How to remove .local dns suffix on Windows 7?

Question

I am using a speaker share application called SpeakerShare. What it does is simply share a server's speaker. When I am trying to connect to a server from a client, the server returns computer_name.local.. SpeakerShare finds server's ip by name, so it does not find correct IP address with .local. suffix.

How do I remove .local. suffix??

Solution 1

Go to Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network Connections.

Right click on the network connection you want to change and go to Properties, Double click on Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP /IPv4) and then click the Advanced Button.

Under the DNS Tab look for the various options and change to suit.

If you do not see any settings or anything obvious, this is most likely being set by your actual DNS server and you will have to change it there.

Lastly, you can also see if it is hard coded in the computer name. Open System Settings (easiest way is by pressing Windows Flag+Pause/Break, click Advanced system settings on the left and then go to the Computer Name Tab, and make sure that it isn't set to computer.local, you can check/change it here - click the Change Button, then the More button.

Solution 2

The ".local" suffix isn't necessarily provided by actual DNS (though it can be); it's often added as part of mDNS/Zeroconf, a service that helps computers on a local network discover each other's names and services in the absence of a real DNS server.

If you've installed iTunes, you've probably installed Apple's mDNS service called "Bonjour" (aka mDNSResponder.exe). You can stop and disable this service in Windows' normal service management application, or run these commands as Administrator:

sc stop “Bonjour Service”
sc delete “Bonjour Service”

If you haven't installed iTunes or have already disabled Bonjour, follow the directions in Wil's answer to check that Windows isn't adding the .local suffix automatically as part of its DNS settings.

Solution 3

In my situation Answer #4 has it mostly right but I had to uncheck the box below. All is good now. I suspect Windows updates thought it was making me more secure and screwing with me, since this problem just manifested this week. Up until a week ago I was able to ping machine name and get a reply. After the problem began and before the fix Win7 was appending .netgear.com to the end of any machine name I pinged. It also messed up all of my remote desktop connections. So all I needed to do was uncheck the box to the right of my red arrow in the image.