Vista (running ubuntu)

[Derek Broughton]

Oliver Grawert wrote:

> Am Donnerstag, den 12.06.2008, 20:36 -0300 schrieb Derek Broughton:
>> avahi is far more trouble than it's worth.  Has anybody ever found a use
>> for it?
> what was the trouble you had yet through it ? it is massively helpful if
> you have more than one ubuntu machine in your network ...
> 
> i.e. through the 169.x.x.x ip you automatically have a name service up
> and running try pinging <nameofyourmachine>.local in your network ...
> this works from any avahi capable system to another. it comes in very
> handy to not have to maintain /etc/hosts on all machines or a dns server
> in a small network ...

Sorry, but no it _doesn't_ work "from any avahi capable system to another". 
I have two Ubuntu systems in my home connected to a (Linux) wireless
repeater, which connects to a second, distant, (Linus) wireless router -
which has the DHCP server.  If, for any reason (like rain), we can't get a
DHCP address from the router, avahi jumps in and gives me a zeroconf
address - which fools the system into believing it has a network
connection.  Now all my "if-up.d" tasks start running - because they can't
tell the difference between the useless avahi-assigned IP and a real
network connection.  At no time can the two Linux laptops talk to each
other. 

> i'd really be intrested to hear about concrete problems that anyone had
> through having avahi up and running in the background if there are any,
> please report them and they can be fixed :)

Report them where?  I've tried to report them, numerous times, and the
absolute _best_ advice I've received was "well, your network is broken".  I
know that!  But avahi is just making it _more_ broken.

fwiw, one of these days I'll reconfigure my network so that my in-house
subnet is discrete, with DHCP on the local router, then I'll still have a
local network when the remote is unavailable.
-- 
derek