# How to broadcast a service over the network for clients to discover without any need for server IP

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-broadcast-a-service-over-the-network-for-clients-to-discover-without-any-need-for-server-ip/197370>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [October 13, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-broadcast-a-service-over-the-network-for-clients-to-discover-without-any-need-for-server-ip/197370 "2010-10-13T13:43:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![okkezSS](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/85f322/32.png) [@okkezSS](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/okkezSS)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 1:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-broadcast-a-service-over-the-network-for-clients-to-discover-without-any-need-for-server-ip/197370/1 "2010-10-13T13:43:51Z")

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how to broadcast/multicast a service over the network for clients to  
discover without any need for server IP?

how to let other clients discover the service from a server, without the  
client requiring the IP address of the server, similar to DHCP IP  
acquiring.

is there any other easy way?

Thanks,  
Saravanan Sundaramoorthy

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**Author:** ![saravanan77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@saravanan77](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/saravanan77)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-broadcast-a-service-over-the-network-for-clients-to-discover-without-any-need-for-server-ip/197370/2 "2010-10-13T15:02:01Z")

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Hi,

On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 1:43 PM, Saravanan Sundaramoorthy  
[removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> how to broadcast/multicast a service over the network for clients to  
> discover without any need for server IP?
> 
> how to let other clients discover the service from a server, without the  
> client requiring the IP address of the server, similar to DHCP IP  
> acquiring.
> 
> is there any other easy way?

there is DNSSD ([http://www.dns-sd.org/](http://www.dns-sd.org/)), see if something below fits  
your needs:  
[http://dnssd.rubyforge.org/dnssd/](http://dnssd.rubyforge.org/dnssd/)  
[GitHub - lachie/zeroconf: Cross-platform zeroconf (aka bonjour™) library.](http://github.com/lachie/zeroconf)  
[http://drnicwilliams.com/2008/06/18/what-is-gitjour-gemjour-starjour/](http://drnicwilliams.com/2008/06/18/what-is-gitjour-gemjour-starjour/)

zoran