# iTunes sharing fails over airport



## aicul (Feb 20, 2005)

Hi,

Can anyone help before I throw the mac out the window?

I have two macs connected by airport and want to share itunes music between the two.  A bit like airport express but using 2 macs.

I have activated itunes sharing in the sharing preferences panel for both macs. But the shared music icon does not appear in itunes. 

I also tried sharing itunes between two acconts on the same mac, this works fine. So I guess Itunes sharing works but something is preventing it from working over airport.

Any ideas... please...


----------



## xero (Feb 28, 2005)

have you tried turning your firewall off completely on both computers just as a test? also, are you using an actual Apple AirPort base station or are you using a 3rd party? although it shouldn't matter, i've seen some strange options in 3rd party solutions that may inhibit iTunes sharing if they were accidently turned on.


----------



## aicul (Mar 2, 2005)

No did not try to stop the firewall completely. How would I do that? set all ports to "open"?

The airport is without any base station. It is between two macs with internal airport cards. So I guess this is 100% apple oem stuff.


----------



## jamerican (Mar 2, 2005)

You have to disable the firewalls. I do not share my iTunes between 2 computers, but I use Airport Express and the Airport Extreme card in my G5 to beam my iTunes library to my stereo in the living room. It works great. Check the Airport forum on the Apple discussion boards. A lot of useful information there. Hope this helps.


----------



## aicul (Mar 3, 2005)

jamerican said:
			
		

> You have to disable the firewalls./QUOTE]
> I do not believe that disableing the firewalls is necessary. Just opening the iTunes port should be more than sufficient. I would hate to believe that apple has such a security loop-hole in their iLife tools.


----------



## xero (Mar 3, 2005)

i agree that opening the ports will work fine, however, i've seen in the past that sometimes if you start the firewall and then open a port w/ the GUI, ipfw get's hung up and doesn't put a rule in. cycling the firewall helps sometimes, but just for testing i think it would be good to rule out the firewall completely by trying to connect to the shared library w/ the firewall off temporarily.


----------



## aicul (Mar 4, 2005)

I cannot conceive pulling down the firewall without a clear cut reason for doing this. Completing a "just in case" simple test is not an option. Its sounds more like, try this, try that, etc. 

I want to beam iTunes between macs in a secure manner, that means with the firewall, so doing tests without the firwall does not seem constructive to me. 

Care to explain what technical aspect of the scenario such a firewall-less test attempts to resolve?

Anyone have other options?


----------



## slowdog (Mar 30, 2005)

aicul said:
			
		

> Hi,
> 
> Can anyone help before I throw the mac out the window?
> 
> ...



I've got the same set up as you, with two macs connected over airport, and when I first set up the iTunes sharing I had problems until I opened up the appropriate port.  I think it's 3689.  You may need to set it up, as I don't think the port is there by default in the Sharing preferences but it's very simple (as you would expect on a Mac)


----------



## aicul (Mar 30, 2005)

The iTunes dedicate port for sharing is active. 

Actually my setup works now. Must of have been some glitch somewhere. Difficult to tell after the different software upgrades I have done recently. Thanks any way for your feed-back.


----------



## Natobasso (Mar 30, 2005)

Maybe your connection wasn't strong enough to allow iTunes to connect. Try istumbler to test your wireless broadcast to make sure it's strong and fast enough. Are you using B or G standard? (Airport Extreme or regular.)


----------



## aicul (Mar 30, 2005)

The distance does not seem to be a problem right now, iTunes is streaming through.

As for airpot, System Profiler says its an airport extreme (on both macs).

Agian, the problem is now completely resolved (but I don't know why) further to upgrading software using Software Update...


----------



## Natobasso (Mar 30, 2005)

Distance isn't always the biggest factor in weakening a wireless signal. It's usually interference that does the most damage. 

Good thing you solved the problem!


----------



## aicul (Mar 30, 2005)

Wish I knew what did the trick. 

But I can ascertain that it was NOT related to the iTunes port in the firewall. 
Also it was not interference (as I cound exchange files).

Cheers to all


----------

