[waffffffle]

Yes, rendezvous is great and all but it kinda sucks for me. I need cross subnet communication. My school has 2 subnets, one for academic buildings and one for dorms. The school's wireless network is on the academic subnet meaning that when I use wireless I can't communicate back to the dorm network. This is true for Rendezvous in iChat and Rendezvous in iTunes (although that may also be enforced by iTunes as well) so I can't get to my music on my PowerBook at my desk from my other PowerBook when I'm on wireless.

Does anyone know how I can get around this?

[CatOne]

Originally posted by waffffffle:
Yes, rendezvous is great and all but it kinda sucks for me. I need cross subnet communication. My school has 2 subnets, one for academic buildings and one for dorms. The school's wireless network is on the academic subnet meaning that when I use wireless I can't communicate back to the dorm network. This is true for Rendezvous in iChat and Rendezvous in iTunes (although that may also be enforced by iTunes as well) so I can't get to my music on my PowerBook at my desk from my other PowerBook when I'm on wireless.

Does anyone know how I can get around this?

Are you sure you're actually using Rendezvous? If you're using Rendezvous you'd have a 169.254.x.x address, and you wouldn't actually have much (i.e. no web surfing).

The problem actually has nothing to do with rendezvous, it's just that you have separate networks. The typical way to bridge them would be a VPN or some-such.

[waffffffle]

Originally posted by CatOne:
Are you sure you're actually using Rendezvous? If you're using Rendezvous you'd have a 169.254.x.x address, and you wouldn't actually have much (i.e. no web surfing).

The problem actually has nothing to do with rendezvous, it's just that you have separate networks. The typical way to bridge them would be a VPN or some-such.

I don't think you understand how Rendezvous works. It is an automatic discovery system for devices on the same subnet. I have a full buddy list in iChat Rendezvous on each machine, each buddy list consisting of different people, and not being able to communicate between computers, because the computers are on separate subnets.

Rendezvous can be used with any IP address, not just a self-assigned IP. That is how iTunes music sharing works on campus dorm networks like mine.

I know VPN would work. Our campus has a VPN server on the academic side of campus, so I could VPN from my PowerBook on my desk, but that's less than ideal because when you VPN in OS X it doesn't allow you to have any other connections simultaneously and I have servers running off my PowerBook on my desk that I don't want to disconnect. Also the dorm network is sort of "where it's at" in terms of music shared and where all the people are. If there is an easy way to run a VPN server on my own machine then maybe I can figure something out.

[madmacgames]

you should be able to use Rendezvous Beacon to get to your music at the powerbook on your desk (was designed for people whow anted to access their iTunes music from work or whatever).

Getting to others music lists might be a little more tricky.

[pat++]

you need to ask your school admin to configure the router between the two subnets to forward multicast traffic (class D addresses 224.x.x.x)

rendez-vous should then work...

[Sam Venning]

I too had this problem (want to join our two offices... one in Sydney and the other in Melbourne). There IS a solution! It is called "mTunnel".

http://www.afp548.com/Articles/Jaguar/mtunnels.html

http://www.cdt.luth.se/~peppar/progs/mTunnel/

[CatOne]

Originally posted by waffffffle:
I don't think you understand how Rendezvous works. It is an automatic discovery system for devices on the same subnet. I have a full buddy list in iChat Rendezvous on each machine, each buddy list consisting of different people, and not being able to communicate between computers, because the computers are on separate subnets.

Rendezvous can be used with any IP address, not just a self-assigned IP. That is how iTunes music sharing works on campus dorm networks like mine.

I know VPN would work. Our campus has a VPN server on the academic side of campus, so I could VPN from my PowerBook on my desk, but that's less than ideal because when you VPN in OS X it doesn't allow you to have any other connections simultaneously and I have servers running off my PowerBook on my desk that I don't want to disconnect. Also the dorm network is sort of "where it's at" in terms of music shared and where all the people are. If there is an easy way to run a VPN server on my own machine then maybe I can figure something out.

No, I do understand how Rendezvous works. I'm ACSA certified

Rendezvous handles IP assignment (the 169.254/16 stuff), naming (i.e. "mini DNS") and service discovery (which is what you're inquiring about). Rendezvous uses multicast for discovery (the mDNSResponder process).

Rendezvous can only work on the local subnet (that's just how it works), so you'll need to be on the subnet, be it via VPN or physical connection.

Not sure on the multiple VPNs thing -- though running a VPN server on your machine wouldn't be the solution (how do you tunnel in that case?). Basically you need a way to add another set of routing rules (this is what VPN does).

Maybe you should just get the relevant files on your machine in the first place, or use the radio stations in iTunes or an iPod instead

[JLL]

Originally posted by CatOne:
f you're using Rendezvous you'd have a 169.254.x.x address, and you wouldn't actually have much (i.e. no web surfing).

No, you will get an 169.254.x.x address if you're using DHCP without a DHCP server (a self assigned IP addresss).

Originally posted by CatOne:
Rendezvous handles IP assignment (the 169.254/16 stuff),

No!

[dfiler]

There are two common ways to end up with 169.254.x.x. DHCP on some systems is one, rendevous is the other reason. However, with zero-config, this number will be in the routing table, not the real IP for a physical interface.

[larkost]

There seems to be a bit of confusion, so lets see if we can clear things up:

If a computer starts up looking for a DHCP server and does not find one, the specs say it should try and find an address in the 169.254.x.x range. The address is perfectly valid.

The only problem with this is that there is no way in the spec for this computer to know where other resources (computers, gateways, etc) are on the network, and chances are any other TCP/IP network devices would ignore it because of its netmask.

Rendezvous/ZeroConf enter the picture here by providing a non TCP system for computers to find themselves and establish and ad-hock network (no central authority). Rendezvous does not assign the 169.254.x.x address, it just allows it to be useful.

And to tie this all into the main conversation, the method it uses to find other computers is by broadcasting a message to the whole subnet. In order to keep the internet from being crushed under the weight of all the broadcast messages out there, the standard for routers says that they should not be passed from one sub-net to another. This is why the poster cannot see services in another network.

There are methods/products to route these signals to other networks, and they are in other posts.

[philm]

I don't understand this then.

At my home, I have a router which is connected to our cable internet connection. I have a couple of hard-wired Macs connected direct to the router. I also have an Airport Base Station connected to the router and two Macs connect to this ABS wirelessly. I would have thought that the wireless Macs would be on their own sub-net, and the hard-wired Macs would be on a different sub-net. I think that the ABS distributes its own IP addresses.

However, iTunes on one of the hard wired Macs is visible from iTunes on one of the wireless Macs.

I don't really understand all this, but could someone clarify why this works for me. Maybe they are all, in fact, on the same sub-net.

[JLL]

Originally posted by philm:
I think that the ABS distributes its own IP addresses.

Not necessarily. The ABS can be setup in a way that it just acts like a bridge between the wired and the wireless network.

[philm]

Originally posted by JLL:
Not necessarily. The ABS can be setup in a way that it just acts like a bridge between the wired and the wireless network.

The wireless Macs have different IP addresses, presumably assigned by the ABS. This means that the ABS is in 'IP distribution' mode rather than 'simple passing on the IP address' mode. Perhaps.

[JLL]

Originally posted by philm:
The wireless Macs have different IP addresses, presumably assigned by the ABS. This means that the ABS is in 'IP distribution' mode rather than 'simple passing on the IP address' mode. Perhaps.

Perhaps your router is handing out IP addresses?

How are the wired Macs configured?

[philm]

Originally posted by JLL:
Perhaps your router is handing out IP addresses?

How are the wired Macs configured?

Router connected to cable box via ethernet.

Two 'wired' Macs connected via ethernet into the router. Both assigned IP addresses via DHCP.

ABS also connected into router via ethernet cable. Set in 'distribute IP' mode (forget exactly the term used - I am currently at work) with two (or more) Macs connected wirelessly to this ABS getting different IP addresses via DHCP.

I guess I should look at the IP addresses assigned to all the computers - I will need to do that later.

Thanks for your help!!

[bmedina]

Originally posted by madmacgames:
you should be able to use Rendezvous Beacon to get to your music at the powerbook on your desk (was designed for people whow anted to access their iTunes music from work or whatever).

Getting to others music lists might be a little more tricky.

Do you know how to set this up? The product comes with no documentation at all.