Re: Problems with .local in Mac OS X computer names

[Jeremy Mates]

Somehow the system set a link-local muticast DNS name for itself, as
proposed by Apple (marketed as Bonjour, the artist formerly known as
Rendezvous):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonjour_(protocol)

http://www.watersprings.org/pub/id/draft-cheshire-dnsext-multicastdns-05.txt

Where the system takes the computer name (use the Apple Remote Desktop
'networksetup -getcomputername' command to show this value, or the
-setcomputername option to change it), and tacks on .local.

One fix might be check for .local in the hostname, and if so perform a
DNS or LDAP lookup to find and set the client's proper hostname, or
perhpas abort with a syslog message...