A while ago I wrote this post: Windows 7 & Reverse Lookup DNS Registration One of the problems with the approach was that adding the command: netsh interface ipv4 set dnsservers name="Local Area Connection" source=dhcp register=both only worked for the wired network adapter. We’re having more and more PC’s connecting over a recently installed wireless network and also our machines connected over VPN aren’t properly registering their reverse records. The reason for this is that both Wireless and VPN connections come with their own adapter with it’s own setting.

We played with the idea of scripting our way round this to get all adapters this particular setting, but I figured I’d give another attempt at looking for the right GPO which should do this with way less hassle. And here it is:

The GPO which does the exact same thing as the netsh command, or checking the checkbox Use this connection’s DNS suffix in DNS registration is located below Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > DNS Client. It’s called Register DNS records with connection-specific DNS suffix. I have no idea why I didn’t managed to find this one 2 years ago, but better late than never. This GPO will set the registry value RegisterAdapterName to 1 below the Policies hive. In fact, the netsh command or the checkbox I mentioned before will set the exact same key but then below the guid for that specific adapter.

Note: whether or not it’s a best practice to let clients register their own reverse records in stead of the DHCP server I’ll leave in the middle. In my situation the DHCP is a non-windows based solution and our DNS zones only allow secure updates. Therefor we choose to have the clients to the updates themselves.