Cannot browse multiple services on Bonjour domain

0) Wide-area Bonjour uses DNS Update Leases to remove services in the event of a client disconnecting prior to being able to remove them itself. Using Update Leases the records still hang around for the length of the lease before being removed but that's still quite an improvement over having services dangle forever. Unfortunately DynDNS doesn't support this DNS extension.

1) The PTR records are used to find the services available for a given service type. Doing a PTR lookup for http://_afpovertcp._tcp.mydomain.com should return a list like http://service1._afpovertcp._tcp.mydomain.com, service2._afpovertcp._tcp.mydomain, etc. The information stored in the SRV and TXT records found at http://service1._afpovertcp._tcp.mydomain.com are then used to actually connect to the service.

If your services are uniquely named this won't pose a problem, however if your services all have the same name they will clobber each other (last update wins) as Wide-Area Bonjour doesn't currently detect and automatically rename services the way regular Bonjour does.

2) It's up to each piece of software as to whether a service gets registered in all available domains or just the local one. iTunes for instance only registers in the .local domain.

Finding the services available in a domain is called a meta-query and is done using a PTR lookup for http://_services._dns-sd._udp.mydomain.com which should return a list like http://_ssh._tcp.mydomain.com, http://_http._tcp.mydomain.com, etc. This list is not updated by WAB clients so you'll need to add the records manually to get discovery-software that relies on meta-queries to work.

3) This was raised in another question here. In so far as I'm aware duplicate records (that is records that are identical when comparing their names case-insensitively and excluding their TTLs) shouldn't be created via a DNS Update request. The person who raised this here was advised otherwise by Dyn support. This behaviour shouldn't cause any problems for WAB clients.

Going back to the main issue — the clash with the http://_afpovertcp._tcp.mydomain.com services — are the devices all explicitly configured with different names?

I'm going to check and see if it possible to do what you are interested in (point 1). I will let you know when I have more information.

Update, as promised:

I received the following email from support on the 14th November:

it will be worked on, but we have no ETA at this time. I have escalated this to management to look into for you though.

For reference, the case / ticket number is #1359550.

So, I guess the question will have to remain unanswered for the time being. If (hopefully when, but it's been a while, and it appears DynDNS see Bonjour only as a hobby) I get a response from DynDNS and / or get it fully working, I will let you know.

Once again, it will work as long as you only register ONE service instance per service… but that flies against all about Bonjour… I mean even a small office can have more than one printer or one file share!!!!

Hello Nic,

Do you have any follow-up info on the problem you're having (point 1)? I'm seeing exactly the same issue and have yet to find a way to sort this out :-(

I am writing a response to Andrew's answer here, as there are not enough characters in a comment (sorry if I am too verbose, but I just want to be clear).

Firstly, thank for your a complete and fast response… it is much appreciated.

• Point 2 in your answer is fully answered and it works perfectly. I created a http://_services._dns-sd._udp.mydomain.com record for each service I wanted to browse and it works with my iPhone apps (although not with BB on the Mac, but that may be due to it using the Mac's own Bonjour services). Thanks.

• Point 0 is disappointing. Are you saying that a PTR record created by my router will NEVER get deleted if the router is just switched off? I guess if DynDNS don't do leasing on router-created records, then that must be the case.

• Point 1 (the main point): I'm not sure if I fully understand. Am I right in saying I should have multiple PTR records starting with http://_afpovertcp._tcp.mydomain.com and with the values being exactly as you describe above (service1._afpovertcp._tcp.mydomain.com, http://service2._afpovertcp._tcp.mydomain.com, etc)?

  Because that is my problem… I don't get this. It seems that whichever device last sent an update is there (more often than not my macbook, since I often open and close it). But no other records. Just one! (But note, I do get the pairs of SVR 7 TXT records accurately. And if my IP address changes that is also updated correctly).

  Before I wrote the original question, I tried to create additional records manually, but they just seemed to overwrite (and then would eventually get overwritten by the router or mac anyway). Today, I did manage to create four records, but they didn't seem to show up in a client and within 3-4 minutes they had disappeared again, leaving only the original record. I also used 4500 second TTL, so not related to that.

  This seems to defeat the whole object, and if I understand Andrew's reply correctly, is a fault / bug at DynDNS?

• Point 3: I agree this doesn't cause any real issues for me or any clients I use, but it just looks so strange when I get a long long list on the screen… and even more annoying if there are records I need to check / read after them (although after my first day, they seem to stay at the end of the list now). But it MUST SURELY BE A DynDNS bug / fault?

Once again, thanks for your response. I have written to DynDNS support asking them to look at this question. I also noted one other user who claims as recently as the 4th of this month that everything seems to work perfectly for him with an airport extreme (which, if one only has ONE printer and ONE share disk or ONE shared screen, would work for me too)!

I will keep the community updated on my progress in getting this to work. Nic.