Apple TV not working with Meru

[kenrick]

Dear all,

 

I wonder if you can help me. My DP would like to use Ipads instead of PCs in the classroom and would also like to hook up the Ipad and IWB via Apple TV. However we cannot get it to work on our wireless, we simply cannot get any connection at all.

 

Does anyone know where we are going wrong?

 

Many thanks

 

Paul

[Max_Power]

Will need more information than what you have given.

 

Is it managed wireless? Have MAC authentication? Type of security etc are examples of information needed really otherwise its a bit of a needle in a haystack with information you've provided.

Does it work if you connect with network cable? Do you connect if you specify a static IP.

 

If you cant connect via wireless - personally I would attempt via a cable in the first instance then at least you have an idea if its network based or wireless based issue.

[kenrick]

We have tried the Apple TV with an ethernet cable and unfortunately no luck. We use WPA 2 / psk and there is no Mac authentication enabled. We have also tried connecting with a static IP but have had no luck.

 

Many thanks

 

Paul

[IrritableTech]

I've never used an AppleTV but could it be a proxy issue? Apple TV: Connections through proxy servers are not supported

[kenrick]

That is probably it IrritableTech, thank you. I have two seperate SSIDs, one that goes through the Proxy and one that runs through a TMG. Do you think the Apple TV will work through the TMG?

[paulfinlay]

The proxy issue should only come into play if you are trying to access the internet. If you are trying to share info between ipad and apple TV it should work. Are you able to connect the ipad to the wireless network? If not is your Meru firmware up to date? I know Aerohive released a patch about 6 months ago to sort out issues with i-devices, so Meru may be experiencing similar issues.

[Abaddon]

You also need broadcasting across both (all three?) parts of the network for AppleTV to register on iPads.. we had to turn off broadcasting across the wireless segment of our network just prior to Christmas to troubleshoot a wireless performance issue, and it wiped AppleTV out completely, unless the AppleTV was connected via network cable, AND the machine running iTunes was also wired.. nothing wireless could see it.

[kenrick]

We are trying to get what is displayed on the Ipad, to display on the IWB via Apple TV. Broadcasting is switched on, haven't considered looking for a firmware upgrade however.

[Abaddon]

I believe you have to be on on iOS 5.0.1 as well?

[psydii]

what release are you running? There was an update (4.0-158) to Meru a week or so ago that resolves some apple connectivity issues.

 

I'd be quite suprised if Meru and ATV worked together in a default configuration. Some apple stuff does multicast. Some apple stuff does IPv6. Most Apple stuff does bonjour. By default I think Meru has all of these 'switched off'. Have you given Meru Support a call? (and posting back a solution here is always welcome!)

 

If you feeling like a deep-dive into troubleshooting, and want to get escalated to Meru's very clever people quickly then you need to get some packet captures of it working for Meru to compare.

 

I'd configure the ATV to use wired ethernet only and connect it to a managed switch.

Connect up a home Broadband router or Airport to the same VLAN

I'd then mirror that switch port to a machine running netmon or wireshark.

Connect your iPad to the home broadband router's wireless network, use it as you intend and then see what you could make out from the packet capture.

 

Repeat this but move the iPad onto the Meru network (leaving the ATV on wired interface)

You can packet capture on a Meru controller I believe. Otherwise capture the ATV port.

 

 

Compare and contrast.

 

Pass your findings to Meru and see what they say. Let us know.

Edited January 14, 2012 by psydii

[kenrick]

Thank you for all your responses, got a few things now I can test. Will let you know how i get on.

[Dos_Box]

Sorry for the late reply (BETT can be such a pain at times). ESSA Academy in Bolton have lot's of Apple TV's and clients are connected via a Meru wireless infrastructure. It does work (and very well too) because I've seen it with my own eyes, so it's not impossible. Either try giving Meru's UK spport a bell or asking the academy if you can have a word wth their IT guys if any of the suggestions above don't work out for you.

[kenrick]

I believe it is the Essa Academy that the DP is getting his inspiration from, good to hear it does work.

[plexer]

We have tried the Apple TV with an ethernet cable and unfortunately no luck. We use WPA 2 / psk and there is no Mac authentication enabled. We have also tried connecting with a static IP but have had no luck.

 

Many thanks

 

Paul

 

If it doesn't work with a physical connection you need to solve that first before thinking about wireless.

 

Ben

[chrisgoodrich]

Hi ,

 

For info I have got this working basically Airplay needs bonjour working on the network. To get bonjour working mulitcasting needs to be enabled. Please see my blog post at iPad Pilot Blog | A blog from The Mountbatten School about our iPad Pilot for more details.

[jc666777]

Apple Devices use Bonjour to announce themselves on the network

Bonjour is apple's name for their zeroconfing networking

 

Bonjour uses 224.0.0.251/252 as addresses, the router chaps will know that those addresses are non-routable so routers drop all that traffic.

 

That means that an AppleTV on one subnet cannot be discovered by a Ipad on another subnet. So you can't mirror your stream to the AppleTV.

 

Wireless vendors are scratching their heads help what do we do.

Many vendors are selectively 'bridging' bonjour broadcasts

 

For example Cisco will 'bridge' the appleTV broadcasts onto the user wireless subnets (check cisco.com for detail), so users can discover the TVs

OK if you just have a couple TVs but imagine a couple hundred and all the bonjour broadcasts being swamped to all vlans all users . nightmare !.

 

Worth noting that AppleTV wireless only uses WPA-PSK so joining it to an 802.1x proper secure network is not an option

 

Also your policy on the passcode for the apple tv is going to have to be strict - if you give all apple tvs the same passcode then a student learns one passcode - could stream some very interesting stuff.

 

I here declare I have an interest in Aruba but it does allow role based access (only allowing staff to use TVs but allowing staff to permit ad-hoc student access)

and location based access (find the tvs in the science block or on my floor only)

 

jc

[andy8goals]

Having got a wireless network that uses Aruba we had previously got Apple TV2s working with few problems. However Apple TV3s are proving to much more problematic. I'm pretty certain that it is because, like many schools. use a proxy server. I can take it home and it works, bring it back to school and it will work for a few hours and then drops. Any ideas/solutions?

[psydii]

Caveat: I have never played with this stuff.

 

But... Isn't zeroconf a peer to peer multicast DNS kind of a thing, thus once a device has joined the network it's chatter is kept to a minimum? Thus 100 devices should pose no more of a problem than 100 of devices of any other kind?

 

Also, if you are doing ipad->ATV then perhps having a dedicated VLAN / subnet for them would be the solution? Which incidently is what the pre SD5 Meru system forces you to do for mulitcast anyway.

[mhowell]

Kenrick

Feel free to contact me directly, [email protected], Mark Howell

I can assure you Apple TVS work just fine on Meru. If you drop me a line with any relevant config information we'd be happy to help if your issue is not resolved

Apologies for only just seeing this post on Edugeek

regards

Mark

[BRB]

Hi.

 

I know this thread is old but here is an howto.

 

Log into the GUI

Click on the “Configuration” Tab

Click on “System Settings” under “Devices”

Click on “UDP Broadcast Up”

Click “Add”

Enter port number “5297″ click OK

Repeat to enter in port numbers “5298″ and “5353″

Click on “UDP Broadcast Down”

Click “Add”

Enter port number “5297″ click OK

Repeat to enter in port numbers “5298″ and “5353″

Click on the “Configuration” Tab

Click on “ESS” under “Wireless”

Select the relevant ESS profile and click “Settings”

Set the “Allow Multicast Flag” to “On”

 

Source:

iPad, Apple TV and Meru Wireless Network | admin

 

 

Kind regards

BRB

[SHimmer45]

doesnt there need to be a 1 to 1 pairing with the vlans and ESS Profiles.

had it running recently here seems to work well. (its a home based product so be interesting to see how it fairs in the long run, not being able to make use of the full screen size of the projector is an interesting feature.....)

[Zourous]

Having got a wireless network that uses Aruba we had previously got Apple TV2s working with few problems. However Apple TV3s are proving to much more problematic. I'm pretty certain that it is because, like many schools. use a proxy server. I can take it home and it works, bring it back to school and it will work for a few hours and then drops. Any ideas/solutions?

 

 

I've got the same config of Aruba wireless and AppleTV3, has anyone worked out a solution yet?

[jrwhitehead]

Make sure you're on a code version that supports airgroup if you're trying to use Apple TVs across a VLANs. Speak with your Aruba partner who will be able to sort this out easily.