ZeroConf, Bonjour, Avahi

ZeroConf, Bonjour, Avahi

About

"Zero-configuration networking" is a set of tools (including Multicast DNS and DNS Service Discovery) designed to help computers on small or home networks find services advertised by other computers automatically, without needing manual configuration such as complex DNS servers or other business/enterprise networking tools and software.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-configuration_networking

Apple initially released this as a product named "Rendezvous" in Mac OS X 10.2 "Jaguar", but then was forced to change the name due to "Bonjour".

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonjour_(software)

An open source implementation exists named Avahi, which can work together with software like Netatalk (AFP / Apple Filing Protocol) and Samba (CIFS/SMB) to automatically advertise services to other computers on a network.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avahi_(software)

Installation and usage

Avahi is installed automatically by various tools (the Netatalk and Samba installers will ensure it's installed and running). Services in RetroNAS that are compatible with Avahi (and any mDNS/DNS-SD tools like Apple Bonjour) will automatically be installed where possible.

On the client side, any matching operating system that supports any of these technologies will find the services as required. Older operating systems and protocols without the tools will need to be told expressly how to find shares, but tools like Mac OS X's Finder (from 10.2 and newer) will automatically see RetroNAS shares in the Network browsing portion of Finder.

If you want to test Avahi from the command line, log into your RetroNAS device via SSH/Telnet and run the command avahi-browse -at as any user to see the output of all Zero-configuration networking tools on your local network.