Linksys WRT610N SPI Firewall blocks Bonjour (Apple TV)
I posted the following to forums.linksysbycisco.com, and do so here as well in the hope that it will help somebody, and perhaps provoke an answer.
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I've had a frustrating time trying to replace my old WRT54GP2 with a new WRT610N. The main point of the exercise was to provide a dedicated 5GHz Wireless N-only network for my Apple TV device. After a firmware update (1.00.03 B15 firmware, just out), a hard reset, and a full configuration, everything worked fine except that iTunes on my wired Mac couldn't reliably see the Apple TV. All else about the network was fine, including the Apple TV's ability to get on the Internet. A wired connection to the Apple TV worked, too, but that's not a long-term option in the living room.
After much experimentation, I finally disabled "SPI Firewall Protection", and that seems to have done the trick. The "Bonjour Browser" tool ( http://www.tildesoft.com/Programs.html ) shows that the Apple TV's service advertisement is reliably available, whereas before it was not. The Apple TV remains listed in iTunes' Devices pane, whereas before it would disappear within minutes of rebooting the router.
So, I'm left with two questions:
1. Why should this be necessary? I thought the firewall was supposed to be inspecting traffic from the Internet port, not the local LAN.
2. Is the router still providing basic firewalling comparable to my old one? The "Filter Anonymous Internet Requests" etc. checkboxes have not been greyed out.
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I've had a frustrating time trying to replace my old WRT54GP2 with a new WRT610N. The main point of the exercise was to provide a dedicated 5GHz Wireless N-only network for my Apple TV device. After a firmware update (1.00.03 B15 firmware, just out), a hard reset, and a full configuration, everything worked fine except that iTunes on my wired Mac couldn't reliably see the Apple TV. All else about the network was fine, including the Apple TV's ability to get on the Internet. A wired connection to the Apple TV worked, too, but that's not a long-term option in the living room.
After much experimentation, I finally disabled "SPI Firewall Protection", and that seems to have done the trick. The "Bonjour Browser" tool ( http://www.tildesoft.com/Programs.html ) shows that the Apple TV's service advertisement is reliably available, whereas before it was not. The Apple TV remains listed in iTunes' Devices pane, whereas before it would disappear within minutes of rebooting the router.
So, I'm left with two questions:
1. Why should this be necessary? I thought the firewall was supposed to be inspecting traffic from the Internet port, not the local LAN.
2. Is the router still providing basic firewalling comparable to my old one? The "Filter Anonymous Internet Requests" etc. checkboxes have not been greyed out.