Apple Network Services Location Manager Network User Manual
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5
Setting Up for SLP Searches and Registrations
The NSL Manager uses the SLP plug-in to find and advertise network services using the Service
Location Protocol.
Network services running on the Mac OS can use the NSL SLP plug-in to advertise their
availability. (File sharing and Personal Web Sharing in Mac OS 9 and Mac OS 9.1, for example, use
SLP registration.) The SLP plug-in creates an SLP service agent on the host computer. This service
agent listens for and responds to requests. On networks that include an SLP Directory Agent
(DA), the SLP service agent registers its services with the DA. NSL search requests are then made
directly to the DA, reducing network traffic. (Most of this traffic is on the local subnet.)
Advertising and searching hosts must be running compatible versions of the SLP plug-in.
Services advertised by version 1.0 of the plug-in cannot be found by hosts running version 1.1
or later. Similarly, services advertised by version 1.1 or later of the plug-in cannot be found by
hosts running version 1.0.
To register or discover services outside the local subnet, IP Multicast Router capability must be
enabled. Neither MacIP nor PPP support multicasting.
SLP Registration in Mac OS 9
When advertising a service, the SLP plug-in in Mac OS 9 follows these steps to decide which
network neighborhood (SLP scope) to register the service in:
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If the registering application or service specifies a network neighborhood, the SLP plug-in
registers the service in that neighborhood.
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If no neighborhood is provided by the registering application or service, the SLP plug-in
registers the service in the first domain listed in the Search Domains list of the host’s
TCP/ IP settings.
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If no search domain is specified in the host’s TCP/IP settings, the plug-in tries to derive
a neighborhood from the domain of the service’s URL. For example, a service with the
URL http://me.mydomain.com is registered in the neighborhood mydomain.com and
http://me.sub.mydomain.com is registered in sub.mydomain.com
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If none of these steps yields a neighborhood, the plug-in registers the service in the default
SLP scope, which is listed as the Local Services neighborhood (or the localized equivalent).