Multicast DNS

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Contents

Description

mDNS (Multicast DNS) is a method of advertising services on a local link without the benefit (or management) of a separate server.

Playing with mDNS

On GNU based boxen (Linux/Nexenta) the "Avahi" toolkit provides mDNS services. OS X just includes it.

Browsing

"Bonjour Browser" is a good tool on OS X. It'll show all mDNS advertised services.

"dns-sd -B _daap._tcp" will show you all the advertised DAAP servers on your network (from OS X)

"avahi-browse -a" will show you all advertised mDNS services (from GNU). Add a -r, and it'll give you all the service information too.

Publishing

"dns-sd -R" will advertise a service from OSX.

"avahi-publish" will advertise a service from GNU.

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