Audio Drop while using airtunes

I get an audio drop when using a cordless phone any where near the Express Base. It has happened 3 times, so I know it's the phone.

er

This Dude Figured it Out!
It's working for me for 10 mins and holding!


Joined: Aug, 2004
Posts: 2
I had the same problem. I solved it setting Airport Extreme Base Station from default b/g to b only. No audio drop out in the last two hours.

IBook; Mac OS X (10.3.x); 640

er

This dude figured it out! I am going on 20 mins and no drops!

Joined: Aug, 2004
Posts: 2
I had the same problem. I solved it setting Airport Extreme Base Station from default b/g to b only. No audio drop out in the last two hours.

IBook; Mac OS X (10.3.x); 640

So How do you fix this problem when you are using the Airport Express as the base station? I don't see a toggle for the b/g on the airport itself or in the airport express assistant?

Well, this is the end of my airport express saga. I have wasted far too much time trying to get this dysfunctional device to work. I have given it my best, which is not insignificant, being a programmer, formerly working extensively on mac issues (pre-X), but this device has not been thoroughly debugged. Enough of this.

I called apple store today (in Japan, where I live), and told them my tale... the device is currently winging its way through the postal system to the Apple "dead on arrival" center here in Japan.

It was quite odd that they told me they would deduct from my refund their shipping costs and a 10% restocking fee for this item that they are accepting back as "Dead on arrival". Why should I have to pay anything? They should pay me for my wasted time plus triple punitive damages.

At any rate, they are so darn polite on the phone here, that it is hard to play hardball with them, or do soemthing like just contest the entire charge on my credit card, because frankly, 10% of $130 is $13 then their shipping costs would probably bring the total to about $20, and given the amount of wasted time and frustration this device has already cost me, I hardly think it worth my while to add "gear up for fight with Apple over $20" to my already lengthy to-do list.

Good riddance, AX.

In the future when a device like this is properly tested and thoroughly debugged before sale, I would be glad to buy it again, a working version.

Here's another issue that may be related to audio drop. It was posted on the MacFixIt Forum dealing with Audio Express and
Norton Internet Security.
______________
"hi guys--

As you may have read on Macintouch, users are reporting problems streaming music from their computer to their receivers using Airport Express with NIS installed. They are correct, the data is flowing through certain ports and, well, our daemon is sniffing through that data and slowing things down. If you have confidential data blocking turned on, it crawls and then, eventually crashes with a kernel panic. (I can see Rob nodding his head, knowingly, right about now.)

Anyway, we know about the problem. Ryan just went and bought one today, and we're working on the code with Apple. As soon as we get this figured out, we'll post the fix via LiveUpdate.

For the time being, here's what to do. Go to this Uninstaller and remove the Norton Privacy Control module. That way you will still get Norton AntiVirus and Norton Personal Firewall functionality.

thanks...
-mike
---
Mike Romo
Macintosh Team
Symantec Corp "
______________

Ok... I had skipping problems with my AirPort Express and had solved them (temporarily) by increasing the multicast rate on both my Extreme and Express base stations. Then the skipping started again but only from my wife's iBook (regular AirPort). I was playing with multiple settings between both base stations while I had her iTunes playing through AirTunes and noticed that every time I restarted the Extreme base station it would stop skipping... then about 2 minutes after it came back it would start skipping again. Everytime it was forced to use the Express it worked flawlessly. So it's not Express that's the problem.

In my case it seems to be the connection from the iBook AirPort to the Extreme base station to the Express. So, I changed the connection on my Extreme to be an 802.11G only keeping hers from connecting to it and forcing it to only connect through the Express. My PowerBook has Extreme so I can roam between the two without problem and without iTunes skipping over AirTunes.

So far it's been playing for 45minutes without skipping. Whenever the iBook latched onto the Extreme it would start skipping. I suspect it's something with the WDS connection between the Extreme and Express, and Extreme not efficiently relaying AirTunes to the Express (but only when sent by an AirPort (802.11B) computer).

I'll keep it this way and will report back my findings over time.

Alberto

I was having the same problems with my Airport express as well. Here is what i did. my g4 eMac 700 is connected to my airport extreme with the airport express acting as an extender. I set the multicast rate to 5.5, clicked on interference robustness, and set both base stations to 802.11B only. Now I have'nt had one problem since.

I don't get it. I have had great luck with AX, using a combination of b and g airport equipment. It is odd how some people seem to have no problem, and others just can't seem to get AX to work how it is supposed to.

I have three of them now, all beautifully either extending my previous ABS network or providing Airtunes music throughout the house.

What gives?

I have an iBook with a regualr AirPort card. I have an AirPort Extreme network that connect directly to my USB Printer. I have a DSL modem which connects directly to the Extreme. After multiple attempts to get the Espress to connect I was finally able to do so with AirPort Admin Utility. I had the same skipping, 5 seconds on and 5 off. Very hard to listen to music. I initially tried to change the multicast to higher numbers. It was still skipping.

I changed both the Extreme and Express to "b" connection rather than "b/g" and it is working fine. I think that this may be the problem for me. Maybe it is some software bug that can be easily fixed.

I am able to use the Express as a connection point for my PS2 network card to get to the Internet. So the reasons I bought the card are working.

It kind of reminds me of the days of external SCSI where a lot of voodoo was involved in whether or not the system would work. Of course, many times you would just hook up a SCSI chain and there would be no problem, but other times there would be mysterious problems that required a lot of voodoo to solve.

There were lots of rules such as make sure the chain is terminated on each end, etc., etc., but at the end of the day, it was more like gardening than science, you had to just do your best and hope it would work. Sometimes switching the order of the devices on the scsi chain would work, sometimes changing the SCSI IDs would make it work....

sometimes the SCSI chain worked beautifully, sometimes it didn't... lots of prayer, luck, and voodoo involved.

this device seems similar. some people have no problem at all, some need to fiddle with b/g, etc., to get it to work... i had a few problems that never went away no matter what so i just returned it.

disconnecting every 5-10 minutes without interference (other WAP workd fine before that in the same location). also Itunes stops naturally

In my humble, uneducated opinion I believe that the problem solely resides in iTunes 4.6. What leads me to believe this is because when a pause occurs in the music, the progress meter that moves at the top of the iTunes screen stops. If it were a problem associated with reception, wouldn't the progress bar continue to move during a pause in the music? You may be able to make some adjustments with settings within your airport set-up, but this might only serve to somewhat alleviate the software issue. I don't believe it to be a cure. Most likely we will have to wait for a fix via software update before this problem goes away.

I too am experiencing a drop, where i have to quit iTunes and relaunch to resolve the issue. I have a G5 2.0 DP with the AE acting as a range extender of my Airport Extreme Base Station. Please find a solution for this as this is set up as a product demonstration.

I too am experiencing a drop, where I have to quit iTunes and relaunch to resolve the issue. I have a G5 2.0 DP with the AE acting as a range extender of my Airport Extreme Base Station. Please find a solution for this as this is set up as a product demonstration.