Port 49212... and counting?

Ok, I've been working on another issue for a while and made the following observation. Before I get started, this is my setup:
iTunes 8.1 is running on Windows XP SP3
Apple TV is 2.2
Static IPs for both the PC and ATV, 100MB Ethernet
Router is a Linksys WRT54G-L latest firmware.

Here's whats happening. I have a utility installed on Windows XP that allows me to see traffic on from my local computer to whatever... internet, local net, all of it.

My apple TV is currently in the state where it cannot Stream unsynced content.

When I press Sync in iTunes, and jump over to the port monitor utility, I see my computer attempting to open several connections to the ip address of my apple tv. The first time I did it a little while ago the traffic from my computer went to remote port 49212 and after that several more attempts were registered and the port number incremented all the way to 49220. When I pressed sync again, the port number incremented from 49221 to 49228.

Anybody know if this is normal operation? or does it sort of indicate that iTunes is trying to open one of those ports on the Apple TV, doesn't find a connection so it increments the port number and keeps trying up to a set limit of attempts...?

just wondering if this is getting me any closer to understanding whats going on when my ATV cannot see the un-synced content in iTunes or not...

MacBook Pro, iPhone 3G, AppleTV 160, Mac OS X (10.5.5), "We all have our little faults... Mine's in California." - Lex Luthor, 1978

Posted on Oct 6, 2008 10:56 AM

22 replies

pocket8077 Author

Level 1

55 points

Oct 9, 2008 6:38 PM in response to capaho

thanks for responding...

mdnsresponder.exe is running over port 5354 actually...

...i did some more troubleshooting... after reading some more i tried the recommendations on disabling services and startup items in this article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1275

I kept bonjour and vnc services enabled.

i re-paired the library. verified all was good, and restarted the itunes computer.

lo and behold... it came up, itunes came up, and the library link was fine FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER IN 2.1 OR 2.2 (this was in 2.2).

It must be that 2.1 and 2.2 have an issue with one of my startup services. I am going to find out which one, as I am going to turn them on one by one until the issue returns and I will post what i find...

before posting this i did 4 restarts of the computer and 2 of the apple tv. still works... now lets find out whats causing it... 🙂

capaho

Level 4

3,677 points

Oct 9, 2008 6:57 PM in response to pocket8077

If mdns was running on port 5354, that likely means that another service bound to port 5353 at startup, so the OS bumped mdns to 5354 because 5353 was already in use, which probably won't work with the ATV since it's likely looking for mdns on port 5353.

Congratulations, you may have found the cause of the problem for Windows users.

pocket8077 Author

Level 1

55 points

Oct 9, 2008 7:11 PM in response to capaho

well, so far with it continuing to work (yay!) mdnsresponder.exe is still using port 5354, which may not come to issue until i enable the service that interferes with that port... perhaps...

half way there... so far logmein.com and mcafee virus scan are ok (thank goodness)

capaho

Level 4

3,677 points

Oct 9, 2008 7:13 PM in response to pocket8077

Is anything running on port 5353?

pocket8077 Author

Level 1

55 points

Oct 9, 2008 7:59 PM in response to capaho

strangely, i see nothing running on 5353. just bonjour on 5354...

even more odd is the fact that i have turned on just about every service that was on before and it hasn't stopped working. i must have done something right by shutting off all non-windows core services and linking the library before individually turning on each service i needed. i also restarted after enabling each one to ensure i had not enabled one that would cause the problem.

it works now, and i'm baffled that i didn't cause it to mess up again and therefore narrow it down to a particular service that was causing the mis-communication, but i can testify that following the steps in this article fixed it (for now) for me:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1275
WINDOWS USERS: I highly recommend it for ATV network related issues that won't go away. Just try it. Shut them all off and link up your library.

Here is a list of services that I decided not to enable, just in case anyone is curious (some of them are pointless according to my needs and what I read about them online so...)
InstallDriver Table Manager
Machine Debug Manager
NVIDIA Driver Helper Service
Office Source Engine

AND here is the list of Enabled Services just in case anyone wants to know:
Apple Mobile Device
Bonjour Service
iPod Service
LexBce Server
LogMeIn Maintenance Service
LogMeIn
McAfee Framework Service
Network Associates McShield
Network Associates Task Manager
Windows Defender
VNC Server
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service (even though its not needed i turned it back on to see if it would be the culprit, it was my prime suspect and turned out not to be...)

ALSO, it may be noteworthy, even though I do have Windows Firewall turned off, before having this work for me I had added two port entries into the exceptions section of Windows Firewall. I added port 5353 TCP and UDP as an allowed port. Though since Bonjour seems to want to use 5354 it may not make a difference, also mdnsresponder has its own exception (for the executable). just wanted to mention it was one thing i did in addition to the steps recommended in the article.

In summary, i read the above article, disabled startup section and services section (except for VNC which I needed as this is a standalone pc with no keyboard, mouse, or monitor attached) and don't forget to check the box that says "hide all microsoft services". restarted the computer. re-linked my library. verified all was working. did several test reboots and it continued to work. enabled needed services one at a time and restarted the computer after enabling (don't forget to enable the startup tab items that correspond with the service items for example, i enabled VNC service but also needed to enable the task tray startup item). after starting the non-critical services i felt i needed i did one last phase of test restarts and it still works fine.

time will tell if this is permanent, but thanks to everyone who has posted responses encouraging me to check things thoroughly. after a few days i will post a note here to update on the status. hopefully we have a permanent winner but for now PROBLEM SOLVED as far as I care.

good nite!

capaho

Level 4

3,677 points

Oct 9, 2008 8:37 PM in response to pocket8077

In any case, you found a method that solved the problem. You should copy your last comments and save them to a text file. Next time someone opens a thread about this problem (keyword searches are not very popular here), you can just paste your answer in. It might be helpful for others in the future.

pocket8077 Author

Level 1

55 points

Oct 13, 2008 6:44 AM in response to pocket8077

pocket8077 wrote:

time will tell if this is permanent, but thanks to everyone who has posted responses encouraging me to check things thoroughly. after a few days i will post a note here to update on the status. hopefully we have a permanent winner but for now PROBLEM SOLVED as far as I care.

It is still working correctly. Worked all weekend long. I'm very happy now. I recommend anyone using Windows XP to try what I tried to solve your network related issues with Apple TV not showing up correctly or not syncing or streaming correctly. Its worth a shot.

The article also has a link to a similar article for Vista users having issues with Apple TV disappearing / acting funky: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2292?viewlocale=en_US

Good luck to all seeking resolution on these issues. This worked for me!

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Port 49212... and counting?