To add to a Freebsd machine the ability to resolve domain names managed by zeroconf you can install the port for nss_mdns, and then modify the file /etc/nsswitch.conf. The modification should insert the token mdns on the line in nsswitch.conf that configure the search order for hosts:. I inserted it just after file.

I wanted mdns so my backup server could refer to the laptops by the names they inject into the mdns information cloud.

The port doesn’t provide the latest version (today, i think) which makes avahi complain that it’s not installed. Avahi is a mdns server, and you only need avahi if you want to publish additions information into the multicast dns cloud; or as I want to do reflect mdns accross subnets; think vpn. The libraries are so.1, not so.2; which the avahi codes desires; leading it to complain: “WARNING: No NSS support for mDNS detected, consider installing nss-dns!”

While I was a bit puzzled that the way to add mdns support to your environment was to inject something into the C library, which is what NSS does, I’m getting over it. At this point it almost seems like the right approach.

Update: Sigh, it stopped working … i have no idea.