Advanced TCP/IP Settings

NooNoo · 2 Weeks Ago

Windows 10 Home
Cable Modem directly connected to PC via ethernet cable, Comcast internet
No print/file sharing/ No wifi
Server & workstation services disabled.
All networking options unchecked except
netbios over tcp unchecked & Enable LMHOSTS lookup is unchecked.

I'm looking for recommendation on two settings in Advanced TCP/IP Settings for my Ethernet connection.

1) "register this connection's address in DNS"
2) "Append parent suffixes of the primary DNS Suffix"

Both are checked and I'm curious if it would be beneficial to leave them checked or uncheck one or the other, and why.

hsehestedt · 2 Weeks Ago

My recommendation is to NOT change settings at random if you don't understand the purpose for those settings.

That said, here is what those settings do:

The setting "register this connection's address in DNS" is used so that your local system will register locally with DNS. This ensures that anything trying to query for your machine via DNS will be able to locate your machine by querying the local DNS server.

As for the second option, "Append parent suffixes of the primary DNS Suffix", I'm not great at explaining this one so I'll simply provide a link that does a much better job than I can do:

windows - What do all the settings in the Advanced TCP/IP Properties DNS Tab Mean? - Server Fault

garlin · 2 Weeks Ago

If your PC belongs to a work or school environment, it's common to register it in the organization's DNS domain to help other PC's find you.

Unless you fall in the 5% of geeky users, you don't need a DNS domain for your local network. Knowing the IP addresses of all your PC's or devices is good enough, and you can add them in your HOSTS file if you prefer hostnames.

For the outside world, Comcast's cable modem hides your entire home network behind a single IP address. Comcast assigns every modem's IP address with its own DNS name. You cannot, and Comcast will not, add any of your PC's to their domain. All the outside world sees is someone surfing from a Comcast-owned hostname.

I wouldn't bother with those settings. No matter who you put down as your DNS provider, they will ignore requests to add these PC's.

Samuria · 2 Weeks Ago

You say connecting to a modem is it modem or router if it's a modem it very dangerous as your pc can be live on the internet so ant hacker can get to it a router protects with NAT so it's live not the pc

NooNoo · 1 Day Ago

garlin said:

If your PC belongs to a work or school environment, it's common to register it in the organization's DNS domain to help other PC's find you.

Unless you fall in the 5% of geeky users, you don't need a DNS domain for your local network. Knowing the IP addresses of all your PC's or devices is good enough, and you can add them in your HOSTS file if you prefer hostnames.

For the outside world, Comcast's cable modem hides your entire home network behind a single IP address. Comcast assigns every modem's IP address with its own DNS name. You cannot, and Comcast will not, add any of your PC's to their domain. All the outside world sees is someone surfing from a Comcast-owned hostname.

I wouldn't bother with those settings. No matter who you put down as your DNS provider, they will ignore requests to add these PC's.

It's just a single PC, with a old MB7420 cable modem I bought in 2016. No idea about hostnames. Here's info from ipconfig /all:

Windows IP Configuration:

Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : hsd1.wa.comcast.net

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
My IPv4 address is listed as (Preferred)
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 75.75.75.75
75.75.76.76
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

I agree and never changed those settings, just left it alone.