What is Rendezvous??
- Thread starter MacFreak
- Start date
rharder
Do not read this sign.
I don't find that explanation terribly useful.
Don't know how familiar you are with IP addresses, but basically any computer or device that wants to play on the internet (or most local networks) needs to have an IP established for it. An IP address is something like 66.30.34.129.
The tricky part is that first moment when you plug in a new device or connect two computers: neither one necessarily has an IP already set up. Things like having a DHCP server on the network help, but not everyone in little home and office networks have that.
When a Rendezvous (I think the "standard" is called ZeroConf or something) computer is plugged into a network it communicates in a non-IP way with other computers to see what IP it should give itself. Kinda like showing up to a secret meeting and say "Psss...what should I write on my nametag?"
Hmmm...I wonder if I totally botched that explanation. No, I think it's alright. If you come from the days of Yore, you might remember plugging in those LocalTalk boxes into the Printer Ports and how magically the Macs knew about each other. That's the purpose of Rendezvous: to allow that magic identification in an IP world.
-Rob
Don't know how familiar you are with IP addresses, but basically any computer or device that wants to play on the internet (or most local networks) needs to have an IP established for it. An IP address is something like 66.30.34.129.
The tricky part is that first moment when you plug in a new device or connect two computers: neither one necessarily has an IP already set up. Things like having a DHCP server on the network help, but not everyone in little home and office networks have that.
When a Rendezvous (I think the "standard" is called ZeroConf or something) computer is plugged into a network it communicates in a non-IP way with other computers to see what IP it should give itself. Kinda like showing up to a secret meeting and say "Psss...what should I write on my nametag?"
Hmmm...I wonder if I totally botched that explanation. No, I think it's alright. If you come from the days of Yore, you might remember plugging in those LocalTalk boxes into the Printer Ports and how magically the Macs knew about each other. That's the purpose of Rendezvous: to allow that magic identification in an IP world.
-Rob
kenny
Registered
That's not exactly right. zeroconf/Rendezvous is very IP-dependent. It's really additional protocols that allow for a non-central way of discovering machines and services. This is done largely using multicast, which is, itself, IP dependent. It's important that it be IP, so that it can coexist in existing networks without causing problems for the existing networks. Anyone remember Appletalk (not over IP) on Ethernet? It was very ill-behaved, and I don't know of a single net admin (myself included) that misses it.
In a way, zeroconf is a lot like doing Bluetooth-style device/service discovery over TCP/IP. Very very good stuff.
An interesting note on the zeroconf site is that "It is important to understand that the purpose of Zeroconf is not solely to make current personal computer networking easier to use, though this is certainly a useful benefit. The long-term goal of Zeroconf is to enable the creation of entirely new kinds of networked products, products that today would simply not be commercially viable because of the inconvenience and support costs involved in setting up, configuring, and maintaining a network to allow them to operate."
Apple states on their website that rendevous can be used by two airport equipped powerbooks can communicate and share files without the use of a base station. How does this work? I can't figure it out. Here's the quote.
"The network could be as simple as two AirPort-equipped PowerBook users sitting in a hotel meeting room miles from the nearest AirPort base station with some large files they need to share."
Can someone please explain this?
Thanks!
"The network could be as simple as two AirPort-equipped PowerBook users sitting in a hotel meeting room miles from the nearest AirPort base station with some large files they need to share."
Can someone please explain this?
Thanks!
kenny
Registered
The default config for airport on an ibook is to "join the last network" and to "allow this computer to create networks" and to attempt to configure using DHCP.
From this starting point, the sequence would be something like:
1. DCHP will fail to locate a DHCP server, so they will each assign themselves an address in the 169.254.x.x/16 range, putting them on the same IP network. This has been happening since MacOS 8.5, so it's not new.
2. One (or both?) of them would need to choose the other's Airport network. I've not played with Ad-hoc wireless on Macosx, so I'm unclear on exactly what's required here.
3. One or the other of the users can then connect to a shared volume using "afp://server.local" where "server" is the rendezvous name configured in sharing. This works using multicast dns.
There is also great potential for more than simply mounting volumes. Apple has already announced that iTunes 4 will be able to discover other iTunes libraries over Rendezvous, and Safari can discover webservers that respond to service discovery.
For itunes, we'll just have to wait, but you can get the built-in Apache server on MacOSX to show up by adding an Apache module from Eric Seidel's site. Works really well, but is only (currently) for MacOSX (10.2.3) webservers.
Again, http://www.zeroconf.org has a weath of information about all this...
Hope this helps..
From this starting point, the sequence would be something like:
1. DCHP will fail to locate a DHCP server, so they will each assign themselves an address in the 169.254.x.x/16 range, putting them on the same IP network. This has been happening since MacOS 8.5, so it's not new.
2. One (or both?) of them would need to choose the other's Airport network. I've not played with Ad-hoc wireless on Macosx, so I'm unclear on exactly what's required here.
3. One or the other of the users can then connect to a shared volume using "afp://server.local" where "server" is the rendezvous name configured in sharing. This works using multicast dns.
There is also great potential for more than simply mounting volumes. Apple has already announced that iTunes 4 will be able to discover other iTunes libraries over Rendezvous, and Safari can discover webservers that respond to service discovery.
For itunes, we'll just have to wait, but you can get the built-in Apache server on MacOSX to show up by adding an Apache module from Eric Seidel's site. Works really well, but is only (currently) for MacOSX (10.2.3) webservers.
Again, http://www.zeroconf.org has a weath of information about all this...
Hope this helps..
Getting two Powerbooks on the same ad hoc network goes like this:
1. One person has to agree to host the network. That's done from the Airport menu item "Create Network..."
2. After that's done, anyone else can simply join the network. Usually, airport will join the network with the strongest signal, but you can tell it to join a specific network, if necessary, by simply selecting the network you want from the airport menu. All IP addresses are automatically assigned.
Once you are on the network, Rendezvous allows automatic discovery of services. So if you both open iChat, you'll automatically see each other and be able to chat.
If you want to share files, choose "Connect to Server..." from the Finder's Go menu, and you'll see the other machine (if it's set up to provide file sharing services.)
If the other machine is running a web server, Safari will, in the future, automatically see that web server and display it in the list of Rendezvous bookmarks.
If the other network has a printer, Print Center will automatically see the printer and make it available.
Chris
1. One person has to agree to host the network. That's done from the Airport menu item "Create Network..."
2. After that's done, anyone else can simply join the network. Usually, airport will join the network with the strongest signal, but you can tell it to join a specific network, if necessary, by simply selecting the network you want from the airport menu. All IP addresses are automatically assigned.
Once you are on the network, Rendezvous allows automatic discovery of services. So if you both open iChat, you'll automatically see each other and be able to chat.
If you want to share files, choose "Connect to Server..." from the Finder's Go menu, and you'll see the other machine (if it's set up to provide file sharing services.)
If the other machine is running a web server, Safari will, in the future, automatically see that web server and display it in the list of Rendezvous bookmarks.
If the other network has a printer, Print Center will automatically see the printer and make it available.
Chris