The problem is with ATV2 wake up from sleep. The workaround is to never set the ATV2 to sleep, now I haven't need to turn home sharing on/off for nearly a month now.
However, I hope Apple do fix this problem.
That does nothing for me. I still have the problem.
The issue has got to be in the firmware.
I have 4 apple tvs and the 3 wireless ones used to always have this problem. Once I wired all of them to a access point, the problem went away. BTW, my router is a 2011 apple extreme.
The problem is with ATV2 wake up from sleep. The workaround is to never set the ATV2 to sleep, now I haven't need to turn home sharing on/off for nearly a month now.
However, I hope Apple do fix this problem.
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Does anyone know how much of a power hog the Apple TV is when left on?
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I was having a similar problem in Windows 7. Anytime the AppleTV 2 finished with a playlist (or song list, or album, etc.) it would not be able to reconnect to my computer and I would need to stop and restart homesharing on the PC.
I found that the solution was in the Inbound Rules section of Advanced Settings on Windows Firewall. The inbound exceptions for Bonjour were only applicable to machines on the domain, Instead, I modified the exception for all machines on "private" networks (this is a network profile setting that's specific to Windows 7 and Vista, I think).
Anyway, it works now. I assume forcing the applicable ports to stay open would have had the same effect, but I don't know for sure.
I have the same problem with my iPod Touch. To be honest, I think Home Sharing falls into the category of 'Not Fit For Purpose'. I can browse the internet without any problem and so don't see how it can therefore be a network connectivity issue.