iTunes 4.8 & AirTunes Express Problems-Sick of It!

[Balin64]

I have an ActionTec DSL router provided by Qwest. I was having problems a few weeks ago with dropped connections from iTunes to my AirPort Express. I went through hell trying to make my connection stable. Well, I was finally able to. It has been working without a single dropped connection since.

So, iTunes 4.8 appears in Software Update. I install it: the freakin' dropped connections are back. The worst of it all: My PB is only about 4 damn feet from the damn router, and the AirPort Express is only about 6 feet from the router. Argghh!

The AirPort menu icon drops to a single bar when the problems occur: and it is not real-time: Air Tunes drops out first, then the damn menu icon goes to a single bar; after a fe seconds of silence, the music returns and then the AirPort icon returns to full bars.

This is completely unacceptable. Tiger and iTunes is really pissing me off; I dis a clean install, repaired permissions after every single install of software.

I am hating my damn Mac right now: God Damn it! There is nothing worse than listening to Tunes and having them drop out! Specially when I have shelled out so much dough for this crap! Damn Powerbook, AirTunes, Tiger, Wireless DSL connection, etc.

Stay way clear of iTunes 4.8. How can Apple mess this up so damn bad?

And before you wonderful peoples go on about the router: it is perfectly fine. It is the damn iTunes 4.8 upddate that broke everything. Damn I am so angry right now... by the way, my music just dropped out AGAIN as I type this... the AirPort icon in the Menu bar shows one bar even though the goddamn router is 4 feet away.

How the hell do I get iTunes 4.7 back? They can keep their damn videos. Idiots. Can you tell I'm mad? Sorry...

 

[Balin64]

Oh Yeah...

And the stupid iTunes widget in Dashboard is completely useless for me: it takes about 10 seconds to refresh and never responds immediately when I invoke Dashboard. DAMN! the iTunes just cut off AGAIN! This is ********. I am ready to take out my SE30 and ditch this crap...

if only my SE30 had a wireless card and a browser I could use MacRumors with...

DAMN! It drops out again! I've had it. I'm off to see if I can replace iTunes. Piece of crap 4.8...

 

[daveL]

Don't know what to say. I stream music from my G5 to AEx many hours each day. I have a Linksys WiFi Access Point in the basement and the AEx upstairs inside a cabnet. It has worked flawlessly with iTunes 4.7 and continues to do so with iTunes 4.8.

 

[peterj1967]

There a many people having issues with AE and iTunes, it took a long time to get mine running smoothly and even now it still drops on occasions.

Here are 499 comments about the issues

http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?128@306.ToCva8RWU53.2@.6897492e

Here's the steps I took to fix up AE.

- Quicktime Settings, reduce the bandwidth you have selected
- Turn on Network Robustness
- Set the AE to G networking only
- Use the lower WEP encryption
- Lock the AE to one channel

I think that's the set of things I changed, I did it over a month and it was a while ago, but read the Apple Support thread, they have a lot of complaints and a lot of solutions people have tried.

In my opinion, it's not technology that is ready for prime time, but you can get it to work.

 

[Dr.Gargoyle]

I must be one of the lucky ones, since I have never had any problems with iTunes and AE. Everything has worked flawless from the beginning.
However, I would be mad too if I had the problems you are telling about. Heck, it almost sounds like you were on a MS machine.
This is probably totally unrelated, but some modems can cause a LOT of problems for AE. My broadband provider sent me another modem just becasue they never could get the standard modem work (even if it should technically) with Macs equipped with AE. If nothign else works it might be worth a try...

 

[daveL]

I must be one of the lucky ones, since I have never had any problems with iTunes and AE. Everything has worked flawless from the beginning.
However, I would be mad too if I had the problems you are telling about. Heck, it almost sounds like you were on a MS machine.
This is probably totally unrelated, but some modems can cause a LOT of problems for AE. My broadband provider sent me another modem just becasue they never could get the standard modem work (even if it should technically) with Macs equipped with AE. If nothign else works it might be worth a try...

Completely OT. I noticed your sig. Is this what you're looking for?

http://www.lyx.org

 

[Balin64]

Many Thanks!

I am calmer now, but still kind of upset!

Thanks for the link. I suspect that iTunes 4.8 just does not stream as fast as 4.7 did

What bothers me is that it makes the wireless connection almost useless, even at a short distance. Even Safari slows to a crawl when it's choking.

Oh well... back to square one...

 

[Dr.Gargoyle]

Completely OT. I noticed your sig. Is this what you're looking for?

http://www.lyx.org

I have tried it. However, installing all the subprograms and add ons is just a ...mess. Never got it to work properly (dvi files got corrupted), and since I need a LaTex editor professionally....well. I must have something stable. Heck, I wouldnt mind paying $200 for a stable wysiwyg program. $300 even. Thanks for the tip though, I appreciate it.

 

[Koodauw]

And the stupid iTunes widget in Dashboard is completely useless for me: it takes about 10 seconds to refresh and never responds immediately when I invoke Dashboard. DAMN!

I agree. Its worthless. You might as well click on iTunes in the dock. I cant believe Apple thinks this is useful.

 

[Dr.Gargoyle]

I agree. Its worthless. You might as well click on iTunes in the dock. I cant believe Apple thinks this is useful.

I think they added that widget just to show what you would do with dashboard. The iTune widget is both slow and obsolete.

 

[mcarnes]

I think I'll keep 4.7 a little longer.

 

[Balin64]

I think I'll keep 4.7 a little longer.

Keeping in mind the two posts above yours...

Yes, it very frustrating. I hope this is something Apple fixes ver soon.

Let's keep in mind this is first rev softaware... but we can still bitch!

If this is part of 10.4.5 then we can start a campaign.

But I'm still pissed off!

iTunes 4.8 still skips....

 

[peterj1967]

If you have a .Mac account

The image for iTunes 4.7.1 is located

iDisk:Software:Apple Software:iTunes 4.7.1.dmg

Apple's getting sloppy

 

[Westside guy]

iTunes 4.8 was a security upgrade - 4.7.1 is exploitable. Staying at 4.7.x is probably not wise.

I would hope if people are having problems they are reporting said problems to Apple, rather than simply complaining about them on MacRumors. Speaking as a programmer, I can tell you it's hard to fix a problem you don't know about.

I've had no issues with 4.8 and streaming over Airport Extreme or Express to my stereo.

 

[Deschet]

Help!!!!!!!!!!!! Airtunes problems

I have recently purchased a few Airport Express routers as well as an Airport Extreme. In brief, I have all the units arranged around my apartment in an attempt to get better coverage throughout the building. Much of the time, everything works smoothly. However, often... usually when I have guests over... my airtunes will drop out. I check my Airport Client Monitor and see the transfer rate going to crap! Down in the basement. I have no cordless phones, and don't run the microwave oven. The signal is fine... 40 dB signal to noise ratio. I can't explain these drop-offs. Before I had the Airport Express simply as a airtunes router, and all worked fine. No drop-offs. Now that it is part of a multi-router network... it drops off seemingly at the worst possible times. I run, in total, four routers in the apartment. One in the bedroom, the airport for the iTunes, the main base station and the Extreme as another range extender (So I can go outside.) Any help would be greatly appreciated.