.org/Zypper/Changes/11.0
Note that if you use the command sudo zypper modifyrepo -k -a, caching for all your repositories will be enabled. However, I have not been successful in restoring the installing the packages from a stored cache??
Any insights forum members?