how to broadcast/multicast a service over the network for clients to discover without any need for server IP?
how to let other clients discover the service from a server, without the client requiring the IP address of the server, similar to DHCP IP acquiring.
broadcast? multicast? how do i implement the same in ruby or any other language?
DHCP uses broadcast address on UDP port. It is job for bsd sockets programming interface. In ruby you've got socket in standard library.
There's a naming protocol called ZeroConf that seems to be what you need. The main provider of it is Apple, who calls it Bonjour (used to be called Rendezvous, but needed a name change). There are Ruby bindings. I don't know how to set up the service though; what OS will the server be living on?
