Prevent Sending Hostname to Router

Technical Writer

March 11, 2026

1 min read

Following steps are required to prevent hostname transmission to the router

Edit DHCP Client Configuration:
Open terminal and edit the dhclient.conf file:
sudo nano /etc/dhcp/dhclient.conf

Find the line:

send host-name = gethostname();
Comment it out by adding a # at the beginning:

send host-name = gethostname();

Save and exit (Ctrl+O, Enter, Ctrl+X).
Restart Networking:
Restart the network manager to apply changes:
sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

Alternative: Change Hostname:
Change the hostname to something generic like “localhost” or “user” using
sudo hostnamectl set-hostname new-name.

DHCP Option 60:
Be aware that some DHCP clients still send vendor class identifiers (Option 60) which might identify the OS.