Apple TV 3rd gen. DoS-bug stopping homesharing

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wwebers Author

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Apple TV 3rd gen. DoS-bug stopping homesharing

Hi.

As many others here I experienced a nasty bug in Apple iTunes eco-system: Homesharing just stopped after a while.

My setup: A mac mini server running 10.7.3 with iTunes 10.6.1 sharing my whole library

One AppleTV 2nd Gen. and one AppleTV 3rd Gen.

I first suspected one of the latest iTunes updates. But even downgrading didn't help. First after looking deeper into whats going on network-wise on my revealed the following:

Alltogether that made up 198 connections, all to my AppleTV 3:

I can imagine it has something to do with the sleep mode. But I'm not sure. All I can see is that I do not experience such a connection hazard with my older AppleTV 2.

It really looks like the 3rd Gen AppleTV is running a DoS-attack against iTunes so that finally no other devices are able to connect (thus the definition of a DoS-attach).

That's something Apple really has to fix very soon!

Apple TV, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Apr 23, 2012 11:06 AM

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Answer 1

wwebers Author

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Apr 23, 2012 10:55 PM in response to wwebers

Hi,

next day and I can confirm this must be a AppleTV 3rd Gen bug: The otherwise 198 connection are absent when using the 2nd gen AppleTV instead. As a result iTunes providing homesharing as it should.

Question: Why is neither iTunes nor AppleTV 3 dropping a network connection when it's of no further use?

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Answer 2

wwebers Author

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Apr 25, 2012 1:50 AM in response to wwebers

Another observation: The problem seem only persist with a wired link to the AppleTV. With a WiFi link it stays at 4 connections to my iTunes running onmy server.

Still, the AppleTV 2nd Gen closes all connections correctly. Thus, it must be a bug specific to the AppleTV 3rg Gen!

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Answer 3

sjogreen

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May 6, 2012 4:52 PM in response to wwebers

This is the first sensible thing I've read that explains the problem (a lot of other posts have crazy stand on one leg while hitting "done" type answers). I can confirm the same thing -- lots and lots of connections to an ATV3rd generation that seem to persist. I had that ATV3 plugged in via ethernet, I'm going to see if switching to Wifi helps. Given that quitting and restarting iTunes reliabily fixes the problem, I'm pretty convinced there is some bug between iTunes/ATV3 that causes these network connections to remain open until iTunes just stops responding.

Hoping the propblem doesn't exist over Wifi. Does Apple actually read these threads -- feel like this is closing in on a nice reporoduceable bug report for them to look into.

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Answer 4

ejulius

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May 6, 2012 5:26 PM in response to sjogreen

It happens to me over wifi.

Today I've update my AppleTV2 software and installed new iTunes (10.6.1.7) on PC. Now my connection drops every 10 minutes, maybe less.

Its impossible to watch a single movie.

Tried to setup Bonjour and make this free on firewall, but did not work

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Answer 5

wwebers Author

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May 7, 2012 4:53 AM in response to ejulius

dear ejulius,

don't get me wrong. But the problems are different, thus probably caused by different things. I was never talking about unstable connections, like in your case. I was talking about devices listing up my iTunes server as available but unaccessable. That's a huge difference. Thing is, if I restart iTunes and get a connection that one will be rock steady.

I experiences your problem as well with my AppleTV when NOT using my airport extreme basestation. It seem that Bonjour only works stable when using Apple equipment. I tried several other brands and versions of wireless routing devices (Netgear, Dlink), but it all ended up in better using Apple's own one. Which I really don't like as they are quiet expensive and not quiet capable when it comes to security questions.

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Answer 6

May 7, 2012 11:35 AM in response to wwebers

I have the same problem and I've seen all the connection in the netstat logging.

I will try to switch to WIFI instead of Wired to see if the problem is solved.

It would be better that the solution that level 2 apple support told me Friday : "Just restart the iTunes software..."

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Answer 7

TWParker

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May 7, 2012 12:18 PM in response to wwebers

Did you apply the latest update to your ATV2, as in it has the new UI like the ATV3?

I did and now I'm experiencing the same bug. HS to my Mac or PC doesn't work, and the Remote app can't connect to the ATV2. AirPlay does work (but not for mirroring, although that might be another issue).

Restarting the ATV2 doesn't work. Disabling/Enabling HS or doing a factory reset/restore does, but it is a pain to have to re-enter my wifi and Apple ID, only to have to stop working within a day.

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Answer 8

wwebers Author

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May 7, 2012 12:33 PM in response to TWParker

@TWParker

Well, my ATV2 has the latest update and does not show this behaviour. Strange enough.

When it comes to your Airplay Mirroring problem: I suspected the same at the first time until I read that you reach this by:

1) select your output device fo airplay'ing your video

2) double tap the home button on your device

3) wipe to right until you reach the playback controls

4) select the airplay button and enable the "Mirroring" switch

But airplay-mirroring doesn't work with all devices as I learned the hard way (typically Apple).

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Answer 9

May 9, 2012 10:31 AM in response to wwebers

A quick follow-up on this, I’ve switch to the WIFI instead of the wired network connection of my aTV3 and everything is solved.

There is no pending connection in “netstat“ and the WIFI sync and Home Sharing are running flawlessly since 2 days.

Apple need to work on this to correct the situation.

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Answer 10

wwebers Author

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May 9, 2012 10:39 AM in response to infosebca

Great to hear that.

And yes, of course Apple has to do something about this. But my latest experience has shown Apple slowlyness expanded proportional to their net worth. (If you get what I mean 🙂)

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Answer 11

wwebers Author

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May 11, 2012 10:40 AM in response to wwebers

Well. Latest update for AppleTV doesn't change anything here, even though they claim to fix something around home sharing.

Quiet annoying.

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Answer 12

sjogreen

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May 11, 2012 10:44 PM in response to wwebers

FWIW, switching to Wifi fixed this for me as well, thanks a lot for the tip, this has been extremely annoying. I know some folks at Apple, will try to get this on someones radar.

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Answer 13

G.-A.

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May 13, 2012 8:02 AM in response to wwebers

This is to lend my support to wwebers findings.

My set up:

IMac running 10.7.4

iTunes 10.6.1(7)

Apple TV 3rd generation running iOS 5.0.1, hard wired to TimeCapsule via CAT5e house wiring

iPad2 running iOS 5.1.1

IPhone 4 (Verizon) running iOS 5.1.1

Time capsule running 7.6.1

Airport Express running 7.6.1, extending the reach of the 802.11n network near the Apple TV

Home Sharing enabled on all devices with the same Apple ID.

The symptoms are consistent: the library of music/videos is visible when iTunes is first started and eventually becomes unavailable (accessing it shows the "loading _____ library...." for some time then returns to the main menu). Restarting iTunes restores service, but the problem reoccurs within a couple of hours (estimation). When the AppleTV is able to access the library, playback is rock solid for the duration of the medium viewed (75-120 minutes usually).

When the problem manifests itself, netstat | Grep daap reveals over a hundred established connections between the iMac and the AppleTV. These disappear when restarting iTunes, but they build up again over time.

Switching to WiFii resolves all the symptoms, netstat | grep daap returns no results, and AppleTV sees the library through HomeSharing reliably after two days. So the problem appears to be interface specific on the AppleTV. Though WiFi solves the problem for me, I prefer a hardwired connection and will pursue this problem through AppleCare.

It should be noted that until recently I operated an AppleTV (2nd generation) with the new UI (IOS version 5.0), but don't recall having this problem.

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Answer 14

G.-A.

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Jun 6, 2012 10:49 AM in response to wwebers

I have been working diligently with a very helpful support engineer at Apple since my last post. We were able to reproduce all of the symptoms we are familiar with on two independent set ups. All the fingers now point towards the Apple TV.

We were about to RMA my Apple TV when a software upgrade was released (IOS 5.1.1). After running this version for 4+ hours, none of the symptoms have returned. I am hopeful this addresses the issue.

Mr. Webers, have you had a chance to load that version of software on your AppleTV? If so, has it addressed the problem from your point of view?

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Answer 15

wwebers Author

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Jun 6, 2012 11:37 AM in response to G.-A.

Well, I updated my ATV with the latest iOS version (ATV version 5.0.2, OS version 5.1.1), but no luck. After 4 hours use (with to switches between standby mode and running state) my server running iTunes shows about 42 established connections to the AppleTV.

So, it seems there's no fix in sight and it looks like this problem is getting way over Apple's engineering capacity. But hey! It's just their hobby, isn't it?

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