iTunes sharing issues

[fatbusinessman]

Ok, here's the situation:

I've got iTunes installed on 3 of the PCs on my home network, and each computer is set to share music with (and play music from) all the others. With my parents' computers, this works fine, and my computer can play music from both of theirs. However, the trouble comes when I'm using one of their computers and want to play my own music on it.
I can look at my library fine, but as soon as it comes to playing anything, it doesn't work - the entry comes up with a little (!) mark next to it, and refuses to play.

Here's what I've tried doing to solve the problem:

• I've tweaked my firewall settings to allow all the ports that iTunes uses (with help from this guide). The firewall (Outpost) now does not log anything as being blocked, so I am assuming that it is getting through the firewall without any problems.
• I have also tried disabling my firewall completely, to no avail.
• I have tried creating a separate user profile, putting a couple of sample MP3s in its library, and playing from another computer. This didn't work, so it would seem to be a computer-wide problem.
• I have tried disabling all but one of my network cards (strictly speaking I have 3, if you count my Bluetooth adapter, which my computer does).

I still don't seem to be able to play my music from another computer, and I don't know why. I had the same problem at Uni, so it would seem that it's not something specifically to do with my home configuration. Any thoughts?

 

[Dubbs]

Sounds like copy protection doing it. What happens if you manually go to that share and then try to play the MP3 with another player? If that works then maybe deauthorising and re-authorising in iTunes may help?

 

[fatbusinessman]

Unlikely to be copy protection - that only applies to music purchased through Apple's Music Store. My MP3 collection is stuff that I've copied from my CD collection, so it isn't copy-protected.

And I can't de-authorise anything, as I don't have an Apple account.

 

[Shovel]

This is only happening on your personal computer alone?

For sake of testing, disable the firewall completely and see what happens. They are tetchy buggers and it's really worth ruling it out completely, whether it says it's blocking anything or not.

 

[mookie]

re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:re:

if it was the firewall, surely the machine wouldnt show up at all?
i know whenever i get a question mark in itunes, it usually means that it cant find the file, due to me moving it or it being renamed? maybe try removing all the tracks from your library and re-adding them all.

 

[Shovel]

Also, have you got any strangely named folders that your media library resides in? This is getting a bit long winded now, but Apple's implementation of Windows begs lots to be desired in terms of UI - I wouldn't put it past them at all to have cocked up some special character in Windows file paths or something equally foolhardy...

I have to concede I've never used the sharing function - though given the networky nature of things round here - and the quantity of Radiohead MP3s Nathan has downloaded over the past 3 months - it might actually be a welcome addition to our little network... /me plots. Anyway, back on point: How does it work? Does it make a standard Windows network share? Or is it some kind of iTunes server?

 

[mookie]

it uses rezendevous(sp?), an apple 'no config' style of neworking, its pretty funky, you enable sharing in itunes (password protectable too) and any other machines on the network with sharing enabled pop up in your playlist 'list'. it works really well, especially over wireless connections, means i can sit anywhere in the house and have all my mp3s at my fingertips. If my ibook hadnt just fucked up. yet again. grr.

 

[fatbusinessman]

Ben: I've tried disabling the firewall completely - makes no difference. The only option I have left is to try uninstalling it completely, but I don't see that that should make a difference.

Regarding the path, my MP3 collection is currently based in M:\ (a FAT32 partition of my secondary HDD). I guess it could be the case that iTunes can't share files which reside on a different physical drive to iTunes itself, but I would doubt it.

Mookie:It's not a case of the files having been moved/deleted - the files play fine on my local computer, it's just playing them over a network which is a problem.

Regarding Rendezvous, this is what iTunes uses to discover other people's shared libraries (basically, it just sends out a UDP packet saying "Anybody out there?", and the other computers return packets saying "Yes, and here's my list of other people too"). However, the actual streaming is done through a standard TCP connection, to my knowledge.