[ale] in house instant message solution

[Michael B. Trausch]

On 03/11/2010 02:30 PM, Chuck Payne wrote:
> Wouldn't Bonjour pick up devices like NAS'es, Printers and other
> devices as well. I have set up Bonjour as a server, but I know on
> Safari if you click on Bonjour button anything and everything that has
> show up.

Your confusion is pretty normal; the name is overloaded.

Apple calls everything that uses zeroconf "Bonjour".  That is, the name 
of the software is Bonjour, and Bonjour their name for zeroconf, and 
Bonjour is also the name of the IM protocol.

Zero configuration networking ("zeroconf") allows one to setup a network 
that can do things like advertise services and so forth.  You can use a 
zeroconf browser to find all zeroconf advertised services and systems on 
the network.

An instant messenger program, however, will only show other IM clients 
that are on the same zeroconf-enabled network.  For example, if I am 
running an IM client that supports the Bonjour IM protocol, and someone 
else is running the same thing on the local network, we can talk to each 
other.  But my advertised SSH services and so forth will not show up in 
the roster.  There are tools that will show you those sorts of things, 
however.

	--- Mike

-- 
Michael B. Trausch                                    ☎ (404) 492-6475