current community

your communities

more stack exchange communities

company blog
Stack Exchange Inbox Reputation and Badges
tour help
Ask Different is a question and answer site for power users of Apple hardware and software. Join them; it only takes a minute:

Sign up
Here's how it works:
  1. Anybody can ask a question
  2. Anybody can answer
  3. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top
up vote 5 down vote favorite
2

Since upgrading to Yosemite (from Mavericks) my MacBook Pro (Retina mid-2014) advertises itself on Bonjour (with "whats-my-name"). It was not visible in this way prior to Yosemite, and I have no sharing features enabled on my Mac.

How do I hide it again or turn off the "whats-my-name" service?

share|improve this question
    
Have a dig in system preferences. You might be able to do that in there. – mehmenmike Oct 19 '14 at 13:29
    
see if Handoff is also responsible for this... – Tetsujin Oct 19 '14 at 13:29
    
@Tetsujin: Disabling Handoff does not change my Bonjour visibility (I can still see "whats-my-name" for my machine from other machines). Is this also caused by Handoff (as patrix implies)? – raxacoricofallapatorius Oct 19 '14 at 18:34
    
How do you know it's visible via Bonjour? Are you seeing it in the Finder side bar of another Mac? – Ian C.♦ Oct 19 '14 at 22:16
    
@IanC.: I see it in scanners (e.g., iStumbler). Prior to Yosemite my machine was not listed there at all. – raxacoricofallapatorius Oct 19 '14 at 22:20
up vote 3 down vote accepted

There is no more com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist in OS X 10.10. The service that controls mDNSResponder is now discoverd. The plist file you are looking for is actually: 

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.discoveryd.plist

You want to add --no-multicast to the ProgramArguments in that file. 

    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
            <string>/usr/libexec/discoveryd</string>
            <string>--udsocket</string>
            <string>standard</string>
            <string>--loglevel</string>
            <string>Basic</string>
            <string>--logclass</string>
            <string>Everything</string>
            <string>--logto</string>
            <string>asl</string>
    </array>

Becomes

    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
            <string>/usr/libexec/discoveryd</string>
            <string>--udsocket</string>
            <string>standard</string>
            <string>--loglevel</string>
            <string>Basic</string>
            <string>--logclass</string>
            <string>Everything</string>
            <string>--logto</string>
            <string>asl</string>
            <string>--no-multicast</string>
    </array>

You'll want to be very careful when editing that file. You can also use this script to do it for you - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MacMiniVault/Mac-Scripts/master/disablebonjour/disablebonjour.sh

share|improve this answer
    
Thanks! Any idea what features I'll loose if I do that? – raxacoricofallapatorius Oct 30 '14 at 13:03
    
No - we only do this on networks with multiple headless Macs where we want to limit cross chatter and bonjour advertising. – Jon Schwenn Oct 30 '14 at 13:24
    
--no-multicast currently breaks the WiFi status menu bar icon from updating correctly and auto-connecting to remembered network SSIDs breaks. Apple feedback was submitted on this. – Barry Nov 4 '14 at 3:24
    
Would it be safe to change echo "CHECKING FOR OS X 10.10.0 to 10.10.3 ..." if [[ $(sw_vers -productVersion | grep '10.10[.0-3]') ]] to echo "CHECKING FOR OS X 10.10.0 to 10.10.5 ..." if [[ $(sw_vers -productVersion | grep '10.10[.0-5]') ]]? Now that 10.10.5 is the newest version of Yosemite? – Matthew Herbst Nov 2 '15 at 19:04
1  
This answer has become false in 10.10.5. Sometime during 10.10.x discoveryd was dropped and mDNSResponder returned. – András Salamon Dec 21 '15 at 2:22
up vote -1 down vote

In OS X 10.9, Bonjour advertising can be disabled by following the steps listed at "How to disable Bonjour service advertising":

  1. Make a back up copy of the mDNSResponder.plist file as a precaution. Open the mDNSResponder.plist file in Terminal using your preferred text editor. Here is a sample command:

    sudo nano "/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist"

  2. Add "-NoMulticastAdvertisements" to the array in the "ProgramArguments" section.

Example:

<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
    <string>/usr/sbin/mDNSResponder</string>
    <string>-launchd</string>
</array>`

becomes... 

<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
    <string>/usr/sbin/mDNSResponder</string>
    <string>-launchd</string>
    <string>-NoMulticastAdvertisements</string>
</array>

  1. Save the file.

    Important: If you edited this file using emacs, you must remove the emacs backup file (the file with a tilde at the end of the name, "/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist~") or your Mac will not start up.

  2. Restart your Mac.

share|improve this answer
    
What side effects will this have? Is having Bonjour advertising enabled required for Handoff or Continuity? – raxacoricofallapatorius Oct 20 '14 at 4:40
    
Handoff does not appear to use Bonjour. I'm not sure about Continuity. – tubedogg Oct 20 '14 at 4:57
    
I've split that (and the original "what's it for") part of the question off into a separate one. – raxacoricofallapatorius Oct 20 '14 at 18:09
1  
It's not done this way any more. It uses discoveryd, and the file com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist does not exist anymore. I'd look in com.apple.discoveryd.plist or com.apple.discoveryd_helper.plist. – geoO Oct 21 '14 at 18:07
    
@geoO: So where in com.apple.discoveryd.plist would I add that entry? Just in !ProgramArguments" like it was done in the old mDNSResponder.plist? The existing entries in that section and even that whole file file don't seem to be related to multicast DNS so I am not even sure if "-NoMulticastAdvertisement" would be a valid key anywhere in that file or if I have to add some other value in that file than I would have to in Mavericks. – Kaiserludi Oct 22 '14 at 20:09
up vote 0 down vote

in Yosemite 10.10.5 here, there is no discoveryd or ever any reference to it on the whole filesystem.

I always install the 'hide bonjour' prefpane however and tweak the living crap out of the OS and remove all cloud, game and social media apps, and the rest of the CPU / RAM killing privacy crud too.

The app 'Lingon' is helpful for cleaning up launchD too. There is a basic free version too - if you look around :)

share|improve this answer
    
This correct: discoveryd is not used in 10.10.5. DNSResponder and DNSResponderHelper are.... – Rondo Dec 23 '15 at 4:40

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.