Airplay won't connect to my Airport Express & is intermittent with Airport Utility

Hi
Yesterday, my iTunes 10 stopped connecting via Airplay to my Airport Express. It spent a long time displaying a Connecting message, then finally gave me this error message: "An unknown error (-15006) occurred while connecting to the AirPlay device AirPort Express”.
I have a Macbook Pro 2.5 Ghz Intel Core i5 (6 months old). 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3.
Running OS X 10.7.5.
My main modem/router is a Livebox and I usually going my Airport Express to the Livebox network to play music.
My Airport Express is 802.11g
All my equipment is within a radius of 2 or 3 feet.
I'm aware of at least one other recent thread about this problem (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4150757?tstart=0), but none of the solutions suggested have resolved my problem, so I have summarized a list of the actions I have so far taken to try and resolve the problem. Hopefully, this will help others sort this issue out for themselves.
ACTIONS TO SOLVE ISSUE
1. Ran Airport Utility 6.1, which was unable to find my AX.
2. Downloaded, installed & ran Airport Utility 5.6. AU 5.6 still couldn't find my AX, giving me this error message:
"AirPort Utility was unable to find any AirPort wireless devices. Make sure the AirPort wireless device you want to set up is plugged in and in range of your computer, and then click rescan to try again."
3. Unplugged the AX and did a hard reset. AU found my AX and I configured it to join my Livebox network. After being configured, the green light came on the AX, which also appeared on the AU list of devices. However, AU still had the message "Waiting for Airport Express to reset…" with a spinning ball for several minutes. So, I closed the AU window (as AU advised), and reopened it. Happily, the AX was still listed.
4. Reopened iTunes and tried to select my AX as speaker output. At that exact moment, the AX vanished from the AU list of devices and, after the long wait, iTunes gave me the same error message as before:
"An unknown error (-15006) occurred while connecting to the AirPlay device AirPort Express”.
When I tried to rescan for devices in AU, I got the same error message:
"AirPort Utility was unable to find any AirPort wireless devices. Make sure the AirPort wireless device you want to set up is plugged in and in range of your computer, and then click rescan to try again."
5. Hard reset and configuration of AX. This time I didn't close the AU window, I waited for the AX to reset. When the spinning ball finally vanished, I got this error message:
"An error occurred while reading the configuration. Make sure your Apple Wi-Fi base station is plugged in and in range of your computer or connected via Ethernet and try again. (-6753)"
6. Apple help pages suggested updating the AX firmware. I downloaded the firmware update, did the AX hard reset/configuration routine, then tried to run the firmware installer and got this error message:
"An error occurred while attempting to communicate with the AirPort Express. (-8)"
7. Ran all the software updates, including upgrading to iTunes 11.
8. Spent over 5 hours doing many many hard resets of the AX, combined with iTunes restarts, MBP restarts etc. Along the way, I discovered that if I hard reset & configured the AX, after a few minutes, AX would disappear from the AU device list without me doing anything.
9. Attempted to change IPv6 options, using following methods:
a. System Preferences -> Network -> Advanced -> TCP/IP -> IPv6 _> Link-local only
b. In Terminal.
networksetup -listallnetworkservices
networksetup -setv6off Wi-Fi
Neither method had any effect on the ability of AU to see my AX.
Phew! I'm now exhausted & rather demoralised. Anyone got any other ideas?

I have been dealing with this for days now. I'm not sure what the solution is either, I've spent most of my vacation from work attempting to get it to work with my speakers and printer, none work still!!
It seems like a lot of ppl are dealing with these errors but there isn't one solid solution out there.
Try to set the AX wirless setting to "off" and only have it work for Airplay, Does it work for you?
One last thing, could this be an update problem? As in, you update your firmware/software and it renders the AX obselte. My AX is old probably a little older than 4-5 years, what about your?
I would really like to get this to work as I do not think I need a new AX to make this work.
Let me know your thoughts.
B.

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I have successfully used my Airport Express 802.11n A1264 (1st gen.) to stream my iTunes music wireless to my living room stereo. Lately my Airport Express looses connection after every restart and does not show in the Airport Utility.
I run 10.6.8 on a Quad core Mac Pro. up to date on al software updates per 10.6.8 I use a 3rd gen. Airport Extreme 802.11n.
W.W.

I actually did this by myself not into the computer but a secondary Ethernet port on myTripple play Fios modem.
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James since you had the right idea I gave you the 10 points. Thank you for being helpful.
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