[SIZE=5][B]Avahi[/B][/SIZE]
What is Avahi - it's multicast DNS and service discovery - while invented by Apple, it's been adopted across multiple platforms - hint, if you're on Windows - install iTunes, and you can play along as well. iTunes for Windows includes a full mDNS stack - Win10 has a partial implementation, but is sort of broken, so again install iTunes - Macs all have it, Androids use it, and many printers and set-top boxes also take advantage of it.
Few people know how much useful avahi could be. You can forget to run ifconfig on the target machines/devices to know the IP, you don’t need a static IP anymore for those…
Installing avahi is quite simple - the client on Ubuntu Desktop is usually installed, but for our small server, we need to install the avahi-daemon and avahi-utils packages.
sudo apt install avahi-daemon avahi-utils
After that you can reach that machine over the net using its new domain name.
ping testbox.local
One can also do network discovery - might be surprised at how many devices support zerocong/msDNS
test@testbox:~$ avahi-browse -at
You might also consider running avahi-browse-domain utility:
test@testbox:~$ avahi-browse-domains -at
Avahi is useful enough that this series is dependent upon it for many of the examples and configurations - so it is a pre-requistie item.
[I]Editors note - Avahi, like NetworkManger, systemd, and LVM - these are newer technologies that actually make life easier for Linux users - both in the server as well as desktop environments - change is inevitable… this series will meet them head-on and make use of them - there are many benefits for the SmallNetwork SNB Basics admin and their users[/I]