Network Services Location Manager Network administrator’s guide
This document describes the Network Services Location (NSL) Manager and provides information on setting up a network to take advantage of its services. Read this document if you are a network administrator or are responsible for setting up or managing network services. What Is the NSL Manager? Part of the Mac OS, NSL Manager is software that helps network services advertise themselves and helps applications find advertised services on the network.
NSL Manager 1.1.3 in Mac OS 9.1 NSL Manager version 1.1.3 in Mac OS 9.1 no longer includes a DNS plug-in, and the SLP plug-in uses a new algorithm to decide which network neighborhood to advertise a service in (see SLP Registration in Mac OS 9.1 and Mac OS X, below). NSL Manager 1.2 in Mac OS X NSL Manager version 1.2 in Mac OS X uses its own SLP and NBP plug-ins for service registration and discovery. LDAP and NetInfo searches are not supported in the first release of Mac OS X.
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.
SLP Registration in Mac OS 9.1 and OS X The SLP plug-in in Mac OS 9.1 and Mac OS X uses a different algorithm from the plug-in in Mac OS 9 to decide which network neighborhood (SLP scope) to register the service in: m If a mandated scope is specified by a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server (DHCP SLP service scope option, code 79), the SLP plug-in registers the service in a neighborhood named for that scope.
If you add an LDAP neighborhood without including a searchbase in the name, the LDAP plug-in makes two attempts to get data from the server. First, it tries to access the directory without specifying a searchbase. ( Version 3 LDAP servers can return data when no searchbase is provided.) If that fails, the plug-in tries again using a searchbase of c=us. For example, if you add a neighborhood named ldap.example.com, the plug-in tries these searches: m ldap://ldap.example.com m ldap://ldap.example.
Security The NSL Manager makes network services that were once difficult to find more readily available to network users. It does not make sites less secure; it just makes it easier for clients to find services that were already available. If you use DNS to list your intranet’s services, you control which services clients can discover through NSL searches. However, any network services that utilize SLP registration are discoverable by the NSL Manager.
