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I've got some Linux servers on my home network that I access via "hostname.local", however when using a Windows machine they can't seem to resolve this unless I go via IP address.

How do I make it so my windows machine can resolve hostname.local addresses? I know how to edit C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts but surely there's got to be some automatic way to make Windows just find these machines?

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  • How do you make this work on the Linux machines? (Because you want to use the same method on the Windows machines.) Do you configure it on each machine? Or do you have a local DNS server that resolves them for you?
    – David Schwartz
    Oct 23, 2012 at 18:42
  • @DavidSchwartz Ubuntu comes with avahi out of the box so they can resolve each other just fine with no configuration from me.
    – Jorge Castro
    Oct 23, 2012 at 18:45

3 Answers 3

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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.

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  • 1
    Don't even need to reboot after installing the msi!
    – gak
    Dec 31, 2012 at 23:15
  • latest version now is 3.0.10
    – user528025
    Jan 24, 2013 at 11:45
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    I'm not going to update the answer for minor releases. You can extract the latest version from iTunes.msi by using msiexec /a iTunes.msi TARGETPATH=iTunes.out.
    – user1686
    Jan 24, 2013 at 12:36
  • 5
    Installer is an exe now but you can extract it with WinRAR.
    – Snow Blind
    Sep 14, 2013 at 21:33
  • 2
    You can also extract it from the exe installer using 7zip, etc.
    – Kevin Horn
    Sep 5, 2014 at 3:11
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As @Kevin Keane points out here (and in the comments section above), Windows 10 now clobbers mDNS port 5353 with a service that only works for modern Windows apps. So to let Bonjour back onto the port, the windows mDNS service must be quashed via the registry edit described in the link above.

In Windows 10 versions other than Home instead of the registry edit, the group policy editor can be used:

  • launch gpedit.msc
  • Navigate to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Network > DNS Client
  • Enable the "Turn off Multicast Name Resolution" policy.

I didn't have to reboot.

Caveat, I already had both iTunes and Bonjour Print Services installed. Simply uninstalling Bonjour Print Services and reinstalling didn't work -- I had to go into add-remove programs, uninstall both Bonjour and Bonjour Print Services, then reinstall Bonjour Print Services, before pinging .local addresses started working again (virtualbox host-only linux guest with avahi-daemon running). I think this is because my "Bonjour Service" service was tied to Bonjour, not Bonjour Print Services, and it wasn't re-registering itself.

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  • This worked for me on my Windows 10 box. I uninstalled Bonjour and upgraded my iTunes (it was time for a regular update) and the .local domains started working. I did not have to reboot.
    – Michaelkay
    Jan 9, 2019 at 14:08
  • Disabling this is no longer necessary either; current Windows 10 versions have it off by default, but if you actually enable it, they'll offer mDNS-based .local name resolution through the standard system functions without any third-party software.
    – user1686
    Jul 16, 2019 at 10:33
  • @grawity On the latest version of Window Pro for Workstations, without Apple's mDNS resolver, I don't see it working with either Enabled or Disabled for that setting. The same .local name lookup works fine from Linux.
    – Rag
    Aug 13, 2019 at 3:08
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Install bonjour

The answers by @deargle and @user1686 are good, however I found modifying the registry to be unnecessary (Windows 10.0.19041.1415)

Download and install the bonjour package from apple to activate mDNS. No registry changes or reboot required

Note: If you have iTunes or Skype installed, you may already have bonjour present.

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