Access a Mac via hostname.local from a Windows PC

Question

I'm the only Windows user at my workplace full of Macs. Of course, being the only person with a different setup, I'm often left to do my own IT troubleshooting.

The issue I have is that everyone's computer is accessible via {hostname}.local (eg, foobar.local), but when I type that in, the host can't be resolved.

I've found that if I change the .local part to my "Connection-specific DNS Suffix" then it works:

ping foobar.local            // Ping request could not find host foobar.local

ping foobar.corp.mywork.com  // <-- now works. Resolves to 10.0.10.25

Simply switching to use the full part isn't an option (long story, but just trust me on that one).

So, how do I get Windows to resolve hostname.local addresses?

Answer 1

Install Bonjour for Windows, available from Apple. It's now confusingly named "Bonjour Print Services for Windows". It includes a Multicast DNS resolver, which will handle those ".local" addresses.