ITunes and playback through an Airport Express.

Question

Here's the scoop: Had this problem big time last year. Then, it went away...
OK. Play music using iTunes through an Airport Express, through either wireless AND wired technology.
Here's what happens: 1) Play music. 2) Music stops playing. 3a) Sometimes the music starts where it left off. 3b) Sometimes the music starts a few seconds later as if it played during the outage.
OK, The bizarre bit: I've watched it do this. The clock just stops out of the clear blue. Then starts up again. Oh, the really bizarre part, and what happens more often than the earlier problem is that the clock will speed up to what would have been the correct time if it would have kept playing. Like 1---2---3____________________456789---10---11---12...
OK, this is a MAJOR stability issue in my opinion. Nearly every time this happens, the iMac is the only thing on the network. I thought in the beginning (I've got another 'question' from earlier about this same issue) that it might be overhead over the wireless network. Since the wireless network is probably (I thought) the weakest link in the system, I thought that switching to wired on a switched 100base-T network would take care of any issues with potential congestion but NO(!) the problem continues...
I can't tell you how embarassing this is when it happens infront of friends that use Windows machines exclusively. I could switch my library to a windows system that I have here but I have enough music that it almost fills my 80G ipod so it will take a L--O--N--G time to copy it over... Well, and I shudder to think what it could mean IF it works under Windoze, and not OSX.
Is this a gimme to the RIAA? Boff the playback for some reason?
I'm ticked.
One 'genius' at the local (2 hours away) Apple Store genius bar told me to bring EVERYTHING in to the store for a week and they would play the music through iTunes and try to figure out what's going on. When I protested, they said to flash the Airport Express which I attempted but there were no updates. I ran Software Update and I had all updates. What about disk fragmentation?
The system has max memory and a 250G drive so it shouldn't be an issue, right?
It does it on every track so far. Give enough time and it happens. Well, sometimes it happens within minutes, and sometimes within hours.
Oh, after it happens, sometimes (MOST of the time) I can't play the stopped song, OR any other track no matter HOW MANY TIMES I CLICK!
This is driving me NUTS!!! HELP!!!
I have a snapshot of it actually happening and Apple doesn't seem to be at all interested... HELLO APPLE! iTunes BLOWS on my system!

Answer 1

I've been careful about that. We had a cordless phone that would totally blot out our 11-b network. All our cordless are now the newer type phones on the new frequency.
I also thought that by going through the fast ethernet network here that I could avoid all the issues with interference.
I'm using the ethernet port on the Airport which should bypass anything on the wireless. We have other AP's here but they are on other channels and even 11-a.
I'm running out of ideas short of putting a dedicated Mac next to the music system which would be ridiculous...
Is this a copout to the RIAA? Is it part of a DMCA thing? I guess my next question is: Is it supposed to be worthless? Is it supposed to work this way?
The reason I ask is because I've heard from many people over the years that have the same thing happen over and over again... It's hard to believe but so is so much that happens in this world... I found out that a bill supported by the MPAA and the RIAA would have obsoleted ALL CD and DVD players and drives to make a 'required' copy protection scheme work! Anything is possible... Sadly...
But this seems like an issue that Apple would want to fix for the sake of their customers?