Using Bonjour from a Windows command line to discover services

If you are running the Network IPS appliance on Windows, you can use Bonjour to browse for services that are being broadcast on the local network.

DNS Service Discovery (DNS-SD) protocol

The DNS Service Discovery (DNS-SD) protocol identifies and discovers devices on the network that are enabled with the zero configuration standard. DNS-SD uses multicast DNS (mDNS). mDNS sends packets to every node on the network to resolve duplicate host names and to query the network for services.

From a Windows command line, you can use the dns-sd command to browse for services that are being broadcast on the local network by mDNSResponder (a Bonjour system service that uses Multicast DNS Service Discovery for discovery of services on the local network).

Link-local address space

The range for the link-local address space is reserved from 169.254.0.0 - 169.254.255.255. However, 69.254.0.1 - 169.254.0.255 and 169.254.255.0 - 169.254.255.255 are reserved for future use.

DNS queries that end in .local are sent to the address 224.0.0.251 (for IPv6: FF02::FB / FF02:0:0:0:0:0:0:FB) which is reserved for mDNS. Any packets that are sent to these addresses are not forwarded beyond the local link or forwarded to the local link from outside the network. Any link-local multicast packet that is sent remains on the local link. Any link-local multicast packets that are received must originate from the local link.

Using the DNS-SD protocol to browse for services

Type dns-sd -B _ssh._tcp at the command line. All SSH services are broadcasted on the network.

Looking up the host name of a service

Type dns-sd -L "<instance_name>" _ssh._tcp at the command line, where "<instance name>" is the name that is returned by the Browse command.

Example: IBM Security Network IPS GX4002-SSH [30603041A0255]

Important: Make sure you use quotation marks around the instance name.

Example: Using SSH where the .local host name is returned by the Lookup command: ssh root@unconfigured-gx4002-30603041A0255.local

Browsing for a web service instead of an SSH service

Type dns-sd -B _http._tcp, and then type dns-sd -L "<instance_name>" _http._tcp.
In the Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Location bar, type https://<hostname>.local/.
Example: https://unconfigured-gx4002-30603041A0255.local/