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# Device Name Resolution

Name resolution in NetAlertX relies on multiple plugins to resolve device names from IP addresses. If you are seeing `(name not found)` as device names, follow these steps to diagnose and fix the issue.

Tip

Before proceeding, make sure Reverse DNS is enabled on your network.
You can control how names are handled and cleaned using the `NEWDEV_NAME_CLEANUP_REGEX` setting.
To auto-update Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN), enable the `REFRESH_FQDN` setting.

## Required Plugins

For best results, ensure the following name resolution plugins are enabled:

- AVAHISCAN – Uses mDNS/Avahi to resolve local network names.
- NBTSCAN – Queries NetBIOS to find device names.
- NSLOOKUP – Performs standard DNS lookups.
- DIGSCAN – Performs Name Resolution with the Dig utility (DNS).

You can check which plugins are active in your Settings section and enable any that are missing.

There are other plugins that can supply device names as well, but they rely on bespoke hardware and services. See Plugins overview for details and look for plugins with name discovery (🆎) features.

## Checking Logs

If names are not resolving, check the logs for errors or timeouts.

See how to explore logs in the Logging guide.

Logs will show which plugins attempted resolution and any failures encountered.

## Adjusting Timeout Settings

If resolution is slow or failing due to timeouts, increase the timeout settings in your configuration, for example.

    NSLOOKUP_RUN_TIMEOUT = 30

Raising the timeout may help if your network has high latency or slow DNS responses.

## Checking Plugin Objects

Each plugin stores results in its respective object. You can inspect these objects to see if they contain valid name resolution data.

See Logging guide and Debug plugins guides for details.

If the object contains no results, the issue may be with DNS settings or network access.

## Improving name resolution

For more details how to improve name resolution refer to the Reverse DNS Documentation.