Question on general iMac Network settings

[AdiosVista]

Hi everyone, I'm not a Mac expet by any means and have a few basic questions on Network settings after poking around my iMac. For reference, I'm running an iMac with High Sierra and an Airport Extreme. Any insight is greatly appreciated!

When I open my System Preferences and navigate to Network > Advanced, I'm not too sure on the following settings:

1. Under the "DNS" tab, I do see one IP address under DNS Servers and also a URL that looks related to my ISP under the Search Domains field. I don't remember entering either of these and am wondering if I need them, especially the URL in the Search Domains field.
2. Under the "WINS" tab, I see an odd looking NetBIOS Name and it says it's currently being used. Again, I don't remember configuring this myself and want to know if I should be concerned that there's a random name here and it says it's in use.
3. Under the "Proxies" tab, I also see *.local and a short IP address under the Bypass proxy settings for these Hosts & Domains field. Again, just checking if this is normal.

 

[RobbieTT]

All sounds normal but in the case of the DNS 'normal' is usually rubbish when provided by your ISP. Ideally this should be changed at your router to a faster and more private DNS rather than the one the ISP likes you to use. I use the relatively new 1.1.1.1 service (Cloudflare) as it is easily the quickest in my area.

Unfortunately some ISP-provided routers do not allow a DNS to be changed at the router; if so you can change it at the iMac itself by entering the IP of a different DNS provider under DNS Servers. You can have more than one so for example you could have Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) as the first and Google (8.8.8.8) as a backup etc. It would be a pain to do this on multiple machines so changing at the router makes more sense as the details will automatically cascade down to all client devices.