2. What is mDNSResponder?
mDNSResponder is a Bonjour system service that implements Multicast DNS Service Discovery for discovery of services on the local network, and Unicast DNS Service Discovery for discovery of services anywhere in the world. mDNSResponder is built into Mac OS X and can be downloaded as part of Bonjour for Windows. Applications like iTunes, iPhoto, iChat and Safari use mDNSResponder to implement zero-configuration network music sharing, photo sharing, chatting and file sharing, and discovery of remote user interfaces for hardware devices like printers and web cameras. mDNSResponder is also used to discover and print to Bonjour printers and USB printers connected to the AirPort Extreme and Express base stations. mDNSResponder is open source, and hardware device manufacturers are encouraged to embed the mDNSResponder source code directly into their products to benefit from zero-configuration networking.
When you update iTunes to 7.3, a PrivateFramework called MobileDevice.framework gets installed in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks. Four applications are inside it,
aside from the library binary itself: AppleMobileDeviceHelper.app,
AppleMobileSync.app, reenumerate, and usbmuxd. These applications, from a cursory analysis (i.e. strings ), seem to have tons of debugging info left in
them.