Hello 👋 I need to implement a logic for searching for devices with our own service type using Bonjour. Using the NWBrowser, I can receive a list of all devices and connect to them. I need to utilize a WebSocket connection. By the property endpoint of NWBrowser.Result objects I can create NWConnection. Below is my implementation which works fine on iOS 17: let params = NWParameters.tcp let webSocketOptions = NWProtocolWebSocket.Options() params.defaultProtocolStack.applicationProtocols.insert(webSocketOptions, at: 0) // The `endpoint` is from `browseResultsChangedHandler` of NWBrowser let connection = NWConnection(to: endpoint, using: params) However, it doesn't work on iOS 15 and 16 because of the crash: 2024-06-01 16:07:18.136068+0300 MyApp[591:16845549] [] nw_endpoint_get_url called with null endpoint 2024-06-01 16:07:18.136932+0300 MyApp[591:16845549] [] nw_endpoint_get_url called with null endpoint, dumping backtrace: [arm64] libnetcore-3100.102.1 0 Network 0x000000018530e174 __nw_create_backtrace_string + 188 1 Network 0x000000018538ba20 nw_endpoint_get_url + 852 2 Network 0x0000000185310020 nw_ws_create_client_request + 84 3 Network 0x0000000184f4b3cc __nw_ws_create_state_block_invoke + 416 4 Network 0x000000018504bc68 nw_protocol_options_access_handle + 92 5 Network 0x0000000184f41e98 nw_ws_create_state + 204 6 Network 0x0000000184f41aec __nw_protocol_copy_ws_definition_block_invoke_2 + 176 7 Network 0x0000000184f69188 nw_framer_protocol_connected + 348 8 Network 0x00000001854a6638 _ZL29nw_socket_handle_socket_eventP9nw_socket + 1560 9 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000126b89d50 _dispatch_client_callout + 16 10 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000126b8d208 _dispatch_continuation_pop + 756 11 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000126ba48d4 _dispatch_source_invoke + 1676 12 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000126b94398 _dispatch_workloop_invoke + 2428 13 libdispatch.dylib 0x0000000126ba0b74 _dispatch_workloop_worker_thread + 1716 14 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x000000012371f814 _pthread_wqthread + 284 15 libsystem_pthread.dylib 0x000000012371e5d4 start_wqthread + 8 Also, there is the stack trace of bt-command in the debug console: * thread #20, queue = 'com.apple.network.connections', stop reason = EXC_BAD_ACCESS (code=1, address=0x0) * frame #0: 0x0000000123078c24 libsystem_platform.dylib`_platform_strlen + 4 frame #1: 0x00000001803c538c CoreFoundation`CFStringCreateWithCString + 40 frame #2: 0x0000000185310030 Network`nw_ws_create_client_request + 100 frame #3: 0x0000000184f4b3cc Network`__nw_ws_create_state_block_invoke + 416 frame #4: 0x000000018504bc68 Network`nw_protocol_options_access_handle + 92 frame #5: 0x0000000184f41e98 Network`nw_ws_create_state + 204 frame #6: 0x0000000184f41aec Network`__nw_protocol_copy_ws_definition_block_invoke_2 + 176 frame #7: 0x0000000184f69188 Network`nw_framer_protocol_connected + 348 frame #8: 0x00000001854a6638 Network`nw_socket_handle_socket_event(nw_socket*) + 1560 frame #9: 0x0000000126b89d50 libdispatch.dylib`_dispatch_client_callout + 16 frame #10: 0x0000000126b8d208 libdispatch.dylib`_dispatch_continuation_pop + 756 frame #11: 0x0000000126ba48d4 libdispatch.dylib`_dispatch_source_invoke + 1676 frame #12: 0x0000000126b94398 libdispatch.dylib`_dispatch_workloop_invoke + 2428 frame #13: 0x0000000126ba0b74 libdispatch.dylib`_dispatch_workloop_worker_thread + 1716 frame #14: 0x000000012371f814 libsystem_pthread.dylib`_pthread_wqthread + 284 I have found out a couple things: There are no crashes if I initialize the NWConnection object with using, for instance, the NWEndpoint.url(_:). initializer: let urlHost = URL(string: "ws://10.20.30.40:5060")! let endpoint = NWEndpoint.url(urlHost) let params = NWParameters.tcp let webSocketOptions = NWProtocolWebSocket.Options() params.defaultProtocolStack.applicationProtocols.insert(webSocketOptions, at: 0) let connection = NWConnection(to: endpoint, using: params) self.connection = connection But, in this case, I must extract IP-addresses 🙇‍♂️ Meanwhile, there is a topic such as Don’t Try to Get the Device’s IP Address.. I have tried to find anything that could help me move forward in this problem and run into some odd behaviour. There is a property skipHandshake of NWProtocolWebSocket.Options object. If I set the property value to true, there are no crashes as well as no connection to a device.

Hi, I observed some unexpected behavior and hope that someone can enlighten me as to what this is about: mDNSResponder prepends IP / network based default search domains that are checked before any other search domain. E.g. 0.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa. would be used for an interface with an address in the the 192.168.1.0/24 subnet. This is done for any configured non-link-local IP address. I tried to find any mention of an approach like this in RFCs but couldn't spot anything. Please note that this is indeed a search domain and different from reverse-DNS lookups. Example output of tcpdump for ping devtest: 10:02:13.850802 IP (tos 0x0, ttl 64, id 43461, offset 0, flags [none], proto UDP (17), length 92) 192.168.1.2.52319 > 192.168.1.1.53: 54890+ [1au] A? devtest.0.1.168.192.in-addr.arpa. (64) I was able to identify the code that adds those default IP subnet based search domains but failed to spot any indication as to what this is about: https://github.com/apple-oss-distributions/mDNSResponder/blob/d5029b5/mDNSMacOSX/mDNSMacOSX.c#L4171-L4211 Does anyone here have an ideas as to what this might be about?

I'm attempting to create a service that: Listens on iOS device A using NWListener Broadcasts the NWService ( using NWListener(service:using:)) ) on Bonjour Allows a separate device, iOS device B, to receive information about that service via an NWBrowser Connect to that service using the information contained in NWBrowser.Result 's NWEndpoint I've been able to successfully do this using a SwiftNIO service, in the following environments: iOS device A and iOS device B are physical iOS devices on the same WiFi network. This works. iOS device A and iOS device B are iOS simulators on the same machine. This works. iOS device A is a physical device, and iOS device B is a simulator. iOS device A is not connected to a WiFi network, iOS device B is connected to a WiFi network. This works. However, when iOS device A and iOS device B are physical devices that are not connected to a WiFi network, I encounter the following behavior: The Bonjour service is correctly advertised, and iOS device A and iOS device B are able to observe the advertisement of the service. In both cases, iOS device A and iOS device B, while able to resolve an NWEndpoint for the Bonjour service, are not able to connect to each other, and the connection attempt hangs. My setup for the listener side of things looks roughly like: let opts: NWParameters = .tcp opts.includePeerToPeer = true opts.allowLocalEndpointReuse = true let service = NWListener.Service(name: "aux", type: BONJOUR_SERVICE_TYPE, domain: "") try bootstrap.withNWListener(NWListener(service: service, using: opts)).wait() // bootstrap is an artifact of using SwiftNIO Similarly, my setup on the discovery side of things looks like: let params: NWParameters = .tcp params.includePeerToPeer = true let browser = NWBrowser(for: .bonjour(type: BONJOUR_SERVICE_TYPE, domain: BONJOUR_SERVICE_DOMAIN), using: params) browser.browseResultsChangedHandler =  { (searchResults, changed) in // save the result to pass on its NWEndpoint later } and finally, where I have an NWEndpoint, I use SwiftNIO's NIOTSConnectionBootstrap.connect(endpoint:) to initialize a connection to my TCP service ( a web socket server ). The fact that I am able to get P2P networking (presumably over an awdl interface?) between the simulator and the iOS device suggests to me that I haven't done anything obviously wrong in my setup. Similarly, the fact that it works over the same WiFi network and that, in P2P, I am able to at least observe the Bonjour advertisement, strikes me that I'm somewhere in the right neighborhood of getting this to work. I've also ensured that my Info.plist for the app has a NSLocalNetworkUsageDescription and NSBonjourServices for the Bonjour service type I'm browsing for. I've even attempted to exercise the "Local Network Permission" dialog by using a hacky attempt that sends data to a local IP in order to trigger a permissions dialog, though the hack does not appear to actually force the dialog to appear. Is there some trick or other piece of knowledge regarding allowing the use of P2P w/ Network.framework and TCP connections to services?

Dear Girls, Guys and Engineers. I'm currently building a Home Network Scanner App for People which want to know which Bonjour Devices are in her/his Home Network environment. From an older Question I got the answer, that I need an Entitlement to do this. I started to work on the App and requested the Multicast Entitlement from Apple. They gave me the Entitlement for my App and now I'm trying to discover all devices in my Home Network but I got stuck and need Help. I only test direct on device, like the recommendation. I also verified that my app is build with the multicast entitlement there where no problems. My problem is now, that is still not possible to discover all Bonjour services in my Home Network with the Help of the NWBrowser. Can you please help me to make it work ? I tried to scan for the generic service type: let browser = NWBrowser(for: .bonjour(type: "_services._dns-sd._udp.", domain: nil), using: .init()) but this is still not working even tough I have the entitlement and the app was verified that the entitlement is correctly enabled if I scan for this service type, I got the following error: [browser] nw_browser_fail_on_dns_error_locked [B1] Invalid meta query type specified. nw_browser_start_dns_browser_locked failed: BadParam(-65540) So what's the correct way now to find all devices in the home network ? Thank you and best regards Vinz

IMPORTANT This FAQ has been replaced by TN3179 Understanding local network privacy. I’m leaving this post in place as a historical curiosity, but please consult the technote going forward. I regularly get asked questions about local network privacy. This is my attempt to collect together the answers for the benefit of all. Before you delve into the details, familiarise yourself with the basics by watching WWDC 2020 Session 10110 Support local network privacy in your app. Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com" Local Network Privacy FAQ With local network privacy, any app that wants to interact with devices on your network must ask for permission the first time that it attempts that access. Local network privacy is implemented on iOS, iPadOS, visionOS, and macOS. It’s not implemented on other platforms, most notably tvOS. IMPORTANT macOS 15 (currently in beta) introduced local network privacy support to the Mac. WWDC 2024 Session 10123 What’s new in privacy is the official announcement. This works much like it does on iOS, but there are some subtle differences. I’ll update this FAQ as I gain more experience with this change. Some common questions about local network privacy are: FAQ-1 What is a local network? FAQ-2 What operations require local network access? FAQ-3 What operations require the multicast entitlement? FAQ-4 Do I need the multicast entitlement? FAQ-5 I’ve been granted the multicast entitlement; how do I enable it? FAQ-6 Can App Clips access the local network? FAQ-7 How does local network privacy work with app extensions? FAQ-8 How do I explicitly trigger the local network privacy alert? FAQ-9 How do I tell whether I’ve been granted local network access? FAQ-10 How do I use the unsatisfied reason property? FAQ-11 Do I need a local network usage description property? FAQ-12 Can I test on the simulator? FAQ-13 Once my app has displayed the local network privacy alert, how can I reset its state so that it shows again? FAQ-14 How do I map my Multipeer Connectivity service type to an entry in the Bonjour services property? FAQ-15 My app presents the local network privacy alert unexpectedly. Is there a way to track down the cause? FAQ-16 On a small fraction of devices my app fails to present the local network privacy alert. What’s going on? FAQ-17 Why does local network privacy get confused when I install two variants of my app? FAQ-18 Can my app trigger the local network privacy alert when the device is on WWAN? Revision History 2024-10-31 Added a link to this FAQ’s replacement, TN3179 Understanding local network privacy. 2024-07-22 Added a callout explaining that local network privacy is now an issue on macOS. 2023-10-31 Fixed a bug in the top-level FAQ that mistakenly removed some recent changes. Added FAQ-18. 2023-10-19 Added a preamble to clarify that local network privacy is only relevant on specific platforms. 2023-09-14 Added FAQ-17. 2023-08-29 Added FAQ-16. 2023-03-13 Added connecting a UDP socket to FAQ-2. 2022-10-04 Added screen shots to FAQ-11. 2022-09-22 Fixed the pointer from FAQ-9 to FAQ-10. 2022-09-19 Updated FAQ-3 to cover iOS 16 changes. Made other minor editorial changes. 2020-11-12 Made a minor tweak to FAQ-9. 2020-10-17 Added FAQ-15. Added a second suggestion to FAQ-13. 2020-10-16 First posted.

IMPORTANT The approach used by this code no longer works. See TN3179 Understanding local network privacy for a replacement. Currently there is no way to explicitly trigger the local network privacy alert (r. 69157424). However, you can bring it up implicitly by sending dummy traffic to a local network address. The code below shows one way to do this. It finds all IPv4 and IPv6 addresses associated with broadcast-capable network interfaces and sends a UDP datagram to each one. This should trigger the local network privacy alert, assuming the alert hasn’t already been displayed for your app. Oh, and if Objective-C is more your style, use this code instead. Share and Enjoy — Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@apple.com" import Foundation /// Does a best effort attempt to trigger the local network privacy alert. /// /// It works by sending a UDP datagram to the discard service (port 9) of every /// IP address associated with a broadcast-capable interface. This should /// trigger the local network privacy alert, assuming the alert hasn’t already /// been displayed for this app. /// /// This code takes a ‘best effort’. It handles errors by ignoring them. As /// such, there’s guarantee that it’ll actually trigger the alert. /// /// - note: iOS devices don’t actually run the discard service. I’m using it /// here because I need a port to send the UDP datagram to and port 9 is /// always going to be safe (either the discard service is running, in which /// case it will discard the datagram, or it’s not, in which case the TCP/IP /// stack will discard it). /// /// There should be a proper API for this (r. 69157424). /// /// For more background on this, see [Triggering the Local Network Privacy Alert](https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/663768). func triggerLocalNetworkPrivacyAlert() { let sock4 = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, 0) guard sock4 >= 0 else { return } defer { close(sock4) } let sock6 = socket(AF_INET6, SOCK_DGRAM, 0) guard sock6 >= 0 else { return } defer { close(sock6) } let addresses = addressesOfDiscardServiceOnBroadcastCapableInterfaces() var message = [UInt8]("!".utf8) for address in addresses { address.withUnsafeBytes { buf in let sa = buf.baseAddress!.assumingMemoryBound(to: sockaddr.self) let saLen = socklen_t(buf.count) let sock = sa.pointee.sa_family == AF_INET ? sock4 : sock6 _ = sendto(sock, &message, message.count, MSG_DONTWAIT, sa, saLen) } } } /// Returns the addresses of the discard service (port 9) on every /// broadcast-capable interface. /// /// Each array entry is contains either a `sockaddr_in` or `sockaddr_in6`. private func addressesOfDiscardServiceOnBroadcastCapableInterfaces() -> [Data] { var addrList: UnsafeMutablePointer<ifaddrs>? = nil let err = getifaddrs(&addrList) guard err == 0, let start = addrList else { return [] } defer { freeifaddrs(start) } return sequence(first: start, next: { $0.pointee.ifa_next }) .compactMap { i -> Data? in guard (i.pointee.ifa_flags & UInt32(bitPattern: IFF_BROADCAST)) != 0, let sa = i.pointee.ifa_addr else { return nil } var result = Data(UnsafeRawBufferPointer(start: sa, count: Int(sa.pointee.sa_len))) switch CInt(sa.pointee.sa_family) { case AF_INET: result.withUnsafeMutableBytes { buf in let sin = buf.baseAddress!.assumingMemoryBound(to: sockaddr_in.self) sin.pointee.sin_port = UInt16(9).bigEndian } case AF_INET6: result.withUnsafeMutableBytes { buf in let sin6 = buf.baseAddress!.assumingMemoryBound(to: sockaddr_in6.self) sin6.pointee.sin6_port = UInt16(9).bigEndian } default: return nil } return result } }