Windows 7, iTunes 10.5, AppleTV2 latest update - possible fix

Question

So the above combination for me has given trouble since all the updates on Friday.
The symptom, and I've seen it repeated in a few other posts below, is this:
Running Windows 7, iTunes 10.5: after a short period, the AppleTV2 stops being able to browse the iTunes library via Home Sharing.  Closing and re-launching iTunes clears the problem, but it just happens again after another short period.
I was seeing this every time the AppleTV2 finished playing a TV episode or a movie.  It would also fail to mark the ep/movie as "watched".
I just put in a fix that so far appears to be working over the past couple of hours, including two tv episodes.
Short version: Open UDP port 5353 on your machine on a permanent basis.
Long version for Windows 7:
*     Control Panel -> Windows Firewall
*     left bar: Advanced Settings (shield, requires priv escalation)
*     Select Inbound Rules, right click, and select New Rule
**     The wizard, in order of screen: Port, UDP & Specific: 5353, Allow the connection, PRIVATE ONLY, name it "Apple Something" and hit Finish
save out any changes if necessary, and try it out.
also: I am a pure wifi environment, but I don't think that matters here.

Answer 1

Thanks you for this info.  I was going crazy with this issue and wanted to throw the the **** black box into the aquarium.
But finally found this thread.  Just for kicks, I put in both rules (UDP/TCP) and things have been good so far.  It's only been about 7 hours since I made that change.  I'm hopeful this will solve the issue.
One additional thing I noticed since the firewall change is that, movies from iTunes (local content) are starting to play way faster than before.  Usually in the past the movies will start playing in about a minutes time from the point of hitting play.  But now it starts to play in about couple of seconds.  Not sure if this is a fix from 4.4 or the way the port forwarding works now.  It's a welcome surprise!