Usually .local
names are resolved using mDNS – the Linux servers probably run Avahi, OS X has it built in, and for Windows there is Apple's own Bonjour.
2020-12-14: Updated for Windows 10 built-in mDNS support.
Windows 10 (version 1511 or later)
Windows 10 handles both hostname
and hostname.local
identically: it simultaneously tries LLMNR for the bare hostname, NetBIOS for the bare hostname, and (optionally) mDNS for hostname.local. This mDNS support is not restricted to 'Modern' apps anymore.
To activate the mDNS support, set the EnableMulticast
registry value to 1:
reg add "HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\DNSClient" /v EnableMulticast /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
Windows XP—8.x
An older version of Bonjour (v2.0) is included within Bonjour Print Services. It is also available as a Chocolatey package.
The latest version (v3.x) is not available as an independent download, but is installed as part of iTunes (and a few other applications). It is possible to use an archive manager (like 7-Zip or WinRAR) to extract Bonjour64.msi
from the iTunes installer.