So I recently got pisession kf a nas with OMV on it. That has a webinterface that I can reach from my laptoo via “openmediavault.local”. But I never defined anywhere that that adress leads to the IP of my server. Better still, if I restart my server an DHCP gives it a new IP, “openemdiavault.local” still works.
How does that work? And can I make an andress like “radar.local” that automatically points to my radarr webinterface no matter hwat it’s IP is?
Your open media vault claims a name and your router makes it available by its name dot local.
Other services will get the same treatment if they use a name. On my network about a third use a name.
This thread has pointed me to multicast dns, I assume that’s what you mean. Do you know of an easy way to have your service claim such a name?
It’s just regular LAN DNS behind a masquerading router. Inside your network services can get names in a few ways
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A hosts file mapping IP address to a name placed on any machine that wants to use names. Downsides: not automatic, hard to update in a dynamic DNS environment. Works fine if you assign every service a static address (my printer always gets 192.168.1.5, for example — configured in the router(
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Have the service respond to a DNS offer with “thanks, my name is fileserver” and the router can resolve fileserver.local to 192.168.0.203
I use host files and my addresses below 192.168.1.100 are reserved for static addresses and my half dozen things I want to address by name get one of those addresses
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I assume that your browser computer is set up to use mDNS, and that’s how it’s resolving it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multicast_DNS
Multicast DNS (mDNS) is a computer networking protocol that resolves hostnames to IP addresses within small networks that do not include a local name server. It is a zero-configuration service, using essentially the same programming interfaces, packet formats and operating semantics as unicast Domain Name System (DNS). It was designed to work as either a stand-alone protocol or compatible with standard DNS servers.[1]
mDNS uses IP multicast and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets and is implemented by Apple, Microsoft and most Linux distributions.
mDNS can work in conjunction with DNS Service Discovery (DNS-SD), a companion zero-configuration networking technique specified separately in RFC 6763.[2]
By default, mDNS exclusively resolves hostnames ending with the .local top-level domain.
Your browser tries to resolve it, browser computer sends out a multicast query to the local network, target “openmediavault” machine responds.
