Macos – Bonjour does not work with TP-Link Archer C2

bonjourmacos

I recently bought a TP-Link Archer C2 router, and I am very satisfied with it so far. I have only a single problem: Bonjour service advertising seems to be broken.

My network:

  • Simultaneous 2.4 and 5 GHz networks
  • 2 Macs, 1 Ubuntu and 1 Windows 7 computer
  • 3 iPhones, 2 Android phones
  • HP printer
  • Kindles, etc.

What I tested:

  • The Macs do not see each other in Finder
  • My Mac does not see the network printer (used to work)
  • My Mac does not see the iPhone, when I start some app which provides WebDAV access and announces it with Bonjour
  • Bonjour Browser shows only my local computers advertisements
  • The iPhones do not see the AirPrint service of the printer
  • I've tested using only a single WiFi band instead of both of them, did not help
  • The router provides IP addresses from the same IP domain to all of the networks (192.168.0.1/255.255.255.0)

Where could the problem lie? What do I need to check to fix this? Is it maybe some multicast package forwarding issue? If so, where can I fix it?

Best Answer

Do you have any active devices between your Mac and the router? Bonjour packets have a TTL of 1.
Does running dns-sd -B on your Mac list your other devices? Does dns-sd -F show local as a browsing domain?
Try pinging: ping 224.0.0.251 or ping6 ff02::fb

On the router, try enabling Network > WAN > Advanced > Enable IGMP Proxy and IPv6 WAN > Advanced > Enable MLD Proxy – it shouldn't affect multicast packets on the LAN, but you never know. :)
Try setting Wireless 2.4GHz > Wireless Advanced > DTIM Interval to 1.
Try disabling anything firewall-related (Security > Basic Security > Firewall > Enable SPI Firewall and all the options under Security > Advanced Security), and if this solves the problem, re-enable them one by one.

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