Streaming to iPad 2

Recent iTunes releases moved the "Shared Libraries" option

Make sure you have "Shared Libraries" checked in Preferences>General (6th option down on the right)

Thanks. I checked that and yes, that box is ticked already, but nothing :(

It's the same on my PC and my laptop...

Any chance you have a firewall blocking the traffic?

I use the NAT feature on my Netgear DGN 2000, and the configuration of this hasn't changed.

The firewall rules list the ReadyNAS under "always allowed" inbound services.

Referring to my original post, do I take it that it's nothing to do with version 10 of iTunes?

I was referring to a firewall on your PC or Mac (whichever you use)

The bug in ITunes only affected one early version of iTunes 10 and was fixed fairly quickly - if your iTunes installation is up to date then your problem will not be due to that (10.3 certainly has no issue)

OK, problem sorted. I simply rebooted the ReadyNAS device a few times and got Firefly to rescan for files, and it now appears as a library. The ReadyNAS was rebooted prior to me posting the question (don't reboots solve 90% of IT issues? :wink: ) but I thought I'd do it again and it seems to have worked.

Thanks for the help, guys.

Apologies in advance if I should have started a new thread, but this does refer to my original post on this thread...

My iPad has now arrived... :D

I don't use Apple Macs and have even returned an iPhone I had, so I'm not familiar with Apple products at all, but I do use iTunes on my Windows PC and laptops to organise and listen to my music.

My main laptop has my library stored locally, but I also have a copy on the ReadyNAS Duo in the Media share folder. The sharing works fine with laptops/PC, and the ReadyNAS 'library' appears under "Shared" in the folder tree on all laptops and the PC.

When I access the iPod app on my iPad, I can see the library stored on my laptop (if the laptop is on) but can't see the ReadyNAS, meaning my laptop must be on if I want to listen to my music without storing it all on the iPad. Having dug around some forums, most solutions involve Apple productes like AirPlay etc. but as I said, I am not an Apple user and only have the iPad because it was a freebie.

Is there any way of streaming directly from the ReadyNAS Duo to the iPad without other hardware?

Sorry if that sounds like a stupid question...

Not a dumb question at all

The simple fact is that Apple has only very recently enabled iPads to be able to stream music from a server - that all falls under "AirPlay" which unfortunately is a different, though similar, technology to the sharing method used to make your NAS appear in iTunes under "Shared" on your computers. It's unfortunate because the iTunes Server included on all ReadyNAS devices is not AirPlay compliant, and iPads can only stream from an AirPlay server.

There is development in the open source community of a replacement application for the iTunes Server that Netgear use that is AirPlay compliant, but:

1. It'll never be ported to your Duo (too many unsatisfied dependencies)
2. Even porting it to x86 based ReadyNAS is a major task - again due to dependencies

Bottom line - Netgear is severely behind its competition in this area and because they never communicate their plans we have no idea if they are even working on some solution to this.

Your only alternative is to consider installing an app on the iPad that can stream from one of the other ReadyNAS services. For example, I have a couple of Logitech Squeezeboxes which I can control from my iPad via the SqueezePad or iPeng apps, both of which will play the media on the iPad too. I have seen references from others using DLNA client apps so that they can stream from ReadyDLNA which appears to work well - search the forum for more info.

Thanks for the clarification. I must admit, it is disappointing that Netgear are not keeping up with developments.

Taking your suggestion on board, I tried an app called 8player which seems to do the trick.

The problem I have with DLNA streaming (this affects streaming not just to the iPad but also to my Sony Bravia TV and Blu-Ray home theatre system) is that I end up with lots of folders named "null" all over the place...any idea what may be causing this?

Thanks again.

Sorry - no. I don't use DLNA - too many issues with it.