@DooDooDumDum 

I'm on Windows, no DIG, but NSLOOKUP is about the same I think?

I'm on a BE65, a BE11000 Deco unit running 1.1.7 f/w.

I can do some NSLOOKUPS, for instance to GOOGLE.COM:

The DNS is not the Deco, but my ISP. I can PING Google as well:

Now trying to PING my PC I can:

Deco is at by the way.

Now my PC trying to see what NSLOOKUP gives me fails.

I'd expect that though. The Deco DNS is my ISP's:

However on the Network Map, Client list all connections are resolved.

Maybe I'm missing something here? To get the list above, just use a web browser the IP Address of the Gateway/router and look at the Client list. Can get the same info from the Deco app or for a router, Tether. Seems all Deco's/Router's can also show the want via a web browser?

  @IrvSp perhaps I didn't provide enough context in my original message.

My TP Link router has IP 192.68.0.1. 

In the web interface for the router, I can see connected devices and their IPs, such as my media server, which has the hostname "media". The router has all of this information, as it's clearly listed in the web interface (the MAC address is redacted for privacy)

I would expect to be able to connect/ping/DNS-lookup my media server by using the hostname "media", and the router's DNS server should resolve that hostname to the IP address of the server (192.168.0.128).

However, using dig to try to resolve the "media" hostname returns nothing:

The screenshot above shows that the router's DNS server was used to resolve the name query (SERVER: 192.168.0.1#53). So the issue is clearly that the router is choosing not to resolve hostnames of locally connected devices to their IPs before forwarding the DNS request to an outside DNS server.

With most other routers I have used, they will first try to resolve DNS requests using hostnames of devices on the local network before forwarding the DNS request.

It seems strange that the TP Link router does not do this. My question is whether or not TP Link plans to support this in future firmware?

  @DooDooDumDum 

No, I understood what data you wanted to get. I am on Windows and can't get it any way but via the iOS app or a Web Browser.

I've used and or tested many routers. None that I recall would show me the 'internal' connection information via windows. The closest in Windows would be the command NET VIEW but it would only show devices that has SHARES, no other devices would show. Maybe Linux did though?

As for TP-Link Routers/Deco's I've used, AX55, X55, A20, BE230, and now the BE65, all are the same, only way to see the Internal list is via web browser or iOS app (and Androids as well).

I've had other vendor routers too, and I do not recall any that give Windows the information you seek at to what is connected to the other via an OS command. Maybe it is only Windows vs. other OS's though?

Windows 24H2, the latest version appears to have a bug in Net View, so I can't even see the list of devices that have shares on the LAN, without using the SHARENAME.

Maybe a moderator will step in and give an authoratative answer for you.

@IrvSp I tihnk we're still speaking past each other. I am not looking for a terminal command which lists all devices connected to the router. I specifically want the DNS server on the router to resolve hostnames of connected devices to their local IPs.

My use case is that I want to be able to tell other people on my local network to visit http://media in their browser, and they will be able to access the webserver that my media server hosts. When this is done, the person's webbrowser will attempt to resolve the hostname "media", and the router should answer that DNS query and resolve the name to the IP address 192.168.0.128. That does not work today, their browser will display an error because the hostname "media" cannot be resolved to an IP. As I mentioned, other routers that I've used have done this correctly, and this was working before I got this new router.

I do hope a moderator can step in to let me know if this will be supported eventually, or if I have to go through the hassle of running my own local DNS server somewhere to fix it.

  @DooDooDumDum did you actually name the physical device in its settings? The client page is not (necessarily) the hostname, router will take a guess to start but you can edit those labels to whatever you want, it has nothing to do with DNS. I am able to browse to my Brother printer configuration page either with devicename or devicename.local. It's also possible that whatever "media" is does not actually register nor respond to its devicename.

DooDooDumDum wrote

My use case is that I want to be able to tell other people on my local network to visit http://media in their browser, and they will be able to access the webserver that my media server hosts.

  @DooDooDumDum 

I can tell you how to get around this easily.

Use a RESERVED IP Address for the Media device... Say 192.168.200.1, and have them use that.

Not as easy and a 'name' but it will work.

Hey  @apila22 yes, the device is named "media" as it's hostname on the machine. And using "media.local" through mDNS does work and is the workaround I'm currently using. However using mDNS means that all connecting devices have to support mDNS, and there are still a surprising number of devices that don't.

@IrvSp  I appreciate how much you've been helping. I'm currently using a static IP and mDNS where possible. But when a guest comes over being able to give them a simple "friendly name" to put in their browser is just preferable, that's the purpose of DNS and having hostnames.

I know the workarounds, this whole post was meant to just ask and understand if there's there's a plan from TP Link to support DNS resolution using hostnames of connected devices in future firmware, since this has always been a fairly common thing with my other routers and I do like to use it as feature.

Is there a better avenue for asking these kinds of questions, or maybe a feature request area that should be asked?