ATV2 will play with PC but not with Mac?

[tomponzi]

Ok, I'm a noob so my search-fu may be weak and I have not found an answer to my conundrum.

Set Up: On my network at home I have a mac mini (2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB ram, OS X 10.6.8) acting as a media server, with the itunes media library stored on a 3TB G-technology drive attached directly to the mac via USB. I use my windoze work machine (Core i7 3.4 GHz, 16GB ram, Win 7 64 bit) to do all the heavy lifting (handbrake etc) and this has an identical itunes library backed up on a WD 6TB Mybook Duo NAS. My router is a BT home hub version 3 that goes straight into a Netgear Prosafe 16 port gigabit switch, and everything hard wired on the network runs from this switch.

On the ethernet, as well as the two machines and the 6GB NAS I previously mentioned, I have 4 ATVs (2 x ATV 2 and 2 x ATV3), another WD 2TB NAS, an HP printer and 3 humax freesat boxes. Everything that is connected to the switch is manually assigned an IP address.

Finally, in the house trying to access the wi-fi at any time are an iphone 4, two iphone 5s, an ipad, an ipad 3 and three HP laptops. (Did I mention my internet costs me a small fortune).

The Mac and the Win7 machine have both been updated with the latest version of itunes and all the ATVs have just been updated. This mess of technology has been happily running from the one itunes account, until the latest update.

The problem: Both ATV 3s can see and access my itunes libraries stored via the Mac and the Win7 machine. The ATV 2s can see and access the itunes library stored via the Win7 machine, but although they can see the library stored via the Mac on the Computers tab (accessed from the main screen), when they try to access the library I get an error message stating they cannot find the library as it does not appear to be on the same network! WTF?

I do not know where to start with this issue. Can a kind soul please offer any advice?

 

[jezzastern]

What about allowing the ATV2s to use automatic network settings rather than setting them yourself manually. It might be worth a try. Also rebooting all routers, computers and ATVs.

 

[Panch0]

That's a puzzler... I was thinking that you had a problem with your Mac's firewall, but the ATV3s would be blocked as well.

I would try connecting the ATV2(s) via WiFi + DHCP and see if the problem clears. If it does, try switching back to ethernet.

 

[tomponzi]

Ok, power cycling everything in the house (computers, switches, routers and ATVs) caused the ATV2s to work with the library on the Mac when connected via ethernet, but not when connected via wi-fi only?

They both still work seamlessly with the library stored on the PC?

 

[drsox]

Ok, power cycling everything in the house (computers, switches, routers and ATVs) caused the ATV2s to work with the library on the Mac when connected via ethernet, but not when connected via wi-fi only?

They both still work seamlessly with the library stored on the PC?

You didn't say whether it used to work or not. If it did use to work, what did you change and did you restart everything afterwards ?
In a complex network like this (I also have a complex network), IMO the only way to fix stuff is to break it down into modules and test them independently, then interconnect. I only have 1 ATV as a test, but I do have 3x NASs, 4 switches, 4 Airport units, 3 Media streamers, 1 PC and 3 Macs as well as iPhones/iPads and a 6 unit Sonos system.

 

[eduardrw]

Is your Netgear Prosafe 16 port gigabit switch - managed? (VLan's?)
All your devices are on the same sub net?
Did you turn on software firewalls on Mac's?


I assume you power cycled in the right sequence with ~ 30sec wait in between steps:
1. Modem/Router
2. Switch
3. all computers/devices on the network.