How can I stop my Linux machine from broadcasting its name on the network?

Question

I have a Linksys router and I've noticed that when I look for connected PC's on the router, the name of my computer and MAC address of the wireless device appears.

However, I've noticed that for some devices it appears only the device MAC address, without a name.

For example, Apple computers connected to the router appear without a name. The PlayStation 3 and the printer appears without a name too.

So my question is, how can I stop my PC with Linux from broadcasting its name so the router can only present its MAC address and not the name?

I really don't have any share utility so I don't see any use for broadcasting my PC name.

Answer 1

It's not broadcasting anything. When your PC requests an IP address via DHCP, it sends it's own name in the request. This is done because DHCP servers can use this name to pick an IP address to hand out (also some DHCP servers use this to update DNS). The client cannot know whether the DHCP server cares about the name or not, and it doesn't hurt to send it, so it gets sent. So the router is simply taking this name and storing it for informational purposes.

Edit:
You can forge the hostname with some dhcp clients though. For example, with dhcpcd there is the --hostname option. You can pass something else in here if you want. But you cannot leave it blank as dhcpcd sends the real hostname if its blank.