After iTunes update, cannot play through Airport Express

Question

I've had this problem a few times.
You've updated iTunes and you can see your remote speaker(s) within the program, but when you attempt to stream to them, you'll get an error saying that there was a probelm connecting to your remote speakers. No amount of resetting or reconfiguring your Airports will fix it. Don't waste your time doing that.
A good check to show that your network \ airport is healthy, is if you have an iPod Touch you can stream right from there to your Airport Express. That will let you know that the problem lies somewhere on your computer.
You are most likely having this problem because of the Windows Firewall. A quick check is to disable your Windows Firewall, then launch iTunes and try to stream. If that works, you've found your problem. Reenable your firewall.
.....But wait. I checked my allowable programs, and iTunes.exe is allowed to pass? What gives? Well, the firewall is trying to make the console simple, and only lists the program as itunes.exe. Apparently, the firewall is looking at much more than just the process ID of itunes.exe. When the rule was set up, it likely also identified the allowable process by noting the time\date stamp or a hash of the file. During your upgrade, the filename stays the same, but the rest changes, and the windows firewall won't allow it to pass.
To fix this, delete the existing rule allowing itunes.exe to pass. Once that's done, you can recreate the rule using your new itunes.exe file. Now that it's allowing your new .exe to pass through the firewall, you can now play to your remote speakers again. Yeah, you don't HAVE to delete the old one, but it's a lot cleaner. If you don't delete the old, you won't know which is the "good" one if you ever have to troubleshoot at a later date.
I hope this helps. It drove me a touch nuts for a bit until I realized what was going on. Now it's part of my routine whenever I update iTunes.

Answer 1

Darryl Rehr wrote:
I have configured and re-configured my Airport Express, but I can't get it to receive music from iTunes.
iTunes does recognize presence of Airport Express (named "Stereo Cabinet").
However, when I select "Stereo Cabinet" in the pulldown menu, all I get is reduced volume output through my computer speakers... not through the stereo system hooked up the to the Airport Express.
I've had this problem for months... posted here some time ago, but got no response.
I am running 10.6.2 on an Intel Core duo Macbook laptop. This function used to work just fine, and I can't figure out why it no longer does. I think I had the same trouble under 10.5... but my attempts to figure it out were only sporadic (busy life, you know?).
Can anyone help?
DR
sorry if i ask the obvious but have you enabled airtunes like so ?