17Bonjour
Bonjour, which is Apple’s implementation of the Zeroconf standard, is a very compelling idea. It extends the idea of DNS so that things on the network can declare their intentions. For example, when a Zeroconf-compliant device is plugged into a network, it can declare “I am grouse.local, and my IP address is 168.254.32.1!” If another device already has that IP address, it can complain. The new device will then change its address. Thus, a network device can get an IP address without a DHCP server. This capability is known as link local addressing.
However, the beauty of Zeroconf does not end at devices and IP addresses. It also allows services to declare their name, type, address, and port number. Thus, the local network is informed ...
Get Advanced Mac OS X Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
