[plug] Semi OT - OS X "Network Discovery" and SLP

[Michael Hunt]

On Wed, 2006-11-08 at 20:31 +0800, Timothy White wrote:

> Ok, I have a little problem. I'm building a "NAS" box (Network Area
> Storage) that is designed to automate backups on a network. The target
> network is obviously small home networks, unix based of course :p
> 
> I'm specifically setting it up for a OS X based home network, with 1/2
> the computers running off an airport express basestation.
> 
> The issue I'm trying to work out (while still building the prototype,
> rather than getting there and hitting this issue I obviously don't
> have here), his how to "address" the other machines. It appears they
> get their IP address via DHCP from the airport, but from what I've
> read, this doesn't give the same IP to the same computer ever time. 

Check out bonjour :-

  http://developer.apple.com/networking/bonjour/faq.html 

which is the automatic discovery service built into OS X. There are alos
windows and linux clients available.

Michael Hunt