Apple TV2 - home sharing issue - works wired not wireless same router????

[trek_520]

Hello -

I have asked this on the Apple forums and the D-Link forums but no one can seem to help - so I thought I would give it a go here. What I just can't figure out is that it works when plugged in Ethernet but not WIFI - IT IS DRIVING ME CRAZY..... sorry had to get that off my chest. SO if you can help please read on.

I cannot get my home sharing to work with my Win7 PC - specifically my library does not show up on the ATV2 computers section. I have done all the proper setup (me thinks):

- turned on home sharing on the pc and put in my password
- tried the done button "fix" to keep home sharing in the tree active....
- unplugged the apple tv and router multiple times....
- turned home sharing on and off in the ATV2 menu
- Itunes is permitted in the win 7 firewall page
- bla bla bla

Router - Dlink DIR-665

I decided to run an Ethernet cord across the floor and plug the atv2 in directly and within about 30 seconds my computer appeared and things were fine. I unplugged it allowing it reconnected to my wifi router it vanished.

This must be a setting in the router... but I cannot figure it out. Any ideas - thanks in advance for any help.

 

[zurge]

Wifi Timeout

Is your library large? Maybe the wireless is timing out?

Otherwise I would make sure there aren't any crazy wireless settings in your router blocking content, or maybe find the ports needed for Homesharing and open them on all firewalls involved in the internal network.

 

[overdrive31]

http://192.168.0.1/Advanced/Advanced_Wireless.shtml

make sure WLAN Partition is not enabled

http://192.168.0.1/Advanced/Guest_Zone.shtml

if using Guest Zone make sure to enable: Enable Routing Between Zones

The WLAN Partition setting only blocks traffic between wireless clients, if the media server were wired it should still work, if it's enabled and both were wireless then that would explain your problem.

Guest Zone without enabling routing between zones separates all traffic from the rest blocking both wired and wireless clients using the main SSID from communicating with guest wireless clients.

Guest Zone probably doesn't apply to your situation since in some manner you gain access wired(only one device or both?), and it's possible the DIR-665 doesn't offer Guest Zone since it is not shown in their firmware emulator, but WLAN Partition is. If your PC is wired and the ATV was wireless connected to the guest SSID, or PC was wireless on main SSID and ATV wireless on guest SSID then Guest Zone setting could be the culprit.

If one or the other were wired and one wireless on main SSID then neither setting would affect functionality. Both PC and ATV using wireless? Then you need to disable WLAN Partition.

 

[DanManTX]

Try opening TCP/UDP ports...

As a test, you can reserve the same DHCP IP address for your Apple TV by it's MAC address (see "DHCP Reservation" page 26 in your manual).

Then open the following TCP/UDP Ports (see "Port Forwarding" page 29)

Six network ports are used by Apple TV for communications on your network.

■TCP port 123 is used to communicate with a network time server.
■TCP port 3689 is used to communicate with iTunes while using the iTunes Library Sharing feature.
■UDP port 5353 is used by Apple TV for automatically finding computers with iTunes on your network using Bonjour.
■TCP port 80 is used for communicating with podcast servers.
■TCP port 80 and 443 are used for basic and secure communications with the iTunes Store via the Internet.
■TCP port 53 is used for regular DNS.

Your manual's located here: ftp://ftp.dlink.com/Gateway/dir665/Manual/dir665_manual_100.zip

 

[overdrive31]

As a test, you can reserve the same DHCP IP address for your Apple TV by it's MAC address (see "DHCP Reservation" page 26 in your manual).

Then open the following TCP/UDP Ports (see "Port Forwarding" page 29)

Six network ports are used by Apple TV for communications on your network.

■TCP port 123 is used to communicate with a network time server.
■TCP port 3689 is used to communicate with iTunes while using the iTunes Library Sharing feature.
■UDP port 5353 is used by Apple TV for automatically finding computers with iTunes on your network using Bonjour.
■TCP port 80 is used for communicating with podcast servers.
■TCP port 80 and 443 are used for basic and secure communications with the iTunes Store via the Internet.
■TCP port 53 is used for regular DNS.

Your manual's located here: ftp://ftp.dlink.com/Gateway/dir665/Manual/dir665_manual_100.zip

Might be on the right track with firewall blocking traffic, but you're mistaken about ports on the router which only affect WAN(internet) side devices, the windows firewall on the PC may be a factor though. If the OP was swapping wired to wireless on the PC, the public/private network profiles could be set differently than one another per connection causing the problem(public - locked down, private - open). He states he ran an ethernet to the ATV, is it a p2p with the PC or just wired to the router? Did the connection from PC to router ever change? If not then windows firewall is not a factor. OP, DO NOT open those ports on the router.

 

[DanManTX]

ATV works with ethernet

The OP stated that without making any changes to his setup, the Apple TV works fine when it's hooked up to his DLINK router with an ethernet cable.

What the OP is trying to do is what Apple calls "Home Sharing" http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4352
This allows his iTunes library to be shared to his Apple TV.

Direct from Apple Support: "If you use another operating system, firewall software, or hardware, check the documentation about how to open TCP port 3689 and UDP port 5353" ( http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3509 )

He can add these two ports to Windows 7 firewall but I don't think it will make any difference. The problem lies in the DLINK wireless router.

This is why at a minimum he needs to open TCP port 3689 and UDP port 5353 via port forwarding in order to make the Apple TV work via WiFi.

 

[overdrive31]

I decided to run an Ethernet cord across the floor and plug the atv2 in directly ??to what?? and within about 30 seconds my computer appeared and things were fine. I unplugged it allowing it reconnected to my wifi router it vanished.

The OP stated that without making any changes to his setup, the Apple TV works fine when it's hooked up to his DLINK router with an ethernet cable.

What the OP is trying to do is what Apple calls "Home Sharing" http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4352
This allows his iTunes library to be shared to his Apple TV.

Direct from Apple Support: "If you use another operating system, firewall software, or hardware, check the documentation about how to open TCP port 3689 and UDP port 5353" ( http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3509 )

He can add these two ports to Windows 7 firewall but I don't think it will make any difference. The problem lies in the DLINK wireless router.

This is why at a minimum he needs to open TCP port 3689 and UDP port 5353 via port forwarding in order to make the Apple TV work via WiFi.

The OP never mentioned he connected the ATV wired to router or if it was to the PC, we must assume one or the other.

You're confused/misguided in your insisting of opening router ports(which would only allow devices using those ports to connect from the internet or a possible gateway network behind another router), LAN devices like the ATV on the same network would only be affected by software firewalls on PC media servers.

My first post is most likely his problem, common misconfiguration of unique wireless client isolation(VLAN) features, not found in majority of consumer routers, but in some D-Link routers of late including the model the OP uses. If the PC connection is wireless, and if he was connecting the ATV wired to the router then suddenly everything works, definitely is WLAN Partition keeping the two from communicating using wireless. If the PC is wired, then D-Link has changed how WLAN Partition works with that router to block wireless from communicating with wired clients as well, thus only wired clients can talk to wired and so on. In that case the solution is still to disable WLAN Partition.

The only scenario where Windows 7 firewall is causing it is if he is swapping wired to wireless on the PC(like if he connected the ATV directly to the PC wired(p2p) which worked, then back to wireless on both devices which doesn't work) affecting each hardware connection's network profiles for public/private, one allowing UPnP/discovery/file share(private/Home/Work) - wired, and the other blocking all needed media sharing protocols(public) - wireless. The solution then would be to set wireless network profile to private/Home.

Someone on Apple forums reported luck with wireless just by lowering the encryption to WPA/TKIP(most likely related to 40MHz mode using wireless N and WPA2/AES, causing degraded signal from interference on 2.4GHz), this will make it fall back to wireless G speeds however.

 

[trek_520]

First thanks to all who responded - this problem is yet to be solved and many others are having issues it seems as evidence by the posts on the apple forum.

Here is some clarification on my setup:

• When I am connected Ethernet it is through the router and not directly to the PC.
• My windows 7 PC is connected Ethernet.
• My Apple TV2 is connected wireless N in the 2.4 band, WPA2 AES.
• WLAN partition is not check and was not my default on my router - I wish this was the problem.
• As a test - I have disabled the wireless security and got the same results. Additionally I allowed the router to run in mixed mode without security yielding the same unsuccessful results.

I to believe the router is the problem here. I am planning on picking up a Linksys 2000 from a friend to temporarily see if it works. Thanks again to all who are helping and making comments. If you have any other thoughts please let me know.

Thanks

 

[overdrive31]

[*]As a test - I have disabled the wireless security and got the same results. Additionally I allowed the router to run in mixed mode without security yielding the same unsuccessful results.

Your mistake is disabling security doesn't disable wireless N features namely 40MHz, mixed mode does not disable N either...

My post was a little different on D-Link, but when you force wireless G by using WPA/TKIP or broadcasting only in G the 40MHz channel bonding gets dropped to 20MHz which you should be using with 2.4GHz to begin with. Would perfectly explain yours and the others intermittent problem. You can still use wireless N with 20MHz mode, just change Auto 20/40 to 20 Only. You might also want to do a wifi survey using Inssider to look for a open channel if there are nearby wireless networks interfering. Signal might look good, but throughput could be suffering which in turn causes your problem. If the ATV is the only wifi client, switch to 5GHz. If you have left the ethernet cable near the ATV without it being terminated(plugged in), can distort and interfere wireless throughput.

 

[trek_520]

Overdrive - thank you for your response.

I have tried the following with no success -

• I changed the channel width to 20 only
• I then tried G ONLY with no security
• I own a WiSpy unit and have used the Channelizer software to verify an open and free channel - I have also changed channels 3 different times
• The Ethernet cord is coiled up and put away and not near the ATV.
• I have tried the 5ghz mode as well with no success - with various security settings

Still no luck...

Thanks again - if you have further suggestions please let me know.

 

[trek_520]

I should also note that i am turning home sharing on/off after each one of my attempts.

 

[overdrive31]

http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=9893.0

Tough stretch, but if it affects an iPhone IOS device, maybe it does so for ATV2 IOS.

 

[trek_520]

Update - I gave up on the Dlink....

and purchased the E4200 Linksys last night.... AND IT WORKS!

I manually configured the router and restarted the Apple TV and my home computer library showed up.

Sad to see, but ending a couple weeks of frustration was worth the price.

Thanks to all who helped.

 

[overdrive31]

Why the 3 stream routers? The Apple TV 2 is only single stream(non-mimo). It's almost a given, first gen. products will have these hiccups. Trying to future proof eh.

 

[Sharkee01]

I had the exact same problem... After pulling my hair out all evening I found the solution. On the advanced wireless page turn the AP isolation to Off. When this is on each of your wireless clients are on their own virtual networks, thus not seeing each other...

Rob

 

[overdrive31]

I had the exact same problem... After pulling my hair out all evening I found the solution. On the advanced wireless page turn the AP isolation to Off. When this is on each of your wireless clients are on their own virtual networks, thus not seeing each other...

Rob

Glad it fixed your problem, if you had read the thread, my first suggestion was to turn off WLAN Partition, which wasn't the cause after all.

 

[danieljardim]

Airport Extreme

I'm having same problem with my apple TV and windows 7. Running on a airport extreme router. The only thing i did so far was turn home sharing on and off a million times. What should I do first. Can anybody help me step by step?

 

[overdrive31]

I'm having same problem with my apple TV and windows 7. Running on a airport extreme router. The only thing i did so far was turn home sharing on and off a million times. What should I do first. Can anybody help me step by step?

I think Trek_520's problem was from a feature called Multicast Streams, which needed enabling to allow the particular audio/video streams from iTunes to be supported by the D-Link(default for the setting is disabled).

Look for a similar setting on the Airport Extreme router, and make sure your Windows 7 network profile is set to Home/Work, not Public.
Edit: After reading the Airport router manual, there is no indication(no feature setting) that it blocks Multicast Streams, therefore it is likely not your problem.

 

[overdrive31]

Daniel, open Network and Sharing center, there will most likely be two networks listed. One network will be your ethernet/wireless using Home/Work profile. The second usually with a similar name and the #2 after it, this one is bonjour(iTunes) service which allows home sharing and if it is using the Public profile, windows firewall will block home sharing by default. You can either switch the profile from Public to Home/Work or open Windows firewall settings to allow bonjour using the public network profile.

 

[DaveGee]

Glad it fixed your problem, if you had read the thread, my first suggestion was to turn off WLAN Partition, which wasn't the cause after all.

I'm not sure you can say this with certainty... A fault was never discovered was it? My question would to the OP would have been this:

1 - What IP address do you get using WIFI?

2 - What IP address do you get using a hard wired connection?

If they aren't both on the EXACT same subnet 192.168.1.x vs. 192.168.1.y then that's the problem pain and simple. IOS doesn't do any discover across subnets in it's current state of development.

For example I had a wireless/wired router that did the following...

1 - Wired clients got 192.168.100.x addresses

2 - WIFI clients got 10.0.0.x addresses

This can't be if 2 or more IOS/OS X devices are trying to auto-discover each other.

Giving it some thought, it could be more subtle I suppose...

UNtested (I'm just thinking aloud) even if the WIFI and wired worlds were getting addresses from the same subnet, if the subnet mask (usually 255.255.255.0) were not the same that might also be something to look for. This might not matter but again something worth looking into if you have issues with devices not self-discovering one-another (aka Bonjour aka Zeroconf)