Home Networking / Router / & WiFi Gateway Help

[Jpurvis]

I connected my new Apple TV to my network (Arris TG852G Gateway). Connects to Internet fine (Netflix and YouTube work no problem). I should be able to watch video and view other files on my computer with it through iTunes. It only works for a short time. I watch one video and it works fine. Go to the next one and the connection to the iTunes library times out. My iPad will show the icon but when I switch to the Apple TV and try to go into mirror mode it times out as well. Try to play a music file from the iPad or iPhone, IF the icon shows up, I change to the Apple TV and its supposed to be playing on the TV, but it doesn't. I have reset the router and all devices will work for a while but the connectivity issue will come back after a short time. All through this the Internet connection is unaffected. Wondering if the gateway firewall is preventing the devices from connecting. Any help would be appreciated.

[Baric]

The firewall should not be getting in the way here, these connections are all internal.  If by mirror mode you mean you are using AirPlay, then I would look at your wireless environment.  Run a speed test to http://speedtest.comcast.net from a wired system, then a wireless system (like a laptop, etc).  Are the results very different?  If so you may have a wireless issue.  Try changing the wireless channel on the gateway, reposition the gateway to a more central location, away from the wall, higher up, etc. Do you have cheap cordless phones?  These are a very common source of interference, as are other wireless devices.

If the wireless environment seems fine, then you might want to check the position of the Apple TV, make sure it's not blocked by anything metal, etc.  If at all possible, connect it with ethernet to the gateway.

Check your iTunes server, make sure it the system is not overloaded, running out of disk space, no corruption in the iTunes Library, latest version of iTunes, etc.  Check the system's network connection for any signs of a problem, like slowness, bad cable, etc.

[Jpurvis]

The Internet works fine with little lag time when loading video from YouTube or Netflix. So I don't think it's a wireless issue. Not sure how connecting it with Ethernet cable would help since the wireless connection seems to work fine and the devices I'm having trouble with would connect over the wireless network (no way to hardware them). But will try that. Called Apple support to make sure I wasn't missing something there. Apple emailed me a couple articles about TCP and UDP ports being open (Apple articles TS2972 and HT2463). Called Comcast support and they added two listed in article HT2463, UDP port 5353 and TCP port 3689 to the gateway router. Still no joy. How would I check the iTunes server? If you mean the installation on my laptop, I have plenty of disk space and I reinstalled iTunes when this first started to make sure it wasn't corrupted. Thanks for the reply.

[Baric]

There are NO ports required to be open for the Apple TV to function, and since you're talking about local usage, you are NOT traversing your Comcast connecton when you use AirPlay and straming content from iTunes to your Apple TV.  

If the Apple TV can access Netflix and YouTube with no problems, and it's ONLY iTunes or AirPlay streaming tht is an issue, then you need to look at the device streaming the content, or your iTunes setup.  Make sure both the Apple TV and iTunes server are using the same Apple ID and that each device you are using is allowed to access that account (see your iTunes Store account details for the device count, limited to 5).  Make sure the iTunes server is not generating any errors.

If still having a problem, list the exact setup and exactly what you are doing and how it doesn't work, any errors, etc.  Be very specifc about hardware and software used, versions, config settings, etc.

[Jpurvis]

Devices-Apple TV Gen 2 software version 4.4.4 (3330). IPad2 iOS 5 .0 .1 with the Bluetooth off. PC Dell Inspiron 1545 operating system Windows 7 64-bit. iTunes version 10.5.3.3. Itunes authorized on computer. All devices logged into the same ITunes account. All connected to the same network. Home sharing is on on the Apple TV, the iPad and the PC. AirPlay is on in AppleTV. Turned on laptop and opened iTunes. Turned on iPad and selected Apple TV on iPad (AirPlay icon appears when the home button is double tapped and you scroll to the right.).Turned mirror on. Worked fine. Play songs through Music app on iPad (AirPlay icon appears next to the volume control in the music app). Worked fine. Play song from iTunes on lap top. Worked fine. Play video from laptop. Worked fine. Video ends and I select new video. After a few seconds of "thinking" I get this message " An error occurred loading this content. Try again later". Navigated to the main menu screen on Apple TV. I selected the iTunes library under computers and after about 30 seconds of "thinking" I got this message " Error occurred while connecting to the AirPlay device Apple TV. The network connection timed out. Make sure the AirPlay device is powered on and its network settings are correct. Then try again.".Of course none of the settings have changed since I played the first video. Now the library is no longer shown on Apple TV main menu under computers, but the Apple TV icon is still shown in iTunes and Apple TV is active(icon is blue) in iTunes. At this point I close iTunes and reopen. The library appears again on Apple TV. I try to connect to the library but I get the error message "Error occurred while connecting to the AirPlay device Apple TV. The network connection timed out. Make sure the AirPlay device is powered on and its network settings are correct. Then try again.". Now, on the iPad I select Apple TV and try to play a song. The song appears to be playing (the time bar is moving in the music app) but the song doesn't appear or play on Apple TV. Other times I select the library on Apple TV and is searches and stops without anything happening. Just goes back to the main menu where the library is shown. The AirPlay icon is shown in iTunes but is grayed out. I click on the icon and Apple TV is one of the choices. Select Apple TV and a search dialog box appears like its looking for the connection. After a short time it stops but the Apple TV is still not active(icon still grayed out instead of blue). What is really maddening is that it will work eventually (after a few hours or days). But the issues return and the cycle repeats. Any additional setting info I'm missing?

[Baric]

You have a firewall on the laptop?  If so, disable it and try again.  If the laptop is set to go to sleep or hibernate after some time of inactivity, disable this and test again.  If things still go south, reset the gateway to facotry defaults and try again.  If still no joy, I would replacing the Apple TV.  If that doesn't help, then replace the gateway with a good cable modem (or have it put in bridge mode by the folks at 800-363-2416) and get a decent high performance wireless router.  Other minor possibilities include bad power connections to the Apple TV, wireless interference, etc.

I have a very similar setup, Apple TV (2nd gen), MacBook Pro, iPad (v1 not v2) and a Win7 desktop.  iTunes runs on both the MacBook and the desktop, but my main music, movie, TV show, and audiobook library is on the desktop and the Apple TV is the main consumer of this content, including the occasional web video from the iPad.  It's connected to a 47" flatscreen and Denon reciever in the bedroom.  Works flawlessly using an Apple Time Capsule for wireless connections.

[Jpurvis]

Since these issues happen to both the iPad and the computer simultaneously, it doesn't seem likely it's iTunes or the firewall, which I have turned off with no luck and turned off the hibernation feature on the laptop. I have also returned the first unit I bought and got another one. I think I'm going to try putting the modem in bridge mode. Thanks for your responses.

[jhphillips]

Hey Jpurvis - I'm having the same issues, with what I assume is a similar set up:  TG 852, Imac connected via wifi, ipad, & apple TV... seems like the wifi connection is just cutting out on one or more of my devices at any given time (and obviously disrupting communication between the devices)  

Just curious to see if you found a fix?  I keep reading about bridging the modem and buying my own router and I think I'm close to being there... Just wanted to see if this fixed your issue?

[Jpurvis]

I turned the router off and use one I had and I still have issues. It works more often but my library doesn't show up on the Apple TV, yet I can play the videos from my laptop. It's still a process to get it to play them. I was hoping the last update to the apple TV would do the trick but it did not. The only thing I didn't try was turning off the wireless phones I have. I will unplug the phones and try to get it to work at some point. Hope you have better luck.