Excessive “name query” and “standard query” activity on Wireshark?

Question

I started using Wireshark on some class at university and decided to look at my home wireless network with it, just out of curiosity. But now I'm noticing excessive activity to what it looks like a machine that was never on this network.

Please look at the following screen:

192.168.1.3 - This is my LG laptop
192.168.1.4 - This is my ASUS laptop
192.168.1.5 - This is my sister's laptop (it doesn't appear on the screenshot but sometimes it's there too)

What I find strange is that BJPA is the hostname of my dad's desktop which was never connected to this specific network.

Both my laptops and my sister's are connected to the same network as BJPA on the weekends only. On both my machines I have mapped network drives to a different computer on that same weekend network, which is not my dad's computer, but a different one with a different hostname.

Right now, I'm at a different place, different network and BJPA has never been connected here. Why so many queries like that on this wireless network?

Answer 1

There is clearly some resource on BJPA which the laptops use at weekends. If you haven't done a cold boot since the weekend (e.g. suspend or hibernate only), the laptop might still think it needs access to that resource.

If you have done a cold boot since the weekend then it could be a "persistent" mapping of some sort.

Do you ever use a printer connected to BJPA?

What does net use in a command-prompt window tell you?