AirTunes problem

[Kenny Pollock]

I just went out and bought an Airport Express tonight, and all seemed well.. until I wanted to play music.

I don't have any wireless cards in my computers, or a wireless router. I plugged the APE (through ethernet) to the router that all of my computers are hooked up to, as well as my internet.

It shows up in my Airport setup, and it shows up in iTunes. I have AirTunes over ethernet checked. When I play through my speakers, all is well. When I select "TV Room" it connects, but the time elapsed moves a second every few minutes. When it plays for a second, it sounds great through the stereo... just wish I could get it working. Can anyone help?

 

[Daveway]

Your music is playing, right? So what's the problem?

 

[Kenny Pollock]

No, it's not. That's the problem.
I hit play with "TV Room" selected..

Elapsed time: 0 seconds

3 minutes later...

Elapsed time: 2 seconds

etc.

 

[broken_keyboard]

Have you tried, for a test, just plugging the Mac directly in to the AE?

I know you won't have Internet, and it wouldn't be the final setup, but if it works you will know the AE is not faulty and it's most likely some compatibility/setting between the router and the AE.

 

[Daveway]

Sounds like you may have high network traffic and the music doesn't have enough bandwidth to get through.
How many computers are on the network?

 

[Kenny Pollock]

Only 2 are in use right now. Almost no traffic at all.

 

[Kenny Pollock]

Have you tried, for a test, just plugging the Mac directly in to the AE?

I know you won't have Internet, and it wouldn't be the final setup, but if it works you will know the AE is not faulty and it's most likely some compatibility/setting between the router and the AE.

That works great. Now I don't know how to proceed in fixing it over the router.

 

[yinyang]

have you disabled the wireless on the APExpress?

i've beeen working on something similar for work for a windows driven 'thingy' but it worked fine going from PC to a switch to APEx to amp

 

[Kenny Pollock]

Yeah I tried disabling wireless with no luck.

 

[Kenny Pollock]

Even went to Apple Store genius bar, printed me out "how to put it in client mode"- but I don't HAVE a wireless router!

 

[yinyang]

in the airport admin utility, on the airport tab, click the base station options and select the 'enable ethernet port'...if you haven't already that is!

 

[Kenny Pollock]

Yeah I've done it

 

[yinyang]

is that a 'done it but still have a problem' or 'done it and it works' kind of done it!?

 

[Kenny Pollock]

Done and it doesn't work.

I went out and bought a 16-port switch today, and AirTunes worked fine. Now I restarted everything, and had to facotry-reset it... now in setup utility is recognizes it but there's a problem between my setup utility and the APE.

 

[Sedulous]

Sounds like an interference problem. Do you have a 2.4 GHz phone, microwave, a lot of neighbors?

Maybe at this point it is best to start over. If you aren't using the AEx as a router, then it is a simple process.

Plug AEx into your router. Using your Mac, start up Airport Admin Utility. Hopefully your AEx shows up in the list... double click it. A new panel opens (with your AEx name at the top of the panel). There are two important things to check (if you've disabled wireless). Under the "Internet" tab, be sure to get your AEx a valid IP number (probably DHCP). I've also turned off distribute IP addresses (under the "Network" tab). The second important thing (as you obviously already know) is the last tab on the right, "Music". Once Airtunes is enabled, everything should work fine. If not, there is something else wrong. I don't think "enable Airtunes over Ethernet" is needed for what you are trying to do.

 

[Kenny Pollock]

I got it fixed.