My setup is that I have a dual band combo model/router (Netgear; not my choice but that's the way it is). It actually works very well, but I have moved my study out into a small guest house that only gets a marginal signal, and only the 2.4 band. I bought a Cisco extender that works fine in giving me a great signal in my study. However, my ATV, which is very close to the router, I am assuming keeps connecting to the 2.4 band that is not coming from the extender but directly from the router. I assume that's the case, because even though both devices are connected and iTunes is on, I get a cannot connect to my library message when I try and connect to my iMac. Does this make sense? Does being on the same network mean they must both be on the same "band"? Or in the case of the extender and my iMac, on the same "sub-band"?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Dual Band router question
- Thread starter davidra
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I can't really answer your question but I bought a new Apple TV today and it's definitely 5GHz only.
If the ATV is so close to the router, is it not possible to connect to the router via ethernet?
If the ATV is so close to the router, is it not possible to connect to the router via ethernet?
I wish. Close is relatively close; the extender is through several glass windows and 100 ft. away; the ATV is two rooms away, so a direct connect won't be possible.
You say your new ATV will not attach to 2.4 bands? Are you sure? That means you can only use it with a dual band router....
You say your new ATV will not attach to 2.4 bands? Are you sure? That means you can only use it with a dual band router....
it shouldn't matter whether one is connecting to the 5ghz network and the other is connecting to the 2.4ghz. Unless you've somehow setup a subnet on each band. The easiest way to verify they are on the same network is by looking at the IP addresses. If they are on different subnets the number in the 3rd octet of the IP address will differ. So if your iMac has the address 192.168.1.124
but your appleTV has the address 192.168.0 they'd be on different subnets and may not be able to communicate. I doubt this is the case though.
Is your appleTV able to see the iMac? just not connect to the library?
AppleTV's support 802.11N on both the 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands. While 5ghz can provide a faster connection it also has a much shorter range than 2.4ghz.
but your appleTV has the address 192.168.0 they'd be on different subnets and may not be able to communicate. I doubt this is the case though.
Is your appleTV able to see the iMac? just not connect to the library?
AppleTV's support 802.11N on both the 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands. While 5ghz can provide a faster connection it also has a much shorter range than 2.4ghz.
The single difference with Apple AirPort access points is, that they support 802.11n wide (40MHz) channels only on 5GHz band. So there you can get twice the throughput compared to 2.4GHz band.
Both devices have a zero on the third octet. They have difference SSID's as the extender has it's own MAC address. One of the things that is confusing to me is that with my old extender, it showed up in the IP list on the router. This new one, same maker but two band instead of one, doesn't show the extender in the router list. It's still working fine in spite of that. I also cannot get to the extender via browser. Went through a long chat session with LinkSys about that, which ended with the guy saying "why do you really need to access the extender?". I couldn't come up with a good answer. But it's working because when I scan using the Mac I see two 2.4 GHz bands; one has the BSSID of the extender and it gives a much better signal; in fact I rarely can connect to the "other" 2.4 band, which is coming from the router from some distance. However, I think the ATV is connecting to the base 2.4 band, because the extender is very far away from the ATV, so they are both on 2.4 but the iMac is on the extended and the ATV is on the other 2.4 band. Is that making sense?
I'm not sure what you mean by whether the ATV can "see" the iMac; it says it cannot access the library, which I assumed meant it couldn't see it....
I'm not sure what you mean by whether the ATV can "see" the iMac; it says it cannot access the library, which I assumed meant it couldn't see it....
I wasn't commenting on speed. Just whether a device on one band could talk to a device on the other.
odd that you can't connect to the extender to manage and that its not showing up.
Whenever I've used extenders I stuck with the same SSID on all devices. This allows for a more seamless transition from one AP to the next.
In what way is the extender connected to the router? wirelessly?
With the iMac connected to the extender can you see it in the device list of your router?
Does the airplay icon show up in the toolbar to airplay your iMac to the apple TV?
If i select computers on my Apple TV it says the name of the iTunes library thats available to be shared. Then I can select it and it will take me to the library. Does your apple TV list your computer as an available library? you just can't get past the opening of it?
The IP address that shows up on Wireless Diagnostics for the iMac is the same IP address that shows up on the router for the iMac. However it doesn't show the extender at all. For some reason I think the IP address of the extender (unlike the previous single band extender by the same manufacturer) has a "1" in the third octet, but I can't get it to open when entering that address in my browser. When I opened iTunes I thought I had the problem solved because home sharing was turned off. However even after turning it on the ATV still cannot find my library, even thought it shows the correct apple ID. I really am a novice with this device, but I selected Apple TV on the Airplay icon; when I went back to the ATV and first turned it on it showed my Mac's screen....so I am assuming they can see each other....but the ATV cannot find my library.
I have tried something else. I plugged in my original single band extender (a LinkSys RE1000) that does show up in the router IP list. I tried forgetting the network and re-entering it on the ATV. No matter what I do, it will not see my iMac library. Initially the ATV said to turn on home sharing on iTunes, but it is on and has always been on. The ATV can access my purchased music and has no problem accessing the web. I have several questions. First, on the Apple system prefs screen there is a section for sharing. What is the relationship of this with home sharing on iTunes? And second, on iTunes clicking on the Airplay icon (which is blue) allows the choice of single or multiple, with ATV and computer being the two choices. If you select multiple you are given sliders to adjust. I have no idea what this does, and iTunes help doesn't even address it. What should the choices be?
Blue AirPlay icon means it is connected to playback device.
IMHO when you see sliders, you have the audio-only connection.
The sliders allow you to set the relative volume on each output device.
Apple online support does indeed address it:
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202106
IMHO when you see sliders, you have the audio-only connection.
The sliders allow you to set the relative volume on each output device.
Apple online support does indeed address it:
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202106
OK, thanks. I searched in iTunes help and found nothing. So the sliders are only for audio.
I hate to be such a newbie about this....but is it true that Airplay really has nothing to do with whether or not the ATV can find and open my library? The intersection of "home sharing" and "airplay" kind of makes my head hurt.....
I hate to be such a newbie about this....but is it true that Airplay really has nothing to do with whether or not the ATV can find and open my library? The intersection of "home sharing" and "airplay" kind of makes my head hurt.....
There is some intersection, however. One is on the network level. Called : Service Discovery. Thanks to this feature, aTV can see your shared (or home shared) iTunes library, and iTunes can see your aTV as a media playback device on the network.
The other is the actual playback of your content. It can be via sharing your library contents with others (Home Sharing), or without - just sending your playback in progress to aTV.
From any device that can play audio/video back on itself you can redirect this function to aTV to render on big screen.
Thanks to Home Sharing you can access your iTunes media library from aTV user interface (menus + remote).
Home Sharing actually was born and named after the feature to be able to share once purchased iTunes Store content between 5 computers in your household. It was now in iOS8 / Yosemite extended to Family Sharing (i.e. now you can share your credit card too
).
If the extender has a 1 but your router is distributing addresses with a 0 then the extender is not connected to your router. How did you initially configure the extender?
The sharing menu in system preferences is for sharing files and services with other computers. So sharing a folder, using screen sharing, and other features are managed here it shouldn't affect iTunes.
What happens if you sign back into the same home sharing account on your iMac and Apple TV?