Port 5353 : how to open it?

You don't need to sync to see your iTunes library in the Sources list. You can stream without ever having been synced.

iMac Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I install all updates through automatic update. So, I
guess it just can't be a wrong version. And I DL'd
and tried to install the version you kindly mention
in your post.

OK, but did that version install or generate a warning or error message of any kind? (You can run a combo update repeatedly, even if the OS is already at that version.)

There is a specific reason for doing this. Combo updates contain packages that install & replace older or corrupted ones. So called delta updates -- like you get from automatic downloads -- ignore packages that should not have changed since the last delta. There are other differences too, but the point is sometimes a combo update repairs undetected damage.

Even though you say you are having no problems with your Macs you clearly have one problem: they do not recognize Apple TV. This could be caused by a number of things, & only by systematically eliminating possible ones are we likely to discover & correct it.

You should run Disk Utility (while booted from the installer CD) to repair the drive, which will eliminate file corruption as a possible cause. Then repair permissions, eliminating that possibility. Run the combo updater again at this point, because problems with the above can cause problems with that process. Please do these things in the order specified.

If anything at all unusual turns up from these steps, please report back with that, in as much detail as you can. (IOW, don't just say "I tried it" & leave us guessing about the results.)

Does the iMac and PC see each other as shared music libraries ?

5353

Don't forget TCP port 3689, as well as UDP 5353..

If you enable iTunes Music Sharing in the Firewall section of System Preferences it will allow access to the appropriate ports at the firewall. I'm not sure if syncing might also require enabling Personal File Sharing and Remote Apple Events, since it does involve the actual transfer of files and more complex communication between the devices than streaming does.

As to "opening" a particular port, there has to be software running a service on a particular port and listening for incoming connections. Even if a particular port is open at the firewall, an external device won't be able to connect to it if it is inactive (i.e. there is no software providing a service at that port).

iMac Mac OS X (10.4.9)

He said "Firewall is disabled" in his first post. If this is accurate, the Firewall System Preferences settings won't matter.

That setting may also start the necessary daemon, even though it is in the Firewall settings rather than the Services settings. Even with the firewall disabled, which is a very bad idea, if the required daemon is not running there will be no services available at the requisite ports.

iMac Mac OS X (10.4.9)

From what I can tell from Activity Monitor, the processes that support the necessary services run whether the firewall allows port access or not. Still, it certainly can't hurt to enable the firewall & explicitly allow access to the necessary services, to see if it makes a difference.

The Activity Monitor shows programs that are active in system memory but it doesn't tell you which programs are running servers. You would need to use netstat to see which programs are listening on what ports.

iMac Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Doesn't it show you what processes are running & what files & ports they have opened, via the "Inspect" function?

The Activity Monitor run from a user account may not show processes owned by root that are not readable by all. If you want to check your port activity like a pro use netstat from the command line like this:

sudo netstat -apd | more

If you want to look for a specific port try this:

sudo netstat -apd | grep 5353

...or for a specific program this:

sudo netstat -apd | grep iTunes

...or a specific user this:

sudo netstat -apd | grep UserName


iMac Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Does a pro get "netstat: d: unknown or uninstrumented protocol" returned for each of these commands?

Call me lazy, but I prefer to use Network Utility, Activity Monitor, etc. wherever possible instead of Terminal for this sort of stuff.

Does a pro get "netstat: d: unknown or uninstrumented protocol" returned for each of these commands?

Not if the pro uses that switch on a Linux or Unix machine where the d switch is implemented. The d switch provides more detailed information (d for detail). I had forgotten that the d switch is not implemented in OS X. Try netstat -h and see if you get a help file showing the valid switches for OS X.

The problem with running those utilities through the GUI in a non-root users account is that on a Unix system running proper permissions, processes running as root (or a different user) that are not set readable by all should not show up in the list.

It's likely that a process started in a user's account will be running as owned by that user but I haven't checked to see if iTunes has its own UID for running processes that might be hidden to other users (except for root).

The only way to be absolutely certain that you don't miss anything is to run these tools as root.

iMac Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I looked into this once I had a bit of free time and discovered that multiple switches don't seem to work with netstat on OS X. If I used the d switch by itself there were no errors and I got good output but I always got the same information regardless of which switches I used, or none at all, and the PIDs were missing. That might be an indication that even with sudo, full access to netstat is not granted or else the version of netstat in OS X is seriously watered down.

I also compared the output from the terminal window with the netstat GUI in the Network Tools utility and they both showed the same information. There may be differences between user accounts with and without admin authorization but that's more than I want to investigate.

I also searched for the mysterious port 5353 and got the following result:

iMac:~ mothra$ sudo netstat | grep 5353
udp6 0 0 *.5353 .

It's interesting that the process owner listening on port 5353 is not listed. That might also indicate less than full access to netstat.

iMac Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Thanks for the info. FWIW, the netstat man page says the "-d" option is for displaying dropped packet statistics when used with certain other options. The "-p" one is for displaying the stats for a specific protocol, which must be specified (-p protocol) -- otherwise an error is generated. It looks like "sudo netstat -a" is all that OS X requires for the full report.

It also explains the " ." output. You might want to have a look....

Message was edited by: R C-R