bonjour (mdns) only works on wi-fi

Just to be sure, do you nave a separate router vs WiFi device? Or maybe an ethernet switch in the mix.

Bonjour will not cross a router boundary. If you have an ISP provided router and a separate WiFi router, then you would have 2 subnets with a router between them, that would block both subnets from seeing the bonjour traffic of the other.

An ethernet switch placed in front of a WiFi router (directly attached to the Broadband modem) would also be on the wrong side of the router (this configuration can also be a problem in that ISP do not like giving out more than 1 IP address per customer, so I suspect this is not your problem, but I had to mention it just in case).

You could try running "Bonjour Browser" to see what bonjour traffic is happening on your subnet.

<http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/13388/bonjour-browser>

You could also run WakeOnLan to see what IP addresses each system can see, and you can cross check to see if they are seeing each other.

<http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/13388/bonjour-browser>

Both of these tools should help you identify if you have a single subnet or multiple subnets.

If you could provide informaiton about what network equipment you are using, and how each component is wired to the next including the Personal computers, network printers, network attached storage, etc... that might help identify what the problem is.

WakeOnLan is also useful, as it is looking for IP and MAC addresses that respond. I'm wondering if anything else is seen. NOTE: While WakeOnLan's goal is to send wake up packets, the IP and MAC address display all by itself is great without trying to use the wake up features. So please do not dismiss WakeOnLan because you are not interested in waking anything up 🙂

At the moment the router is suspect for not passing Bonjour between ethernet and WiFi. Then again, it is possible that there is an issue with the etherent configuration on the Mac.

I do know that my Macs Bonjour just fine over ethernet or WiFi. I ethernet my Macbook Pro at work, and WiFi at home. No problem with Bonjour, so the theory says it will work. The problem is what is happening in practice?

From your Linux system you might try

arp -a

and see what it gives you. At work, I have 3 systems on my office ethernet switch, Linux box, iMac, and my Macbook Pro. arp -a shows all 3, giving me their MAC addresses. arp -a from my iMac gives a lot more (other systems on the same subnet in the office), and arp -a from my Macbook Pro showed even more than that (again other systems on the office subnet). The point being arp -a is a command I know for Linux that might tell you something about what it sees on the local subnet. Getting an opinion beside the Mac's.

Can the Mac see the Linux box, and can the Linux box see the Mac? For example can you ssh between them (assuming you have ssh (remote login) enabled on the Mac and Linux boxes).

HI,

A thought.

You say you have the iMac on a Static IP.

To which interface ? Wifi or Ethernet.

Whilst in theory you should be able to turn Off Wifi and enable Ethernet the router is probably still keeping that IP for the Wifi MAC Address.

You cannot set the Mac to be IP 192.168.0.200 on both WiFi and Ethernet if you happen to be connecting both at the same time.

9:21 PM Monday; June 10, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

While every router is created differently, I have assigned Macs the same IP address to both the WiFi and Ethernet interfaces (Apple Airport Extreme routers, from the flying saucer days till today). I've used this configuration to start huge network file transfers on WiFi, plug in etherent and the transfer switches to the ethernet interface running faster to completion. For fun, I've plugged, unplugged ethernet during such network file transfers and the Macs at both ends and the Airport Extreme routers have not complained a bit.

Still Ralph, you have a very good suggestion for redtomato to try, as I have no idea how Fritz!box is going to behave.

Hi Bob,

I used to have a Thomson-Alcatel modem and a Linksys router and I am sure at one point I did the same as you and had the Same IP allocated to both interfaces.

Later I had a Netgear router/Modem combined and this would throw one interface off line when trying to use the same IP.

Since then I have had two Sky boxes (ISP branded software on a Sagem Fast 2504 and now a "Sky Hub")

AS I had had difficulty before I have not assigned the same IP since.

As the Linksys was fairly easy to set up for a reduced DHCP range but later devices have not I have tended to drift back to using DHCP to cope with 4 iPhones that are here most days and two visiting ones.

As I said it was just a thought.

Mostly as iChat can be very fussy about Peer to Peer contact even in Text chats.

10:27 PM Monday; June 10, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

My Bad! I thought I had given a WakeOnLan link, but alas all I did above was post the Bonjour Browser line twice 🙂

WakeOnLan gives local network IP and MAC addresses

<http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15779/wakeonlan>

Good idea, experimenting with DHCP.

You could try power cycling the Firtz!box (assuming it does not want to allow you to remove the Mac WiFi entry).

Continue to try shaking things up just to see if anything changes, and see if that change makes sense.

Unlikely to be useful suggestions:

• Try different ethernet cable
• Try different ethernet port on Firtz!box

I do not think they will change anything, but they are easy to do, and every once in awhile it is a hardware problem 🙂

Maybe Ralph will have some additonal advice, as mostly I'm just suggesting things to see what is happening, and ideas to shake things up to see if something changes.

I must have caught your post before you found your cache issue and edited your post.

By the way, I couldn't help noticing that even when a network profile is "inactive" in Network Prefrences, ifconfig still show the interface and the IP address associated with it. That I'm not really sure how it is possible because it should generate IP addresses conflicts. Maybe Mac OS X just filters packets at some levels when an interface is "inactive". Would be interesting to know...

With respect to multiple interfaces, there is a priority order to the interfaces, and the "default" route is always the highest in the ordered list interface that is active is where out-bound traffic is sent, unless you have a 'route' command specified for specific IP address ranges.

netstat -r

By default the faster interfaces are higher in the ordered list, so when they are active, the default route goes to those interfaces, which is why I was able to switch between WiFi and ethernet and back again, by plugging my Mac into an ethernet port (again, I was using Apple Airport Extreme routers, and other routers may behave differently).

To clarify.

My Current Sky Hub list the Connected Devices by name (in some cases) and by MAC Address listed against the IP that are using.

The Unknowns consist of a Blu-ray player in my son's room, and X-box 360 sat next to that.

A plain Sky box, my son's iPad for some unknown reason and the last in the list in my MacBook Pro.

there is a possibility that the X-Box is not on Line and my son's MacBook Pro is one of the Unknows.

(i.e. I have no interlopers)

That said, the point is this device recognises things by the MAC Address rather than any Name listed anywhere and links that to An IP.

There is no way in this table to link two Interface MAC Addresses to one IP.

What the DHCP Server enablement page does not tell me (nor does the Help listed alongside), is the length of the lease on this device.

Bonjour works on the basis that the computer has a individual computer name that is different on the LAN to the other items.

I have never experimented as to whether this also tends to be MAC Address led or not.

in iChat and Messages the Buddy lists are populated by the app "Broadcasting" the Name in the My Card from the Address Book /Contacts app to the other computers.

So... it could fail because it is trying to see two "redtomato"s as the computer name.

Messages will cope with two computers having a User/Address Card with the same name.

My G4 Mac's My Card lists itself as RalphG4 and shows up on the MacBook Pro and iMac as such

However I have yet to be as clever with the MacBook Pro's My Card or the iMac's so my Bonjour Buddy list on the G4 will list "Ralph Johns" twice.

9:29 PM Tuesday; June 11, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Understood.

8:12 PM Wednesday; June 12, 2013

 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Mountain Lion 10.8.4)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
 Couple of iPhones and an iPad
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Hi redtomato. Did you ever solve this blind bonjour issue? I am experiencing the same issue with a 3rd party usb wifi adapter. Ethernet works fine I get Internet and Bonjour Ok. But when I switch to the 3rd party usb wifi adapter I get internet but no bonjour. That means I can't print via bonjour. Thanks!