4
Under certain circumstances, Windows is able to automatically give a Network it is connected to a name instead of naming it generically Network 1
, Network 2
, etc..
For wireless connections it seems to simply take the SSID of the network.
For wired connections it looks like it takes some information it gets via DHCP and (reverse?) DNS lookups. I have seen this work on networks with simple consumer level routers, but have not been able to get it to work with a custom Linux DHCP/DNS server.
What information does Windows need exactly to find this name automatically?
Addendum 1
I just checked and retried my setup and still get the same behavior.
My DHCP and DNS is provided by dnsmasq
on an Ubuntu box. The dnsmasq
configuration contains:
domain = office.example.com
dhcp-range=192.168.0.100,192.168.0.200,12h
For testing purposes, I also added fixed DNS names for DHCP clients (which didn't change anything regarding my question) in the hosts
file for DNS:
192.168.0.100 dhcp-client100.office.example.com dhcp-client100
This data also comes up in my lease on my Ubuntu box:
lease {
interface "eth0";
fixed-address 192.168.0.120;
[snip...]
option host-name "dhcp-client120";
option domain-name "office.example.com";
[snip...]
}
As well as a Windows box:
Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : office.example.com
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Desktop Adapter
[snip...]
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
[snip...]
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.145(Preferred)
[snip...]
But still, when the Windows box connects to the network for the first time, the label for the network name changes from Identifying...
over Unidentified Network
to Network 1
, and not to office.example.com
.
Both boxes are are to forward and reverse look up their IP and host name.
What do you mean how? The first network it finds is Network 1, the next is Network 2, you can change the name of these networks if you want of course. It keeps tracks of any network you ever connected to in the registry. What problem are you actually trying to solve? – Ramhound – 2015-04-10T11:45:59.160
@Ramhound: It can go beyond "Network X". – user1686 – 2015-04-10T11:51:21.387
@grawity - I know that. I am just not sure what the author's question is exactly. – Ramhound – 2015-04-10T11:53:57.693
On a domain network, it seems to take the name of the domain itself. At home, it seems to me that it takes the name it assigns the network connection (e.g. at home mine is just Ethernet). I have two wired network adapters on my home computer and it named them Ethernet 1 and Ethernet 2. This is in Win 8.1. – trpt4him – 2015-04-10T13:01:11.570
@trpt4him at my home, I have a FIRTZ!Box router, which uses
fritz.box
as its domain. And my windows machine at home also showsfritz.box
as network name. – Hurzelchen – 2015-04-10T13:20:47.943Interesting. Maybe it uses WINS? Not sure if WINS is enabled by default in dnsmasq. – trpt4him – 2015-04-10T13:26:26.183
I'll check, as soon as I get there. – Hurzelchen – 2015-04-10T13:29:10.027