Netgear GS105Ev2, hereinafter NGS, maintains a parameter denoted 'Switch Name' which is configurable by administrator (accessible, for example, via device's Web Interface | System | Management | Switch | Information | Switch Name),
On the other hand, DHCP (with 'Domain Suffix' announcement) is supported.
So it seemed kinda natural to me, that NGS would support mDNS according to RFC 6762. Would be reasonable in conjunction with DHCP on LAN.
However, after purchasing NGS and some network traffic analysis, it now seems there's no implementation of mDNS at all.
For example, the device doesn't even offer/ request DHCP 'Host Name' option in negotiation with DHCP server. 'Switch Name' would be an appropriate value here.
Netgear GS105Ev2, hereinafter NGS, maintains a parameter denoted 'Switch Name' which is configurable by administrator (accessible, for example, via device's Web Interface | System | Management | Switch | Information | Switch Name),
...
For example, the device doesn't even offer/ request DHCP 'Host Name' option in negotiation with DHCP server. 'Switch Name' would be an appropriate value here.
Correct observation. The very minimalistic dhcpcd on these microcontrollers does not supply the configured hostname with the dhcp request.
If it would, consumer routers with an automatic local DNS feature - dynamically adding hostnames to the local domain list list based on the DHCP supplied hostname - to its real DNS server config would be available, and DNS resolvers on can query e.g. the DNS A record with the IPv4 address. This is however completely unrelated to mDNS.
On the other hand, DHCP (with 'Domain Suffix' announcement) is supported.
The domain suffix or a domain suffix search path can be provided by a dhcp server. As these switches don't have a dns resolver (there is no need at all - no services require it), any domain suffix will be ignored. Nothing wrong with that at all.
So it seemed kinda natural to me, that NGS would support mDNS according to RFC 6762. Would be reasonable in conjunction with DHCP on LAN.
mDNS and the above discussed DHCP DNS features have nothing in common - except that the same DNS suffix .local is used by some router vendors by default for it's local LAN DNS.
Indeed, there is none - never was. When reading your post and the explanation, I'm not sure you are looking for mDNS at all however.
When we're considering the only major user Apple has remove the mDNS (Bonjour) bookmarks from the Safari browser some years ago, the effective need in the field is marginal.
Netgear does support their own NSDP legacy discovery protocol (e.g. for the Netgear Switch Discovery) and UPnP SSDP which is much more popular in the current desktop OS world. Trouble for us IT networking people is that SSDP does not seamlessly integrate with the various OS resolvers, which can support e.g. DNS, mDNS, NetBIOS (still popular on LANs) among others.
For adding real mDNS, there is simply no room on these tiny switch microcontrollers.
