nasannounce

Nasannounce is a term used in the context of network-attached storage (NAS) systems to describe a component or protocol responsible for advertising the existence and capabilities of NAS devices on a local network. It serves to assist clients in locating available storage resources without manual configuration, supporting automatic discovery during initial setup and subsequent changes in network topology.

Typically nasannounce relies on zero-configuration or service-discovery technologies such as mDNS/DNS-SD (Bonjour), SSDP, or custom UDP broadcast announcements. Announcements may broadcast the device name, model, firmware version, supported access methods (for example SMB, NFS, FTP), available shares, and connection parameters such as ports or security requirements. Announcements include a lifecycle: they are periodically refreshed and withdrawn when the device goes offline or shuts down.

In software, the nasannounce component is commonly implemented as a background daemon or service that maintains a local registry of NAS services and handles network broadcasts or multicast announcements. Clients receive these advertisements and may trigger automatic mounting, inventory, or configuration workflows.

Because nasannounce touches network exposure, implementations emphasize security and privacy, including access controls, encryption where possible, and the ability to disable or limit announcements. Variants differ in protocol choice, announcement payload, and refresh cadence, and there is no single universal standard associated with nasannounce across NAS platforms.

See also: mDNS, DNS-SD, Bonjour, SSDP, SMB, NFS, NAS, service discovery.