When I connect my Win10 IoT board to a WiFi, I can connect to its web interface from macOS via . The resolution of the hostname happens through multicast DNS, as can be observed by running dns-sd -q minwinpc.local..

The same behaviour can be observed during onboarding of the Win10 IoT board. In this mode, an access point like AJ_SoftAPSsid is advertised by the board. After connecting to it, once more, dns-sd -q minwinpc.local. resolves to its IP, and access to works fine from macOS.

Things get interesting, though, when I set the Win10 IoT board manually into SoftAP mode, e.g. using a custom UWP app (through Powershell, I haven't found a way to use hostednetwork directly, it seems to only support WiFi Direct).

WiFiDirectAdvertisementPublisher^ p;
p = ref new WiFiDirectAdvertisementPublisher();
p->Advertisement->ListenStateDiscoverability = WiFiDirectAdvertisementListenStateDiscoverability::Intensive;
p->Advertisement->IsAutonomousGroupOwnerEnabled = true;
p->Advertisement->LegacySettings->IsEnabled = true;
p->Advertisement->LegacySettings->Ssid = L"My-SSID";
PasswordCredential^ password = ref new PasswordCredential();
password->Password = L"123456789";
p->Advertisement->LegacySettings->Passphrase = password;
p->Start();

I then add the app to the autostart (iotstartup add headless) and reboot.

When I access the device using the normal WiFi, everything still behaves like before. However, when I connect to the custom SoftAP, I can no longer resolve the address, as multicast DNS no longer advertises. Interestingly, if I use a dedicated Windows client (not a VM on a Mac), I can still access both and . According to the MSDN article linked in , this is expected behaviour ([...] In addition, SoftAP does not provide the DNS resolution. [...])

One workaround to get back DNS resolution is to turn on ICS. When I do this from the IoT Windows Device Portal, reboot, and join the SoftAP with macOS, indeed I get 192.168.137.1 (the IoT board) as DNS Server. I also get the search domain mshome.net.

With ICS turned on, behaviour changes in two ways:

• First of all, Unicast DNS seems to work now (Unicast DNS was not working before, neither on the initial AJ_SoftAPSsid WiFi nor on the regular WiFi).

dig minwinpc.local. @192.168.137.1

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;minwinpc.local. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
minwinpc. 0 IN A 192.168.137.1
minwinpc. 0 IN A 172.20.10.7

Additionally, minwinpc.mshome.net. is also advertised.

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;minwinpc.mshome.net. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
minwinpc.mshome.net. 0 IN A 192.168.137.1

This means that I can now access from macOS. It also means that I can access from Windows in VMware. For both platforms, I can even use because the search domain automatically redirecting it to .

However, the big problem here is that does not work from macOS, the reason being that .local domain is handled via multicast DNS.

• The second change with ICS turned on is regarding multicast DNS. Indeed, dns-sd -q minwinpc.mshome.net. resolves with ICS, but dns-sd -q minwinpc.local. still does not work at all.

When I register my own service with DnssdServiceInstance, though, it gets advertised on domain local., when browsed with dns-sd -B _mycustom._tcp instead of mshome.net..

When I resolve the name assigned to the service using dns-sd -L myname _mycustom._tcp, though, I get the minwinpc.local. domain, though ^_^: myname._mycustom._tcp.local. can be reached at minwinpc.local.:12345 (interface 5).

Which is problematic, because minwinpc.local. is not advertised properly in multicast DNS (minwinpc.mshome.net. is instead), and unicast DNS is not followed by macOS for the local. domain.

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Ultimately, it all boils down to this question:

• How can I get local multicast DNS working on the SoftAP interface?

Multicast DNS works fine over the initial AJ_SoftAPSsid onboarding network, and it works fine if I connect the board to the same WiFi as my MacBook. It does not work at all over SoftAP without ICS. With ICS, it advertises on a different domain other than local.

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Disclaimer: Please note that all of these steps are kind of flaky with current Win10 IoT. A lot of patience and rebooting is required. Also, the MacBook should not be connected via Ethernet in addition to the WiFi to avoid messing with the resolve process.

4 Sorted by: Reset to default

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