Why doesn't Node.js UDP client receive messages?

Question

I'm trying to write a Multicast DNS client in Node.js .

The goal is to show the same logical output of what I get running:

% dns-sd -G v4 irkitd2a8.local
DATE: ---Thu 20 Mar 2014---
20:38:21.426  ...STARTING...
Timestamp     A/R Flags if Hostname                               Address                                      TTL
20:38:22.571  Add     2  4 irkitd2a8.local.                       192.168.1.43                                 10

This is the UDP packets under the hood:

% sudo tcpdump -n udp port 5353
tcpdump: data link type PKTAP
tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on pktap, link-type PKTAP (Packet Tap), capture size 65535 bytes
20:38:22.450804 IP 192.168.1.37.5353 > 224.0.0.251.5353: 0 A (QU)? irkitd2a8.local. (33)
20:38:22.571411 IP 192.168.1.43.5353 > 192.168.1.37.5353: 0*- [0q] 1/0/0 A 192.168.1.43 (43)

So I wrote this:

var PORT            = 5353;
var MULTICAST_GROUP = "224.0.0.251";

var dgram = require("dgram");

var client = dgram.createSocket("udp4");
var name = "IRKitD2A8";

var payload = new Buffer(
    [].concat( [ 0x00, 0x00, // ID
                 0x00, 0x00, // fixed
                 0x00, 0x01, // QDCount: number of entries in the Question Section
                 0x00, 0x00,
                 0x00, 0x00,
                 0x00, 0x00
               ],
               name.length,
               name.split("").map( function(letter) {
                   return letter.charCodeAt(0);
               }),
               "local".length,
               "local".split("").map( function(letter) {
                   return letter.charCodeAt(0);
               }),
               0x00, // NULL terminate
               [ 0x00, 0x01, // QTYPE
                 0x80, 0x01  // QCLASS
                 // http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-cheshire-dnsext-multicastdns-06#section-6.5
                 // Multicast DNS defines the top bit in the class field of a DNS question as the "unicast response" bit.
               ]
             )
);
client.on("message", function(message, rinfo) {
    console.log("received: ",message,rinfo);
});
client.on("listening", function() {
    console.log("listening on ",client.address());

    client.setBroadcast(true);
    client.setTTL(64);
    client.setMulticastTTL(64);
    client.setMulticastLoopback(true);
    client.addMembership(MULTICAST_GROUP);
    client.send(payload, 0, payload.length, PORT, MULTICAST_GROUP, function(err,bytes) {
        console.log("err: "+err+" bytes: "+bytes);
        // client.close();
    });
});
client.on("close", function() {
    console.log("closed");
});
client.on("error", function(err) {
    console.log("error: ",err);
});
client.bind(5353);

When running this script, it outputs:

% node client.js
listening on  { address: '0.0.0.0', family: 'IPv4', port: 5353 }
err: null bytes: 33

And tcpdump outputs the same thing:

% sudo tcpdump -n udp port 5353
tcpdump: data link type PKTAP
tcpdump: verbose output suppressed, use -v or -vv for full protocol decode
listening on pktap, link-type PKTAP (Packet Tap), capture size 65535 bytes
20:48:33.816076 IP 192.168.1.37.5353 > 224.0.0.251.5353: 0 A (QU)? IRKitD2A8.local. (33)
20:48:33.853892 IP 192.168.1.43.5353 > 192.168.1.37.5353: 0*- [0q] 1/0/0 A 192.168.1.43 (43)

So it looks like it's correctly sending the same packets as dns-sd does, and receiving the same thing, but the script's message event handler doesn't fire. Why? How to fix this and output the packets received?

I'm on MacOSX10.9, Node.js 0.10.25

Answer 1

Firewall.

I did:

1. There were several entries named node in the processes list in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Firewall, so I removed all node entries.
2. Reboot MacOSX
3. Restart script
4. A dialog appeared to ask if I approve node listening for connections, I approved.
5. Problem solved!

Sorry guys.