Home Sharing drop out with Apple TV2

Hey drns,

sorry to hear about your problems.... it sounds like you sure have a handle on your network thou... are you able to test this with a ethernet connection?, what kind of router do you have?... also, and im not say this is happening, but maybe something to check... sometimes when your deep into something, small things get missed,... do you have enough open IP's for all your devices?.... gateways are correct?... etc.... sounds like it would be more a internal network problem..., what about all other internet activities on the ATV, are they good?.... what about running temporarily with DHCP on... to see if there is any difference?...

im running your same config, and i have not experienced the same problems....

oh, not sure if you mentioned this, but is your imac on wireless as well?...., i have heard of wireless to wireless problems with homesharing...

sorry i couldn't be more helpful....

I *thought* I had static IPs assigned to all my network's MAC addresses, and didn't think I would luck out with this solution -- until I discovered something had corrupted my router's DD-WRT config. (I don't know when that happened or what caused it.)

After a factory-reset of my router and re-establishing the static IP list, I've been streaming audio all morning, no drops. Yay! Thanks eloBROWN!

Prior to that reset, I could tell from Little Snitch that my Apple TV 2 would access the mini only once when first pressing play. I suppose it was playing out that first buffer's-worth of audio (usually less about a minute long) and then never sending another request to the mini (or if it did, it wasn't arriving at the mini).

For those keeping track:

• I stream audio to an Apple TV 2 (most current OS) over ethernet from iTunes 10.2.2 running on an mac mini with OS X 10.6.7.
• I have a very locked-down Virus Barrier X6 firewall installed on the mini.
• I use the DHCP server of my DD-WRT router to map static IPs to my devices by MAC address.

Thanks for your response elo...

First off, my connections are wireless to wireless which I forgot to mention previously. That said, here is where I stand-

After not having time for several days to play with settings I finally found an hour or so to dedicate to this problem. I reconfigured my network to work using DHCP and had the router (a D-Link dir-615 running dd-wrt, hardly a bastion of stability, but it works. Mostly.) assign static IPs. As reported here is seems to have fixed the problem.

Several hours after changing the router settings, I attempted to add several additional computers to the MAC address list, and homesharing began dropping again. After a factory reset of the router and re-entry of the appropriate settings homesharing works seemlessly once again, so I attribute this temporary failure to some corruption of information in the dd-wrt settings.

As I stated previously, merely using a static network, with DHCP entirely disabled on the router did not work for me. If anyone has any insight as to why static IPs on a manually configured network wouldn't work but Static IPs on a DHCP network would, I'd be interested in hearing about it. Perhaps if we can narrow down the source of the cause we can broaden the list of possible solutions.

Here are the basics of my router settings for anyone interested.

- DHCP enabled and router assigns static IPs with unlimited leases my networked devices using MAC address identification.

- I do still have QoS settings enabled. They are very basic giving priority to dns, and http, while limiting torrent traffic

- The firewalls on the router and on my computers are active

- UPnP is enabled

- My iTunes Lib computer and ATV2 are both set to connect wirelessly using DHCP

I just purchased Apple TV2 last month & have the same problem: music drops from both my ethernet-wired MAC (OS 10.6.7), my MacBook PRO, and my iphone 4 - all within 30 seconds of link to Apple TV. Even my Netflix doesn't stream but for 5 minutes, max. That's despite confirmed good 5-bar wifi reception on Apple TV, re-booting routers, reprogramming IP's as per eloBrown (hardly an "EASY fix;" no applause, no dog biscuit; maybe a stale bagel or tomato). I concur with Bluesjam - this is an Apple programming problem. The code's been FUBAR'd. Apple needs to fix this or I'm returning the unit.

I have tried basically all the same as drns. I've even tried all static vs. all DHCP vs. all perm leased DHCP. I have even dug up my backup router and done the same. In both cases I have done all wired vs. Mixed vs. Wireless only. Still nothing but probs in all scenarios with wired. In all scenarios the only "acceptable" user experience is having the atv2 on wireless. In this config I don't get drop outs in the seconds or single digit minutes. Maybe after 2 hours I get a drop. I much prefer to use wired and have no drop outs which is why this is so frustrating. To add to the frustration ATV1 runs strong with no probs, there is evidence in this thread alone of dozens of people impacted, and furthermore it has now been multiple MONTHS since this started - and yet still no fix or even acknowledgement?

Dedicated in my case is not helping. Static or perm leased dhcp makes no difference. Even tried with a trusty dd-wrt and same story. My hopes were never high since I have been using perm lease since first moments.

Hey Satchris,

i had another one today that it ended up being the router... here is what i might suggest, before you throw in the towel on this,... go to your local computer store, pick up a new, good router (not the cheap one), save the receipt... just try it on your network, if it doesn't work, put it back in the box, and return it...

i read that someone dug up there old router and tried it... this would not help as its older technology (bonjour not supported in alot of older routers)...

in comment to everyone saying apple needs to fix this, i don't work for apple, and this is just my opinion...

Apple TV and streaming media in the home, is pushing what a lot of old technology can do, get the latest in all your components, just cause you bought an ATV and want to stream HD content to your home theatre, don't assume that your network can support it.. there are so many reason why networks can fail.. in some cases it can be as simple as a bad cable... and in a lot of cases, like in this discussion, its older routers and tricked out configurations that are not allowing plug and play (non-bonjour supported devices) to work correctly... get the right gear, update your systems, and stop blaming apple for your issue...

Hi eloBrown, after several days i test my Homesharing with ATV2 but the dropouts after ca. 1 minute (each!) is there (with fix IPs). So there is no fix I think. My hardware: ATV2, Airport Extreme, Imac, Iphone4 and Ipad2.

The problem is streaming from Imac (Itunes) to atv. Problem since the last apple updates.

Well after experiencing the same issues for the past 3 weeks - no access to Homeshare I decided to try and fix the issue:

1) Confirmed all ports open on router

2) Opened required ports on Norton IS, although itunes access was already open

3) Reset ATV2

4) Uninstall/Reinstall Itunes

5) Removed account / added the account

6) Called apple support who confirmed my ATV2 was communicating with my Computer

7) Went to "genius" bar and was told they couldnt test ATV2 and they had "no known emerging issues with ATV2's"

In addition Itunes constantly times out on computer if left unattended for an hour or so.

So I am also left with a paper weight and only assume this is related to the recent upgrade in itunes.

HP, Windows 7

I too had all the same problems. The other day I had the cable company bridge my cable modem/router and installed my own dlink router. Since doing this over a wee ago. I haven't had a single issue or dropped signal. Nearly 10 straight days without a single issue.

Just sayin. Swap routers and see what happens. It worked for me.

EloBrown,

Good points on new technology pushing the limits. However this worked flawlessly before the latest ATV2 update. Since it worked flawlessly with a less than 1yr old higher end dlink router before and bonjour itself isn't new, I don't feel like this path makes sense. Had it never worked flawlessly sure...I could buy this. However besides the fact that it used to work flawlessly wired it still does work almost flawlessly wireless. Also the old router I tried was flashed to a modern dd-wrt.

This is a software problem introduced with last ATV2 update period.

Chris

Are you using wired on ATV2? We need to know the distinction. Lots of ppl working fine wireless with or with swapping out a router.

Wireless. Always has been. Worked great before the update then disconnected like crazy after the update till I did the router swap, now all great from all devices.

I really hope a representative from Apple read these posts, as there appears to be a large amount of unhappy people out there. Most who have posted appear to have a reasonable amount of technical expertise. I have a little knowledge but not enough to try to undertake some of the suggestions. I have bought a product which initially worked and then after a software update 4.2.1 (2100) totally randomly works and does not work with home sharing - very strange. I called the Apple helpline and a very helpful man went through everything I should do for about an hour, (which I had already done). After this it started working only to fail after about an hour. He did suggest that my router was at fault (Cisco Linksys WAG120N) as it should have PVC, whatever that is!

Generally I would always buy apple products over others, given the choice, but this time I appear to possibly have made a mistake.

HELP!! These endless discussions do not really help the layman. We just need to know, in simple terms, what the settings should be or that a software update to fix the bug is on its way soon, or, in this litigious world is that just not possible? I would suggest a fix comes directly from Apple and not this internet ping pong of ideas that doesn't really get anywhere for the majority of us.

Hi all, bought ATV 2 in Feb and thought it was great! Other than renting Films it's useless as after I set-up Home Sharing which worked great and then all connectivity just keeps disappearing back to my iTunes Library.

I've tried stopping and starting on ATV2, PC running Windows 7 and both. It makes no difference.

Only thing that works is to reset all settings on ATV2, everything works great until it just evaporates again.

The way this is going. I might never buy another Apple product again. Simple to use is great but it's got to work.

No sign of anyone at Apple dealing with this issue either, go on Apple prove me wrong?