If you have used an Apple product since 2002 you have participated in Apple's Bonjour Network. Apple, being Apple, wanted to magically connect their devices. They didn’t want users entering ugly IP addresses or having to set up a directory of devices, that would be messy!
They didn’t even want us to be able to mess things up so they hid this magic behind a name 'Rendezvous' which was introduced in 2002 with Mac OS X v10.2.
The software was renamed in 2005 to 'Bonjour' following an out-of-court trademark dispute settlement
So What IS Bonjour?
Well, it is really two protocols, mDNS or multicast domain name system and DNS-SD or Domain Name System Service Discovery. Apple uses these two standard protocols to discover and advertise their services, like AppleTV or iTunes libraries, SSH, SAMBA, wireless routers etc.
"Bonjour, also known as zero-configuration networking, enables automatic discovery of computers, devices, and services on IP networks. Bonjour uses industry standard IP protocols to allow devices to automatically discover each other without the need to enter IP addresses or configure DNS servers.”
The PDF below I explain what is Bonjour, what is discovering a service, what is multicast.
To download the Bonjour PDF
Click on the image below, it will open in a new window in Safari.
Go to File > ‘Save As’ and download the PDF to your desktop.
