Broadcast webserver address

Hi all,

What's the accepted way to do this (tcl code welcomed)?

I'm running a webserver on one PC on the local network. On a specific (fixed) port.

I want to locate the IP of that server from another PC in order to open a kiosk mode browser pointing at the server.

So the server PC needs to broadcast something I assume?

DNS should resolve the computer name to its local IP address.

If you're unsure of the computer name, check the system properties or run ping /a ::1 on the computer where you're running the server, and note the computer's name (it'll say "Pinging [computer_name]..."). Then on the kiosk you should be able to use http[s]://computer_name:port/ to access the server.

Or you could just assign the server a static local IP address and use that.

edit: assuming your server is running on a Windows-based workstation. If not, you'll have to go through whatever system settings it has to figure out what its host name is.

Tsaukpaetra

@brie said in Broadcast webserver address:

If not, you'll have to go through whatever system settings it has to figure out what its host name is.

Isn't it just an environment variable?

brie

@Tsaukpaetra yes... echo %computername% should also work.

dcon

@brie said in Broadcast webserver address:

@Tsaukpaetra yes... echo %computername% should also work.

(or set compu)

On my system, %computername% is just the name. ping gave back "mycomputer.companyname.local".

brie

@dcon said in Broadcast webserver address:

On my system, %computername% is just the name. ping gave back "mycomputer.companyname.local".

Yeah, if it's on a domain then it'll give the full computer name... you should be able to include or omit the domain part, and it should work either way.

Tsaukpaetra

Well @Ben_Warre , what say you? Anything helpful?

Ben_Warre

@Tsaukpaetra sleepy time in the UK...

The 'system' will be used on any arbitary network, so I would prefer for the kiosk to be able to automatically find the server without the need for putting any settings anywhere.

I think multicast UDP might work.

Thanks

B

dkf

@Ben_Warre said in Broadcast webserver address:

The 'system' will be used on any arbitary network, so I would prefer for the kiosk to be able to automatically find the server without the need for putting any settings anywhere.

I think multicast UDP might work.

As long as you are on the same network segment, broadcast UDP works well. It totally does not work at all across network segments (unless the network admin has done something crazy to the router). You probably only want to run that sort of thing until someone can get in and configure the system correctly (perhaps via a webpage).

Ben_Warre

All will be connected to the same Wifi network, so should be fine.

Just need to work out how to do it now.