Strange DNS query name every few seconds

Question

I recently looked at DNS query log on my router and see that my Windows machine is issuing a DNS query to npifea0ab.lan (basically some "random" looking characters followed by .lan) all the time. Mostly every 5 seconds but sometimes a second apart or 6 seconds apart.

The router doesn't resolve with an IP address but seems to return NXDOMAIN. I assume that such a flurry of DNS requests can't be good and wondering where are they coming from? I restarted the laptop and didn't open any browser so there are no tabs in there to ask for DNS. What is Windows doing? How to make progress debugging root cause?

Answer 1

Sounds like your router provides the private domain space named LAN. Might need to read up on the router or follow-up in forums for the router hardware. Something here may also help.
https://homenetworkguy.com/how-to/use-custom-domain-name-in-internal-network/

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Answer 2

I wrote router but truly it isn't router. It is a Pi-Hole that is monitoring the web traffic and that reported this access from my laptop.

Answer 3

Sounds good, I'd try getting in touch with the "Pi-Hole" support team to debug.

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