Apple TV 2 through wireless repeaters

[Kriskris]

Hello everyone just a quick question.

I have got a 27" Imac on the way but at the moment am using a normal pc. I have my apple tv 2 setup which works perfectly well wirelessly but i cannot get my computer to show up even though i have enabled home sharing? Does anyone know if this is due to the wireless repeaters i am using?

Eventually i want to be able to have all my movies on my itunes streaming to my apple tv.

Many thanks,

- Kris

 

[DustinT]

The reapers shouldn't have anything to do with it. I'd check the PC's firewall settings and also double check that home sharing is turned on in iTunes.

On a slightly different topic, wireless repeaters are a really low performing solution. It would be so much better if you could extend the signal with a network cable. Or, even better, run a dedicated Ethernet cable to your Apple TV. You'll enjoy more reliability and performance.

 

[Kriskris]

Thanks for the reply,

The firewall is currently turned off.
Home Sharing is definetly on.
All devices are hooked up on the same network and working independantly.
Home Sharing on the Apple TV is logged in on the same account as the PC.

I really am stumped at the moment as to why its not working!

Cheers for the advice i know they are a bit dodgy at times but i have a very large premises and its hard to get the internet to reach everywhere. At the moment i've managed to run a ethernet to my office which is working brilliantly and i've got a new N router on the way which should extend the internet everywhere else. Also got an ethernet ready to run 80 meters to Apple TV just need to get the time to do it!

Many thanks,

- Kris

 

[DustinT]

Excellent, the cable will really help. In fact, if you'd run that already you wouldn't have had to make this post.

You might want to check for any third party firewalls on your system. Many security packages, avg, norton, etc... will install a firewall or modify the systems firewall. Any of those could cause the problems you are mentioning.

If it's not that, I'm not really sure what else to tell you.

 

[Kriskris]

Thats brilliant, ill wait till the Mac, router and all the cabling is done and see if it works in the end.

Thanks again for the help!

- Kris

 

[DustinT]

Thats brilliant, ill wait till the Mac, router and all the cabling is done and see if it works in the end.

Thanks again for the help!

- Kris

No problem. If you have problems once you're done with the upgrades post back and I'm sure we can sort it out.

 

[hafr]

Hello everyone just a quick question.

I have got a 27" Imac on the way but at the moment am using a normal pc. I have my apple tv 2 setup which works perfectly well wirelessly but i cannot get my computer to show up even though i have enabled home sharing? Does anyone know if this is due to the wireless repeaters i am using?

Eventually i want to be able to have all my movies on my itunes streaming to my apple tv.

Many thanks,

- Kris

The first thing I would do is to check if Home Sharing is in fact working and if it's the wireless. If you don't have a second computer, ask someone to bring over a laptop. Then you try to access your iTunes library through home sharing on their computer through wireless. If it's not working, hook the computer up to the router and try it again threaded. That way, you'll know in a heartbeat whether it's the wireless or not.

Either way, I'd use home plugs instead of an 80 meter cable

 

[Detrias]

Hello everyone just a quick question.

I have got a 27" Imac on the way but at the moment am using a normal pc. I have my apple tv 2 setup which works perfectly well wirelessly but i cannot get my computer to show up even though i have enabled home sharing? Does anyone know if this is due to the wireless repeaters i am using?

Eventually i want to be able to have all my movies on my itunes streaming to my apple tv.

Many thanks,

- Kris

Also make sure that both the computer and the atv2 are in the same network (I was having this problem myself and turns out the atv2 was connected to the guest wifi)

 

[squeakr]

Make sure that the extenders are not on a different subnet as well.

 

[DustinT]

Either way, I'd use home plugs instead of an 80 meter cable

With lower performance, most opportunity for interference, greater cost and the need to have two short ethernet cables at each end, why? Ethernet is vastly superior, if you can run it.

I'd only recommend HomePlug for a situation where it was physically impossible to run ethernet. For those cases, it's a decent option.

Ethernet > HomePlug = Wifi, imho.

 

[hafr]

With lower performance, most opportunity for interference, greater cost and the need to have two short ethernet cables at each end, why? Ethernet is vastly superior, if you can run it.

I'd only recommend HomePlug for a situation where it was physically impossible to run ethernet. For those cases, it's a decent option.

Ethernet > HomePlug = Wifi, imho.

We're talking about an ATV2 here, which will be the bottle neck long before the lower transfer speeds of home plugs compared to threading it to a Gbit router would be. Theoretical max transfer speed is therefore not an argument.

As long as he's not living in a house where the wiring was made by some cheap land lord in the beginning of the last century, interference shouldn't be an issue either.

The price is higher though. But the reason why I'd use home plugs in his situation is because I absolutely detest having cables running through my house, and any solution that allows me to get rid of them without experiencing any quality loss for less than a hundred bucks is an interesting solution for me.

Therefore, for an ATV2, if the options were wifi, home plugs and 80 meters of cable, I'd go for wifi > HP > cable.

 

[DustinT]

We're talking about an ATV2 here, which will be the bottle neck long before the lower transfer speeds of home plugs compared to threading it to a Gbit router would be. Theoretical max transfer speed is therefore not an argument.

As long as he's not living in a house where the wiring was made by some cheap land lord in the beginning of the last century, interference shouldn't be an issue either.

The price is higher though. But the reason why I'd use home plugs in his situation is because I absolutely detest having cables running through my house, and any solution that allows me to get rid of them without experiencing any quality loss for less than a hundred bucks is an interesting solution for me.

Therefore, for an ATV2, if the options were wifi, home plugs and 80 meters of cable, I'd go for wifi > HP > cable.

Wow...

I'm not sure that I agree with you at all. Small Net Builder recently tested the current generation products and isn't showing the performance you claimed. I'm sure it will work some of the time, for some people. But, ethernet is the standard for a reason. If power-line networking was as good as you suggest, Apple would build it into their Airport Extremes and their ATV's.

Not wanting to run cables isn't a good reason to recommend an inferior solution.

 

[hafr]

Wow...

I'm not sure that I agree with you at all. Small Net Builder recently tested the current generation products and isn't showing the performance you claimed. I'm sure it will work some of the time, for some people. But, ethernet is the standard for a reason. If power-line networking was as good as you suggest, Apple would build it into their Airport Extremes and their ATV's.

Not wanting to run cables isn't a good reason to recommend an inferior solution.

I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying it doesn't matter since we're talking about an ATV2 and home sharing. Movies that you buy in iTunes won't reach those bitrates necessary to cause the problems SNB are talking about, and if you want to watch uncompressed BluRay rips the first thing you'd want to do is to buy something other than an ATV2.

I don't really see the point in arguing that home plugs is a bad idea for an ATV2 since 1080p content with very high bitrate is having problem pushing through the power lines, because the ATV2 isn't going to do it justice either way.

It's an inferior solution per se, but a perfectly valid option when talking about an ATV2. The ATV2 will reach its potential before home plugs becomes a bottle neck for data transfer.

 

[tiptopp]

With lower performance, most opportunity for interference, greater cost and the need to have two short ethernet cables at each end, why? Ethernet is vastly superior, if you can run it.

I'd only recommend HomePlug for a situation where it was physically impossible to run ethernet. For those cases, it's a decent option.

Ethernet > HomePlug = Wifi, imho.

Whilst I completely understand the argument, and have had issues in my home with Homeplugs, Homeplug is definitely superior to WiFi when repeaters are used. I can easily cut a (measured) 50 mbps internet service down to 2 mbps when I use an Airport Extreme as the base station and an Airport Express as an extender. With a Homeplug I still get 20 mbps when I plug the Express into it. When I was using an iPad to watch video (BBC iPlayer) and using Airplay to push it to the aTV, the stuttering was awful. Now there's none.

My house isn't big or complicated, but the first set of Homeplugs I bought only worked between one side of an internal wall and the other - about 3 feet! I've since bought new ones - Netgear - and they're providing an excellent service to my aTV, Xbox and Tivo, with speeds well above the Airport Express. My AE now only provides WiFi to the mobile devices in the house.

To the OP - this is a really stupid, and potentially insulting, question, and I apologise, but are you sure that you've got iTunes running on the PC? I believe that, unless it's jailbroken, you'll only be able to stream stuff that you've got in iTunes, which for some reason has to be running, so that's what it's looking for...

You can check whereabouts the issue might be by using an iDevice, or other mobile thing. On an iPhone, for instance, running something like Splashtop would test whether the computer can be seen on the network by a device sitting next to the aTV. Also, AirVideo streams to iDevices and can be Airplayed to the TV (it needs a server downloaded to the PC as well as an app). Even better, you might also go into iTunes on your PC, play something (audio or video) and then choose aTV as your Airplay speakers (bottom right corner of iTunes). These will test that the network is working, but doesn't rely on home sharing.

Finally, just make sure that you've got both iTunes and aTV iOS up to date. From my experience, aTV connectivity has improved with the latest couple of versions of iOS. There have been several threads on here about aTV losing Home Sharing, so update everything, maybe including a restore of the aTV, and start again...

Hope you resolve it!

Tiptopp

 

[DustinT]

Whilst I completely understand the argument, and have had issues in my home with Homeplugs, Homeplug is definitely superior to WiFi when repeaters are used.

Yes, I suppose you are right about that. What I was referring to was the assertion that HomePlug was better than wifi in general as opposed to being better specifically when wifi is used with repeaters. I too have had iffy results when extending wifi, even with two Airport Extremes. It works, but at the minimum level I'd consider acceptable.

 

[hafr]

Yes, I suppose you are right about that. What I was referring to was the assertion that HomePlug was better than wifi in general as opposed to being better specifically when wifi is used with repeaters. I too have had iffy results when extending wifi, even with two Airport Extremes. It works, but at the minimum level I'd consider acceptable.

Who said HP was better than wifi in general? I sure didn't. I'm a bit curious to whether your lack of reply means that you understand and agree with me though...

 

[DustinT]

I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying it doesn't matter since we're talking about an ATV2 and home sharing. Movies that you buy in iTunes won't reach those bitrates necessary to cause the problems SNB are talking about, and if you want to watch uncompressed BluRay rips the first thing you'd want to do is to buy something other than an ATV2.

I don't really see the point in arguing that home plugs is a bad idea for an ATV2 since 1080p content with very high bitrate is having problem pushing through the power lines, because the ATV2 isn't going to do it justice either way.

It's an inferior solution per se, but a perfectly valid option when talking about an ATV2. The ATV2 will reach its potential before home plugs becomes a bottle neck for data transfer.

Compromising, and advocating compromise when the proper solution is reasonable is never a good idea. HomePlug currently is a solution in search of a problem. And not a very good solution at that.

Who said HP was better than wifi in general? I sure didn't. I'm a bit curious to whether your lack of reply means that you understand and agree with me though...

Apologies, I missed your response until now. I trust my response above will answer your question.

 

[hafr]

Compromising, and advocating compromise when the proper solution is reasonable is never a good idea. HomePlug currently is a solution in search of a problem. And not a very good solution at that.

Why isn't using home plugs a good solution when connecting the ATV2 to the network? You have given two arguments. The first is that it's more expensive, but to that I say it's subjective. I'd rather pay a premium to get rid of the visible cables, you're fine with having them there so we can forget about that argument. The second is that you can't play content that the ATV2 can't do justice, that argument is invalid since keeping that kind of content in iTunes for an ATV2 is nothing short of waste of space.

So, pricing apart since it's a matter of whether someone thinks it's worth it or not, and considering the transfer speeds are enough to play anything that the ATV2 is made for, why is home plugs a bad idea when connecting an ATV2?

 

[DustinT]

Why isn't using home plugs a good solution when connecting the ATV2 to the network? You have given two arguments. The first is that it's more expensive, but to that I say it's subjective. I'd rather pay a premium to get rid of the visible cables, you're fine with having them there so we can forget about that argument. The second is that you can't play content that the ATV2 can't do justice, that argument is invalid since keeping that kind of content in iTunes for an ATV2 is nothing short of waste of space.

So, pricing apart since it's a matter of whether someone thinks it's worth it or not, and considering the transfer speeds are enough to play anything that the ATV2 is made for, why is home plugs a bad idea when connecting an ATV2?

I'm just going to let the answers I gave above by my final comment on this topic. I suspect we've derailed the OP's thread enough already.

 

[hafr]

I'm just going to let the answers I gave above by my final comment on this topic. I suspect we've derailed the OP's thread enough already.

How can it have derailed the thread? If it is in fact a problem with the wifi, then home plugs is an option he has. You claim it's a bad solution, and I'm curious to why it's a bad solution - especially now, since you keep on claiming it without actually having any arguments.

And, as I've said, remember that this is about an ATV2.

 

[tiptopp]

But...

... to the OP's problem...

This question has raised some interesting points, and valid ones for you to think about in terms of how you connect your new kit.

But before that, I hope that you resolve this issue. My suggestions as to how to test it are valid, I think, and I'd be surprised if it was an issue with the WiFi if the aTV is otherwise connecting to the internet and giving access to content via that.

Let us know how you resolve it.

Tiptopp

 

[DustinT]

My suggestions as to how to test it are valid, I think, and I'd be surprised if it was an issue with the WiFi if the aTV is otherwise connecting to the internet and giving access to content via that.

Agreed, it should work through WiFi repeaters, albeit poorly. That isn't not working at all speaks to another issue.

----------

How can it have derailed the thread? If it is in fact a problem with the wifi, then home plugs is an option he has. You claim it's a bad solution, and I'm curious to why it's a bad solution - especially now, since you keep on claiming it without actually having any arguments.

And, as I've said, remember that this is about an ATV2.

As I already stated, I have nothing further to say about this subject to you.

 

[hafr]

Agreed, it should work through WiFi repeaters, albeit poorly. That isn't not working at all speaks to another issue.

Which is why I think that it could be a good idea to test his home sharing settings by using a second computer. That way he can make sure it's actually something with the wifi causing the problem...

As I already stated, I have nothing further to say about this subject to you.

I take it as you agree with me that home plugs is a valid option for an ATV2, since you haven't produced a single argument against it, except that it's bad for streaming content that the ATV2 isn't made for.

 

[DustinT]

I take it as you agree with me that home plugs is a valid option for an ATV2, since you haven't produced a single argument against it, except that it's bad for streaming content that the ATV2 isn't made for.

I wish you could just let this go. Why must you keep harassing me on a subject that I've explained myself fully on already? If you don't agree with my answer, that's fine. But this relentless harassment is a little over the top.