IPad times out when trying to play shared video (solution)

Question

Problem description: This problem has plagued me for months.  I have a series of home videos and purchased movies on my Mac that I had home shared with my other Apple devices using iTunes 11.  Sometimes everything would work smoothly, but some other times one or more devices would refuse to play videos.  Over the last few days, both my iPads had refused to play any home shared videos ("The request timed out." would pop after a long wait).  On the other hand, my Apple TV and iPhone would play these nicely.  Also, all music shared via home sharing would play on all devices. 
Cause identified: I am using a BELKIN Wireless Dual-Band N+ Router.  I had it set up with the same SSID for both the 2.4GHz and the 5GHz bands in the hope that my streaming devices would automatically choose the highest performing configuration.  It turns out they did not.  While troubleshooting the time out issue, I configured the two wireless bands with separate SSID's which allowed me to observe that both iPads had trouble using the 5 GHz band (N mode only).  I could not even get them to validate the pre-shared keys on this band.  When switching all devices to the 2.4 GHz band (B+G+N mode), boom! everything started working nicely!  The iPads seem to have an issue with the N WiFi mode on the 5 GHz band. 
Solution: If using a dual band wireless router, try each band separately with unique SSID's/pre-shared keys.  Choose the best performing one, and make sure your devices "forget" any wireless configuration that seems to be causing trouble so they won't later on decide to switch back to them. 

Answer 1

You need to set the band on the wireless router.  Depending on your router model, do that either from your browser, or using the software that came on a CD-ROM. 
To use your browser, you need to enter the router's IP address, usually http://192.168.2.1/.   This may me different for different router manufacturers.  Check the WiFi settings once you are able to log on.  The browser-based interface may require an admin password.  In most cases the default password is blank, but, again, different manufacturers use different defaults.  It is best to use a computer that is hard wired to the router using an ethernet cable.  That way the wireless changes will not affect your connection to the router.
Once the band is set in the router, your iPad or AppleTV should be able to detect your wireless network.  Once you change the band, the devices may ask you for your wireless password again.