Home Sharing and Check point Endpoint security VPN
Hi,
This is not a problem for me any more but hopefully serves as a solution to other users in the future.
First my setup:
Macbook pro 2015 15"
Apple TV (2nd generation)
Airport Extreme Base Station
Airport Express (used as a WiFi extender)
The problem:
I had some movies that I wanted to project to the TV, through Apple Home sharing technology. Even though the Apple TV recognized my MacBook it would then turn for a while and could never find my library. It would just spit out a very typical message on making sure that all my devices are on the same network and that home sharing was turned on in iTunes. Not very helpful at all since the answer was yes to both of the above questions.
A related problem was that through "Airport Utility" on both my iPhone and iPad, I could see my network setup, ie. I could see the globe that represents the Internet and both Airport Extreme base station and Airport Express WiFi extender. However on my Mac, I could not see the two Apple Airport devices. Just that I was connected to the Internet.
The solution:
It turns out that some service was blocking home sharing. I actually spoke to an Apple support service representative, who was kind to almost spend an hour with me on the phone and who then booked an appointment for me at the nearest Apple store. The tech person there spent an additional hour or so with me, only to reset my computer entirely. The home sharing service of course came back. (BTW, please take a full backup of your computer before going this route).
The thing is I did not need to reset my computer.
Just uninstall "Check point Endpoint security VPN build E80.60". It turns out this latest build in particular blocks certain services for security purposes. Home Sharing being one of them. At work, on our Windows network, that same software was keeping us from logging into a VM, through Microsoft's Remote desktop, once installed onto the VM. The only way we could get to our VM afterwards, was through the VSphere client.
So there you have it. Next time check to see if you have any obscure VPN software on you machine before resetting it and having to rebuild it.
Hope this helps other users out there.