Avahi on pfSense: Why?

[Klaws]

Hi,

everytime I come across Avahi in the pfSense packages list, I wonder what benefits can be reaped from installing it. I mean, ZeroConf/Bonjour/Avahi is meant to work without a central server.

The description just mentions:

"This means that you can plug your laptop or computer into a network and instantly be able to view other people who you can chat with, find printers to print to or find files being shared."

Erm, yes. It's just that I don't want to chat with my pfSense box, and it has no printers connected to it either…and I do not think it's a cool idea to share any files sitting on the router - even though some users might be interested in the content of the /conf directory :-).

After some digging in the forum, I found some remark that Avahi (on pfSense) seems to bridge ZeroConf/mDNS/Bonjour traffic across different subnets. Is that all it does?

[doktornotor]

I'd shorten/fix the subject for you. Avahi: Why?

[jimp]

The typical use case is to proxy the mDNS traffic across interfaces (local or certain VPNs), so you can use things like Bonjour-based chats across subnets or between offices.

[DominikHoffmann]

My goal is to allow ssh into my pfSense box at home from work and then set up an ssh tunnel to a third host on my home network, but specifying it by giving its Bonjour name. Some of the computers on my home network get their IP addresses through DHCP, and referring to them by their Bonjour name is the least cumbersome method.