The Zero Configuration (Zeroconf) Networking technology promises to alleviate this configuration burden by allowing users to discover services and devices with little end-user intervention. We compare two popular implementations of Zeroconf namely, Avahi and Mono.Zeroconf running on Linux and Windows XP operating.

Chapter 1. Introduction to Bonjour and Zeroconf You walk in a few minutes late to a meeting and want to know what you’ve missed. You open your text editor and your computer automatically discovers a shared document in which one or more attendees are taking notes. You have a couple of colleagues who are busy in another meeting but are interested in the topics being discussed in your meeting. You invite your colleagues to view the notes being taken and to contribute their comments and questions. A presenter announces that anyone wanting a copy of his slides should let him know. You open your local Instant Messenger application and see his name in the list of available names, even though you have never met before and he is not in your buddy list.

Download Game Compressed Iso. A moment later, he has placed his presentation in your drop box in your Public folder, which he has discovered in his network directory. The meeting comes to an end. Before anyone erases the whiteboard, someone snaps a quick picture or two and puts it in their photo-sharing library so that anyone interested can download it. You notice a new entry in your audio software that announces that the person who was recording the session has already posted it in her shared audio library. Before you save the notes on the session, you decide to print out a copy to read on the plane ride back. In the print dialog, you discover several printers and choose the one labeled “Third Floor Meeting Rooms.” This is not a fantastical glimpse of the elusive future.

It is a concrete description of what is available today using Zeroconf. In this chapter, you will get a quick overview of the various components that make up Zeroconf. In the following four chapters, these details will be fleshed out. The second half of this chapter examines the Zeroconf design principles that build on two decades of experience with the AppleTalk Name Binding Protocol. Zeroconf’s Many Names The seeds of Zeroconf were planted in some postings by Stuart Cheshire on the Net-Thinkers mailing list in 1997. This led to the IETF holding two “Birds of a Feather” (BOF) sessions at the March and July 1999 IETF meetings on the subject of “Networking in the Small” (NITS), co-chaired by Stuart Cheshire and Peter Ford. Out of the NITS BOF meetings, the Zero Configuration Networking (Zeroconf) Working Group was formed in September 1999.

In May 2002, Apple announced its trademark “Rendezvous” for the Zeroconf technologies, a little like the way Apple uses its trademark “AirPort” for IEEE 802.11 wireless networking. Unfortunately for Apple, another company also had a networking product by the name of “Rendezvous,” and in April 2005, Apple announced the new Apple name for the Zeroconf technologies: “Bonjour.” Other third-party products can also carry the Bonjour name and logo. Apple doesn’t charge any money to license the name and logo; the products just have to pass Apple’s Bonjour Conformance Test to verify that they do in fact implement the specifications properly.

Meanwhile, other open source implementations of the Zeroconf technologies have also been created, including Howl and Avahi. The terms “Bonjour” and “Zeroconf” are often used interchangeably, but as a general rule, this book uses the term “Zeroconf” when referring to the technology in general and “Bonjour” when referring to it in an Apple-specific context. For example, iChat on Mac OS X doesn’t have a “Zeroconf” window; it has a “Bonjour” window (it says “Bonjour” at the top of the window). Rare person who takes the time to say, “Now that I have an IP address, I could use a friendly domain name. I should learn how to set up DNS on my laptop.” A typical user of Zeroconf should not be aware of the infrastructure required.