.local

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local
Introduced
TLD type	Pseudo-domain-style host suffix
Status	Not in root but used by the mDNS protocol.
Registry	Machines on the local net can automatically register an address.
Sponsor	Apple, Inc.
Intended use	network discovery and configuration
Actual use	Local Area Network name resolution
Documents	Developer page
Dispute policies
Website	Mac OS X features

local is a pseudo-top-level domain used in multicast domain name service (mDNS) of zero configuration networking discovery protocols. It is also often used by administrators of Microsoft Windows Active Directory environments as a top-level Domain Name System (DNS) domain for an internal organizational network that is not intended to be reachable directly from the public Internet.

If a computer running Mac OS X is not assigned a domain name by the DNS server, it will identify itself as hostname.local. The host name can be set in the Sharing Preference Pane.

Name resolution issues may arise if Bonjour, Avahi, or other Multicast DNS software is used in conjunction with a network that implements the local toplevel DNS domain.

Despite not being a valid top-level domain in the Internet, considerable DNS traffic exists, querying the local domain in the public Domain Name System.^[1] In June 2009, the L root server received more than 400 such queries per second,^[2] ranking 4th in DNS traffic of all TLDs behind COM, ARPA, and NET.