Q: Home Sharing drop out with Apple TV2

Another question.  Those that are having this problem with homesharing, is your airplay working?

Airplay was always working for me.  I could stream to my ATV2 from an iPad or my PC.

That is why I think it is the way ATV2 has implemented the home sharing protocol.  It isn't the same as it used to be and it isn't the same as a PC-to-PC implements the protocol.

Hi all:  I had this issue and it resolved when I tweaked my router settings. So I figured I'd pass it along, maybe it'll be helpful to you.  My issue was that when I was streaming media from my computer to my Apple TV, it would drop the connection.  I have strictly wireless netwok, aside from my TV which is hard-wired into my router.

I can't speak for everyone's issue but a few things I've noticed with most of the people: 1) Having dropped connections via an Apple TV to a computer streaming media 2) Connection is strictly through wireless only (no hardwire connections via Ethernet)

Unfortunately, given this information for all of those demanding an answer from Apple, your requests are going to fall on deaf ears, because this is a router/home network issue, not a software or hardware issue.  So any effort in reinstalling or re-configuring your network may not help.  In my experience, Apple TV drops the connection if there is ANY slowdown in the transmission rate.  Meaning while most streaming services (ie. Netflixs) may just decrease the quality of the media, Apple TV does not. 

To fix this issue, you need to configure your multicast rate in your router settings to high. Unfortuntely, if you have a large area network, you may lose some of your connections of your wireless clients the further you are away from your base station router or they are unable to handle the increased transmission rate.  Basically, having an increased multicast rate setting on your router means that the router will only accept connections from wireless clients in range AND have the ability achieve high transmission speeds.  If you have this issue, than you may benefit from increasing your transmitter power or installing a WDS relay.

If you have a Apple router the multicast rate configured under the Airport Utility -> Manual Setup -> Wireless (tab) -> Wireless Network Options -> Multicast rate

I would suggest if you are still having this issue, than you need to get a router that has at least a gigabit transfer rate such as 802.11 b/g/n.  A slow processor might cause this issue as well.

Hope this helps!

Hi Nicholas,

With all due respect your post here is not very relevant.

If you read most of the posts you will see that home sharing worked with ATV 1 or it worked with ATV 2 prior to the recent firmware update.  Their networks didn't suddenly stop working.  Also many people note that they can stream video to ATV 2 using an Aircard. It is definitely not a network issue.

To prove to Apple it wasn't a network issue I hard wired the ATV to a gigabit router and it still didn't work.

This is not a network issue. This is exactly what Apple hopes you believe and what they are telling people if you contact support  You may have masked the problem with your change but Apple needs to address the flaw in ATV 2.

Agreed.  This is not a network issue.  My ATV2 is hard wired via a gigabit switch and I still have issues.  Recently I have had more success by turning Windows 7 (64bit) firewall off entirely, but it has not completly fixed the problem.  And it's not a status I wish to maintain indeffinately.  I don't know what the specific problem in ATV/iTunes is, but the combo clearly does not properly buffer data or reestablish conennections when interupted.  As Remington99 said, all of these other "fixes" are just masks for the underlying problem with the ATV.

Perhaps let's not criticize those who are trying to help.

We can't say it's NOT a network issue when there are those that have resolved their issues (like me) by making changes to their network. Regardless of whether this is masking an underlying issue (which I agree with; Home Sharing is far too "fragile" I think), if someone else can get a reliable connection by doing what Nicholas suggests, then his post has been helpful. Personally, adjusting the multicast rate didn't work for me.

Just because it isn't a network issue for you, doesn't mean that it couldn't be for others.

It is a multi-faceted, multi-layered issue, and there are multiple resolutions. However, it seems that in the last few weeks most of the posts have related to Windows 7 firewall settings, so I wonder if Apple is starting to get a handle on it.

So just wanted to put in my 2 cents since I haven't in a while.

To the person asking if Airplay works for those of us with Home Sharing problems, for me, Airplay works flawlessly.  If I play music PUSHED from the computer, it works great for hours and hours, and that's my current workaround.  The only real limitation is if I randomize my playlist, it treats music videos as music only, whereas I believe with Home Sharing, the videos play instead. 

As far as it being a networking issue, I've tried everything I can think of, from turning off my (Windows 7 x64) firewall temporarily to re-adding inbound and outbound TCP/UDP rules to messing with router and network swtich settings to trying built-in wireless directly vs. my wireless switches handling all traffic, etc.  If it's a network problem, I can't find it.  The thing is, I've got 8 devices going through these same switches (everything from blu-ray to XBOX and TiVO), and NONE of them have any problems except the AppleTV.  Also, other internet-based services (iCloud, Netflix) work flawlessly for hours and hours with not so much as a hiccup, which shouldn't be the case if it's a network thing.  It's either something with this computer specifically, or a problem with AppleTV.

Certainly, different solutions work for different people, and some issues may be network related, but considering fixes seem VERY specific to users, I have to agree Home Sharing needs to be a lot more robust.

Agree 100% with all you say, WolfpupNX.  It is a complex issue that has been around for a long time.  It really looks lke the root cause is something in the TV wireless connectivity since there are several posts with people having it work for a long time then losing the functionality either for no apparent reason or, quite often, after an update to iTunes or TV S/W.  If the cause was an intrinsic router setting it wouldn't work from the outset.   However, several posters report the issue being resolved after router resets so if it works for them, great, but don't assume the same will work for you.

I can only repeat my advice to report the issue directly to Apple, and send the defective unit back for replacement.

I posted a while back that my problems had mysteriously fixed themselves. Mine started with a simple hard wired setup and continued through to total wi-fi of all devices. In the past several weeks there has been only one glitch which required a hard restart of the ATV2 to correct. But other than that, I must say that mine has gone from a useless POS to working perfectly without any intervention from me. Even iCloud is pretty good. I know this isn't very helpful but I thought I would it out there.

1. If Apple does not monitor these boards they think they can do no wrong because itards let them act that way. I personally believe they monitor these boards and every other major forum closely. They may not respond or if they do  it's to specific people. Reading forums is a really easy way to spot trends...good or bad.

2. I received a new router for Christmas. Netgear n900 (WNDR4500). It appears to have solved my Apple tv issues whilw extending wifi coverage to every possible corner of my house. Amazing router. I have not opened any ports, changed the 2.4 or 5.0 ghz setting, etc. Right out of the box it just works (think apple in the past) Cost. $180.00

I'm glad my network is greatly improved. This includes a functioning apple tv. To bad it costs $180 to get a $99 piece of equipment to work correctly.

Bonus is that I can now stream to my Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Nexus over wifi using Zumocast.

Ok, Well I have an update on mine.. I run Windows 7 and recently upraded to AVG full from free.. When the new I-tunes update came through, that's when all my Home Sharing issues started.. I went through to cust services at AVG and we did the following which has resolved my problems... (Touch wood it might help others) In the Systems Services in the Firewall settings.

We went into and changed the Managed User Systems rules..  In rule Detail 1 the settings are as follow:

Protocol TCP

Direction Both Ways

Local Ports 3689

Remote Ports (0-65535)

Remote Addresses: Safe Networks, Local Networks

Detail (2) Protocol UDP

Direction Both Ways

Local Ports 5353

Remote Ports (0-65535)

Remote Addresses: Safe Networks, Local Networks

Allow for all..

Hope this helps.

Thanks Citysurboy, I have these settings already for home sharing on itunes.... still no go for me

Might be worth giving them a call to go through another setting.. Really have not experienced it since my call with them and that was over a week ago..

I have been experiencing the same problem as everyone here.  I think I finally solved this problem!  So, I would like to share my experience.  Hopefully, this will help some of you here.  Good luck!

I have tried many ways, wireless, wired, no luck.  Home Sharing kept dropping no matter what.  I have 2 Apple TV's,  old 4.3 or the latest firmware, both would keep dropping after 10 to 50 minutes.  Never could keep the connection up for more than 50 min.  It's been very frustrating experience past 4 weeks.

I spotted one person here said something about downgrading his iTunes from 10.5.x to 10.4.1.  So, I downgraded to 10.4.1 on my Windows 7 64bit.  Arrrgh....  Still no luck, HS connection dropped after 50 minutes.

Then I tried even lower version, 10.3.1.  Guess what!!!  It's been working for 2 days continuously, no dropping at all.  Please note, I did not turn off Windows 7 firewall.  I just made sure Bonjor and iTunes got all the necessary permission.

I have suspicion there are some serious Home Sharing bugs or Bonjour bugs in 10.4.x and 10.5.x.

It's too bad that I have to use the older version of iTunes.  But as long as I can get Home Sharing and Air Play working, I really don't care.

Try it!!  Hopefully, someone would see my post and find this is helpful!

Sorry, I forgot to mention what I meant by 'downgrade' in above comment.  What I did was I uninstalled both iTunes and Bonjour completely.  Then installed 10.3.1 iTunesSetup.exe.

Hope this helps! 

Cheers