Why is PC name not appearing in router's list of attached...

[NiceCupOfTea]

...devices?

My wife's laptop appears with its name, but mine is "UNKNOWN". Any reason why?

[Hooli]

Same OS?

I've gone blank on which protocol routers use for this info so guessing a bit.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Yep, both running XP (one on Pro, the other Home), both SP2'd

[Trevelyan]

Are you running McAfee? I had the same problem with my home network, and it turned out that it was the security software causing it. Once I'd 'trusted' the network from all the PCs connected to it the problem vanished.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Both machines running AVG

[smack]

That kind of stuff is usually broadcast via NetBios (a MS lovely communication meathod....), but regardless, why is it a problem?

[Hooli]

Ping the router? might be one of those things that updates when it's quiet & that'd force it to update?

[NiceCupOfTea]

It's not a problem (other than having to go and compare MAC addresses when I'm trying to find out what's connected), just annoying and doesn't make sense...

Ping hasn't made a difference. Have rebooted and changed the laptop name to see if it helped. It didn't.

[poing]

Everything appears as unknown in my router until I name it on the router. Mine associates the mac address with the name I give it.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Hmmm, I have added all the device names with their MAC addresses in the Access Control but they are not appearing as such in the "Connected Devices" section. Netgear btw.

[Prak]

NiceCupOfTea said:

Yep, both running XP (one on Pro, the other Home), both SP2'd

One got the Windows firewall turned on, the other off?

[NiceCupOfTea]

Both on I think.