Airplay pausing with browser page loading?

[jschonert]

So Ive been fighting some airplay issues for a few months and I was hoping you guys might have some insight into what's going on.

Im currently listening to music thru Airplay on an Airport Express in my kitchen. The music comes from my iMac connected directly to my Time Capsule. I also have another airport express in my bedroom and an Apple TV 2.

Ive noticed when Im messing around on the internet with a MacBook (not the iMac), when I start to load a website, the music pauses with the page loading. Its getting to be pretty annoying and occurs pretty frequently throughout the day.

Ive heard theres been problems with Time Capsules 1st generations, but has anyone else had this sort of problem without a Time Capsule?

It seems the wireless is getting overloaded or something, but all Im doing right now is browsing on my MacBook and streaming music from the iMac to the Airport Express. Doesn't seem like it would be that much work.

Anyone?
Also, if this is the wrong thread to place this sort of topic on, let me know. Thanks.

 

[adbe]

That seems really odd.

Just as a reference point, I have three speaker systems connected to AirPort Expresses plus an ATV, all running over AirTunes, and in the case of the ATV, streaming video. I just recently switched everything to wired, but that was just tidying up. I ran wireless for a year.

In addition to those devices, I have an iPad, a MacBook, two iPhones, and an iMac all wirelessly connected, and often in heavy use at the same time as the speaker systems.

I've never had a drop out. Not once.

It certainly sounds like your WiFi is choking, but unless you are getting some seriously poor connection speeds (below 11 Mb) web pages would be very unlikely to impact on AirTunes.

Are you using one or both AEs as the wireless hub for the house, or do you have a third wireless device acting as master hub? Can you verify that signal strength, and connection speeds for the AEs and iMac are what you would expect? Have you tried the obvious like giving all devices five minutes without power to reconsider their life choices?

 

[waw74]

also if you are wirelessly extending your network, that can have an impact on available bandwidth.
If you don't need the extra range, set one (or both) of the expresses to "join a network" instead of extend if that's how they are set up.

also if you have a cordless phone or baby monitor that runs on 2.4GHz, those can cause interference that will slow your network down.

 

[jschonert]

So I'm thinking it's a combination of things so I've changed things up a bit.

For one, I downloaded the Time Machine Scheduler and changed the frequency to only once a day at 4am rather than every hour. I have a hunch the time Capsule was getting overloaded with that.

Also, I went ahead and sold my first generation Time Capsule. I got the newest generation Apple Extreme and Im going to just slap on a hard drive for backup.

It might be the cordless phones, though I really can't do anything about that. I also can't change the network to 5ghz because that essentially knocks out my iPhones from use.

Thanks for all the advice.