Have you got
Bonjour running on the computer that you want to connect to?
If not, could you install Bonjour on that computer?
I've recently wrapped the
jmDNS library and have been using it with good results in a project i'm working on.
It takes a 'whatever.local' address and tries to resolve it to an IP address, you then use the IP address to connect to your computer.
(You can't connect to whatever.local, you must resolve to an IP address and connect using IP address).
If you want to try my jmDNS then let me know and i'll upload it.