Zero Configuration Networking: The Definitive Guide

First of all, this book wasn't what I expected. I was anticipating a UNIX-like book about how to use common servers to automate network and computer configurations. I guess I should have read the book description better. Instead, it is very Mac-centric and covers service discovery, automatic configuration, and Apple's zeroconf software currently known as Bonjour.After discovering early on that this was not the book I was looking for, I still decided to read it cover to cover. It is actually ok, but I see lots of arguments against zeroconf. First of all, security. I would not recommend attaching a zeroconf network directly to the Internet. There are too many opportunities for the bad guy to exploit your network when things just automagically configure themselves. That's why UPnP just kind of died. Sure, this stuff is useful for secure isolated networks, but those are becoming a rarity. Security is addressed very briefly and the authors don't make a very strong argument.Second, zeroconf is to make our lives easier by not having to run service oriented servers, like DNS and DHCP, however, this book tells you how to setup and use DNS to make zeroconf work better; very contradicting.I would recommend this book to a Mac application developer who is building an app that needs to take advantage of service discovery and automatic configuration. There is tons of good API code snippets, explanations, and examples. However, if you are a regular Mac/UNIX/Windows user who just wants your computer to automatically detect your network printers, scanners, cameras, etc., you can skip this book and find all the documentation you need online. I would suggest starting at Wikipedia.

As a developer, I already have a good idea of the basics of MDNS/Bonjour. I purchased this book hoping to learn how to use C APIs and the code you can download from Apple to implement your own MDNS service or browser. Unfortunately, the book only covers the basics for an individual trying to understand the technologies. The sections covering the C APIs are woefully inadequate. The C API section starts with an brief explanation for initialization, but does not show how to do initialization. It immediately starts talking about using a DNSServiceRef but does not explain where that DNSServiceRef comes from. The code that is provided is dispersed amount multiple pages, and a complete basic program is not provided. Maybe the book was written before the Apple code was mature. Bottom line is, if you are a developer you're going to have to read the and understand the Apple code (that you can download), and that code is rather complex. If you are a beginner just wanting to learn the basics of this technology, then I guess this book is for you. Of course, this is the only book there is on this subject that I know of.

Easy to ready book that describes the concepts and ideas behind zero configuration networking. This book helped me understand at a deeper level zero config and bonjour.

It covers all the concepts behind zeroconf and it's small enough you can read it in a few hours. If you're looking to get started using DNS-SD / MDNS this is the book for you. The first half covers the theory, the second half is code samples.

I needed to design a simple network protocol for custom embedded devices with features similar to Zeroconf.I spent quite some time gathering bits and pieces about it on the web before giving up and buying this book. It's comprehensive. It explains different Zeroconf design choices and pitfalls, which was important to me.

Clean and straight forward writing.

'Zero Configuration Networking: The Definitive Guide' by Daniel Steinberg is a great network resource book for any and all administrators, developers, and/or tinkerers!! Packed to the brim with networking goodness, this is a wonderful book for anyone that wants to learn to network things smarter, better, and faster than ever before!! Written in classic O'Reilly fashion with ~220 pages of solid content, this is a nice buy for all interested parties :^)***** RECOMMENDED

trying to implement zeroconf on a deeply embedded client, a lot of things became clear after reading this book. It's written in a very readable style which is accessible by the beginner without being patronising to the more experienced.

Nice book, but mainly focused on programmers with basic network knowledge.For a network engineer first part of this book i s a bit easy with lot of unnecessary details describing something obvious, while 2nd (describing libraries) could be more detailed.But I can imagine, for those who are writing code every day it can be other way around.