• Mac OS X,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    mDNSResponder, mDNS and dns-sd

    The process that makes Bonjour work is mDNSResponder, located in /usr/sbin. /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist invokes mDNSResponder on boot. One of the easiest ways to troubleshoot issues you think are related to Bonjour is to temporarily disable the mDNSResponder: launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist To enable it: launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist In addition to basic starting and stopping of the mDNSResponder, when troubleshooting any service, one should always look at logs. Log events are logged to the standard syslog facility and so are available via Console. These are locate at /var/log/system.log. Searching for mDNSResponder errors in system.log can also be done from the command line using: cat /var/log/system.log | grep mDNSResponder Or interactively so…

  • Mac OS X,  Mass Deployment

    LoginHook Bonjour

    Want users to be able to use Bonjour at home without having their systems registering with Bonjour when they’re on your network? Many environments have taken to wholesale disabling Bonjour. This can be done by augmenting the LaunchDaemon that invokes Bonjour, com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist that is located at /System/Library/LaunchDaemons. You add a -NoMulticastAdvertisements to the ProgramArguments array. This can be done with the defaults command as so: defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder ProgramArguments -array-add “-NoMulticastAdvertisements” This can then be undone by writing the contents you want back into the array without the -NoMulticastAdvertisements: defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder ProgramArguments -array /usr/sbin/mDNSResponder -launchd This is somewhat well documented, initially appearing as an Apple kbase article. However, we…