Very strange Mac Pro/Itunes issue

[HyperX13]

I am not sure if this is the correct forum, but here goes. I helped a friend buy a Mac Pro (the 2 proc 8 core one not the new new one 10 gigs ram). We migrated his windows 7 into Fusion and all is well. Everything is fast and he loves it. Next, we went out bought a bunch of airport expresses solely for the purpose of streaming music to them from Itunes. The devices were a snap to setup and show up in the Itunes program. However when you select the device in Itunes, you get a blue horizontal barber shop spinning and the connection times out.

HOWEVER if you do the same thing in the Fusion Windows 7 - it works great (on said mac pro). We can select each airport express and stream music.

I take out my own mac book pro, and get on his Belkin wireless network, and I also can select the air port expresses. No problem.

HOWEVER if I get on his wired network, my mac book pro does the same thing, just spins a barber pole saying trying to connect.

His Wired windows machine that we migrated into the fusion also has no problem connecting.

My theory is that the Belkin switch is somehow blocking something so the stream connection can't be performed on macs. I spent half the night trying to get it to work.

I am thinking about replacing the Belkin router with an airport extreme.

So cliffs:

On wireless network, I can connect to all airport expresses.

On wired one, I can't with Macs but I can with Windows machines (in itunes).

The Belkin is the N1 Vision with latest firmware
http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=377018

Any ideas? I am sure it has to be a networking issue, but then why do the windows machines hook up?

Also - I was able to get into the airport expresses without issues to configure them using wired connection using the macs.

Has anyone heard that Belkin routers could mess with Mac networking?

 

[tamvly]

I worked on a similar situation at a friends house ... never could get iTunes working with Airport Express using a non-Apple router (Mac OS). I finally gave up and moved to an Apple router and all is well.

Sorry, but I never got to the why question.

 

[HyperX13]

I worked on a similar situation at a friends house ... never could get iTunes working with Airport Express using a non-Apple router (Mac OS). I finally gave up and moved to an Apple router and all is well.

Sorry, but I never got to the why question.

Well that is really cool that the Apple router fixed it. What's another $150 when you spent $4,000 on a Mac Pro. 😀

 

[HyperX13]

Just as an update, the Belkin router was messing with the wired network. Replacing it with Airport Extreme resolved my itunes issues and it seems the network is snappier. So if anyone has that belkin, beware.

 

[studiox]

Might be a bit OT: I have never considered the Airport router to be a corporate router based on stability performance but I must say Apple really knows how to make a stabile router. One of my customers has never had any issues with it at all. It just works. When your used to Netgear, Berklin, Linksys, 3com routers they all hang, they all needs to be restarted once in a while.. Apple just works.

 

[HyperX13]

Might be a bit OT: I have never considered the Airport router to be a corporate router based on stability performance but I must say Apple really knows how to make a stabile router. One of my customers has never had any issues with it at all. It just works. When your used to Netgear, Berklin, Linksys, 3com routers they all hang, they all needs to be restarted once in a while.. Apple just works.

Well I had to restart my Time Capsule a few times since I got it. But I agree, the Apple stuff is a lot more stable than the competition. Especially when I use Airport Express devices as my wireless repeaters.