Very Strange issues w/ syncing & streaming

[msas]

Have had my ATV for a few weeks now and have nothing but a rocky start and inconsistent issues. After getting it to sync and stream properly i started out of the blue having some issues. For the last week or so when i go to sync from iTunes, i get an error message saying that it cannot connect with the ATV because a firewall may be blocking port 3689. I've gone thru all the steps adding these ports when i initially couldn't get it to show up in my devices list. Now it shows up but won't sync. The stranger thing is that now i don't get the error message when telling it to sync, it just "acts" like it is syncing but will just go on forever unless i cancel the action. Even stranger is that even it still will stream all my music (i'm not syncing music due to large volume), but i cannot add new music for streaming. My ATV is basically stuck in time from the last successful sync i did, so it shows all my movies that i previously synced (but no new ones i'm trying to add) and all music, podcasts, etc. I have not seen any issues like this in the forums, any help? My environment is:

Hp Windows PC
Windows XP Media Center edition
(New) Linksys WRT160N wireless router
Comcast Motorola cable modem
500GB WD My Book holding all my media, using firewire 400

[msas]

No ideas? No one has had similar issues?

[tinydancer]

What is your network setup like? By that I mean, do you have have multiple routers/airports up and running? Are you set up as a WDS network?

[msas]

Originally Posted by tinydancer

What is your network setup like? By that I mean, do you have have multiple routers/airports up and running? Are you set up as a WDS network?

I have a pretty typical windows home network setup. Like i said, a Motorola cable modem and a new Linksys wireless N WRT160N router. My PC is on ethernet, while the ATV is wireless. I'm using WPA security settings. So far i've only changed the TCP and UDP settings within windows, but not for the router itself. I cannot find anywhere within the router settings to open or allow access for specific ports, maybe thats where the problem lies. My whole problem is, i was able to sync properly at one point but no longer can.

[tinydancer]

well...the reason I asked is because I had a similar problem and it turned out that by me enableing my airport express to extend the range of my network I was creating a problem for my ATV, in that my ATV was "confused" as to which signal to rely upon. So, you may be experiecing some intereference of some sort that comes and goes. But if, as you say, things were once fine and now they are not, then maybe its a problem with the ATV itself. Are you still in the warrenty period? If so, you ought to give Apple a call. They might be able to trouble-shoot it for you. Otherwise it might be a head-scratcher. Sorry for not being of any help.

[msas]

Originally Posted by tinydancer

well...the reason I asked is because I had a similar problem and it turned out that by me enableing my airport express to extend the range of my network I was creating a problem for my ATV, in that my ATV was "confused" as to which signal to rely upon. So, you may be experiecing some intereference of some sort that comes and goes. But if, as you say, things were once fine and now they are not, then maybe its a problem with the ATV itself. Are you still in the warrenty period? If so, you ought to give Apple a call. They might be able to trouble-shoot it for you. Otherwise it might be a head-scratcher. Sorry for not being of any help.

It's possible the problem is the ATV itself, but i usually blame windows for all problems. I wonder if there are any attributes in the iTunes pref. that should or should not be checked.

[Oilbrnr]

I too am having various problems, most of which seems to be network related, although I'm running ethernet from my Mac to the TV. Last week I also got the Port 3689 blocked message. I rebooted everything including the router and it cleared up that issue. Last night I went to play some music (streaming) and it could not find the library.

Apple really needs to get the bugs out of this latest version IMHO.

Have you tried syncing via ethernet? I know that it is probably not a long term solution, but it might help you diagnose the problem.

[gwerhart0800]

I have had my ATV for a while and initially, I could not get it to sync with a windows iTunes via wireless. I could sync if they were on ethernet (wired), but not wireless. After a few updates to iTunes and the 2.0 update on ATV, I was able to sync wirelessly from an iTunes on a winXP box. However, as of this last update to iTunes, it is again broken.

I sync my music to the ATV hard disk and stream my movies ... currently, I have the ATV sync to a Mac Mini to get the music and the movies are coming from the winXP system via "Shared Movies". Not as nice, the graphics for the "album" art seem slow to update when browsing.

[msas]

Well after lots of agonizing about what to do with this issue, i decided after having no luck digging into windows firewalls, etc. that maybe i should just unplug the ATV and restart it. Well wouldn't you know it took a little a while but iTunes recognized it and started syncing with success. It's been a few days now and everything seems to be quite normal. I also turned on the look for wireless speakers option, but not sure if that has anything to do with it. So, looks like a simple restart should always be the first option, as i should have already learned by now.