ATV2 won't connect to library via Home Sharing - Help!

I am having the same problem. I can use everything but I cannot access my Library via Home Sharing. The worst part is the first day I had it hooked up, I was able to access my Library via Home Sharing. Don't know what happened but it stopped working.

Was on the phone with Apple and AT&T Uverse today and nobody helped. Very disappointed as well.

Do you have any third party virus or firewall software? That was the problem for me. My Intego Net-barrier was somehow interfering. Even when I uninstalled the Intego suite, my apple TV could recognize my home shared library but not load the content. Ultimately I reformatted my hard drive, reinstalled snow leopard and all my apps except the Intego suit and now everything works perfectly.

I had the same problem with my iPad and ATV2 this weekend. Apparently, ATT patched the home gateways this weekend and it caused lockups with the WIreless configs for my iPad and ATV2. After hours of troubleshooting (forgetting and reconfiguring the WiFi on each), I had to reboot my ATT Gateway and restore (keeping settings) the iPad and ATV2.

Both are working great now so I guess that fixed it for me. Please try this and let us know if it works. ATT updates/patches their gateways about once per month, so I hope this doesn't become a problem down the road. The weird thing is that my iPhone 4 never had an issue with the gateway at all...

Dani7 - sometimes antivirus programs like Norton include firewall-like features that prevent network devices from accessing the support program on your computer that Home Sharing needs to work. The iTunes support program is called "Bonjour", and on Windows PCs, it's usually found at C:\Program Files\Bonjour\mDNSResponder. Antivirus programs' firewall-like features can be frustrating because they aren't active all the time. Unlike proper firewalls that act as, well, WALLS, the anitvirus program's "firewall-like" feature does "random patrols" and shuts down things it perceives as threatening -- including Bonjour/mDNSResponder -- so sometimes Home Sharing will work for awhile, then appear to quit for no reason. It just means that the antivirus program awakened, did a patrol, and shut off Home Sharing. Sometimes the antivirus program will remain awake for a time, so restarting your ATV2 or restarting iTunes won't always restore your connection. (It will be shut off as soon as you turn it on.) I solved my problem, similar to yours, by looking through my antivirus program for an option that set it to ignore or exclude programs from its patrols. On Norton Antivirus, I opened Norton, chose "settings", then "miscellaneous settings", then "program exclusions", then I used the resulting pop-up browser to select mDNSResponder, then clicked "apply". I added "iTunes" to the this ignore list, as well. Then I clicked "OK" and closed back to my desktop.

I am now able to reliably access my iTunes library on my ATV2 via Home Sharing, and it has remained working for days now. Home Sharing DOES seem to time out after many hours of inactivity. Restarting iTunes on your computer seems to restore it. Don't worry if it takes a moment or two for the connections to re-establish.

I know that "antivirus program" does not sound like "network defender program", so you wouldn't think an A-V program would have firewall-like features, but mine did and it caused me much grief. Who knew my doctor was also a trigger-happy cop?

I hope you also tried all the suggestions found at http://support.apple.com/kb/ts3509. Those are the must-do's. Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

I also just recieved Apple Tv as a late Christmas present and for 2 weeks now have not managed to get the home sharing to work.
Finally I set up (again) the homesharing on iTunes (Advanced-Turn on home sharing-apple ID etc).
Apple Tv finally recognises my wireless network and has connected to that, as has my laptop and iPhone 4 but ATV wont make the connection to my computer! Is that the same problem you are having?
I have tried turning on every possible sharing option on my laptop and nothing works.
I did discover though that your ATV can have an issue recognising your Apple ID and password so even if you change it, as I also did, it will still not recognise it. I have gotten past all of the now but the last stage on home sharing is saying 'cannot connect to server' help!!!!!

Mine suddenly isn't recognizing the home share from my TV, but it is on.....do we have a solution?

same problem, connects to my macbook with homesharing 10% of the time, each time is luck. I have re entered and disconectted nothing seems to work consistanly. I have no firewalls on, the wifi connection is strong and they are on the same network even in the same room. When will an answer be posted on this, Has anyone talked to someone at apple about this problem?