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[bripab007]

So, last night, I decided to upgrade from FW 1.06 to the FW 1.08b5 for a few reasons, one of which was the Bonjour support, which I figured would improve my life as an OS X user.

Unfortunately, it doesn't really appear to do much.  It does change the way Finder sees the DNS-323; it shows up as a Mac server instead of a Windows server.  That said, it still appears to connect via SMB when mounted, and it still doesn't show up as an available destination for Time Machine backups.

I guess I assumed that the Bonjour add-on would allow OS X to connect via AFP, which might actually provide some benefits, although, I admit I'm not too familiar even with AFP, so this theory might be misguided.

[ttmcmurry]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDNS

It's basically a form of multicast DNS where a client device (your mac) can easily discover a host device that offers a service (the dns-323).

In the Windows world, they call it SSDP.  They're basically same shade of grey with subtle differences.

The DNS-323 doesn't support AFP.  It is a Linux server that runs SAMBA.  SAMBA creates a Windows Network Share that your Mac is able to see and use.

[bripab007]

Well, if it's merely Apple's zeroconf service, nothing more, then there's not really much benefit for OS X users to run just the Bonjour add-on, as OS X already auto-finds/displays in Finder network SMB shares/Windows servers.

Well, that's pretty disappointing 

[thebeck]

Interestingly, Mac OS X 'initially does find' the smb shares, but after a while looses them without the bonjour add-on; hence the need for the bonjour add-on.

Check out this post for some of my research:  http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=6405.0

[bripab007]

Interesting thread.  I have very little experience with Bonjour and OS X, so I don't really know what behavior to expect.

For the past year or so, I've been using the DNS-323 (most of that time on FW 1.05 and 1.06, only last night did I move to 1.08b5) for quite a while now, on OS X, and I've been using it, obviously, via SMB shares.  In fact, I have my entire iTunes library on one of the shares, and, as long as the SMB share is mounted, it works great.  To help ensure this, I have a simple script that runs at login that mounts the two main Volume_1 and Volume_2 shares on the DNS-323.

Now, when you say that after a while, OS X loses the SMB shares, how often would you say? I actually reported this problem a long time ago to Apple and scoured the net for a while, but Finder, at least in Tiger and Leopard, seems to lose track of SMB shares on Windows- and Linux-based machines, despite the fact Finder auto "finds" them.  In my experience, this seemed to be related to how often the OS X machine in question went into sleep/hibernate mode, as I noticed it would happen more often on my wife's Macbook laptop than on my own Mac Mini.

So, what, specifically, has been your experience with this latest beta FW from D-Link and the Bonjour add-on?  I played with the add-on for just a moment last night, and saw that it seemed like you could still either mount the DNS-323 shares as straight-up SMB (would mount in Finder as Volumes\Volume_1 and \Volumes\Volume_2) or as SMB with a Bonjour twist (would mount in Finder as Volumes\Volume_1\dns323.tcp.local\ or something along those lines).

So, if you decided to keep Bonjour add-on running, did you start to mount shares using Bonjour or did you just continue to use the "normal" SMB mounting method in Finder and you're just saying that with the Bonjour service running, it appeared to not lose track of those "normal" SMB share mounts?

Secondly, if I decided to start mounting via Bonjour with that different mount name (the xyz.tcp.local string), would I have to reference that in a program that used the share name, such as my iTunes library location or my PsyncX backup program?

If so, do you think there's any benefit to doing so?

[thebeck]

Great questions...

As I understand, mDNS (ie. multicast DNS -- aka Bonjour) is essentially an IP and port-level DNS mechanism for local networks (without the need of a dedicated DNS server for the local network).  This allows for the discovery of various services (ie. Computer A can discover what services are running on the local network -- e.g. Computer B running an SMB share on port 445).

One difference, however, between your implementation and mine is that you are auto-mounting the SMB volumes at login and I am not.  During login/boot, there is a ton of multicast traffic broadcasted to the local network.  Some of this is native Windows discovery traffic (ie. WINS).  Some of this is mDNS traffic.  The net-net is that at login/boot, your Mac is able to 'discover' the DNS-323 and then mount it (which means it resolved the hostname to an IP address so that it shows up in /Volumes on your Mac).

In my situation, I am not auto-mounting the DNS-323.  The main reason is because I don't want the DNS-323's disks to always be spinning (due to the Mac keeping the mount alive) so that I can save on electricity.  So instead, the DNS-323 is mounted when it is needed (e.g., when Time Machine does a backup, it mounts the sparsebundle and then disconnects when the backup is done).

So, in my case, after a while, the Mac can no longer 'see' the DNS-323 because either the DNS-323 stops broadcasting itself or my Mac stops listening for certain broadcasts.  The Bonjour add-on at least allows for my Mac to "almost always" see (I say almost because there is an issue when the Mac comes out of sleep) the DNS-323 so that processes like Time Machine can function correctly.

In regards to the 1.08b bonjour add-on (not 1.08b5), there are some mistakes in the scripts used to configure and invoke mDNS service on the DNS-323.  My other post (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=6405.0) attempts to resolve these particular issues.  I have not confirmed if D-Link has incorporated my changes into the latest add-on (for 1.08b5).

Behind scenes, there's some multicast traffic that is sent and received in order to facilitate this discovery.  I am sure there's a bunch of posts on the net if you want to learn how a particular program can announce itself and find other services.  Remember that once a given service has been acquired (ie. mounted or connected), the communication is IP-based.  In other words, we only need the mDNS part in order to a) discovery services, and b) resolved hostnames to IP addresses.

In regards to iTunes discovery, I am not knowledgeable enough to know how iTunes broadcasts itself and discovers other iTunes servers.

[dt]

If you want to use the NAS as a destination for Time Machine, here is the definitive guide.
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080420211034137
I have used this successfully both with smb in earlier fw versions and also with bonjour in 1.08beta.  It never mattered to me that it was an smb share; when TM starts it mounts the sparsebundle and starts doing its thing, disconnecting when it was done.  I put them (multiple macs back up to the same DNS) in a subdirectory of /Volume_1 and identified that as a new share.

[bripab007]

Thanks for the info, DT.

When you say you've successfully used Time Machine with SMB and also with Bonjour in the latest beta, what do you mean, exactly?

In the older FW versions, you would create the sparse bundle, dump it on a share on the DNS-323, navigate to the DNS-323 "PC Server" via Finder in OS X, clicking through to that share, thereby mounting it via SMB as smb://dns323/Volume_1, then opening Time Machine and it would find the NAS and its bundle?

And using Bonjour more recently, was it simply the same process, only with the Bonjour add-on installed on the DNS-323, it's seen as a "Mac Server" in Finder, and clicking on the shares mounts them via SMB as smb://dns323._smb._tcp.loal/Volume_1 ?

Sorry, I guess I'm wondering if/how Finder interprets the two SMB mountings, if it sees either one as different than the other (besides it showing a different icon in Finder for PC Server vs. Mac Server).

[ahchung]

I'm sure backing up to a SMB shared point would work if we force the system to do so.
(By issuing this command:
defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1)

But what about restoring the entire system from Time Machine using the OSX DVD?

Would the SMB shared point be visible to the system if it's booted from the DVD? 
I doubt it because the SMB function is not even loaded yet at that point.

I would stick to AFP for Time Machine backup.

[dtidmore]

While I am new to this forum, I have been using my DNS323 with my MAC for 3 years.  Bonjour is just a nice touch that was always achievable with extensions via fun_plug.  Time Capsule-like capability is another matter altogether different.  Time machine backups REQUIRE the latest version of AFP capability to ensure backup integrity to network drives.  Apple has published in detail what is required to run TM to networked drives.  Running TM via smb is asking for data corruption that will not necessarily surface until a restore is attempted not mention that you CAN'T restore from the OS-X install DVD without AFP running on the networked TM drive.  The present fun_plug achievable APF (netatalk 2.0.4-1) still lacks two recent additions to APF (TM lock stealing and Server Reply Cache) but the beta version is fully compliant with the latest Apple AFP spec.  Getting AFP up and running on the DNS323 is not rocket science but it is not child's play either.  The information is spread all over the DNS323 wiki site and requires extreme attention to detail to get working properly.  I am running the DNS323 on 1.0.7 firmware and my MAC is on SL 10.6.1 and TM is working very well.  I keep a recent backup of my entire MAC made with SuperDuper to a separate drive as I know that my TM backup to the DNS323 could corrupt at any time.

David

david