Wireless networking problems using iMac, Macbook, airport extreme & express

Question

Here's my setup:
iMac in study has 100+ gigs of music on an attached hard drive
iMac running 10.5.8
Airport extreme in study
Macbook in living room that I use Itunes to connect to hard drive in study
Macbook running
iTunes on Macbook has it's Media Folder as the one that's on the hard drive in the study.
Airport express in living room, with direct connection to stereo
To play music on the stereo, I prefer to use the Macbook to connect to the iMac/hard drive in the study, as I don't want to keep walking into the study to change music.
Once I get a connection it's usually ok, but the problem is in getting a stable connection in the first place. Sometimes I have to go through a rigmarole where I turn off all the computers and then turn on iMac, hard drive, Macbook, before connecting to the iMac wirelessly before playing music. Sometimes I might need to do that twice before it works.
If I don't, I get the message in iTunes on the Macbook: Connection failed - The server "macintosh-2" may not esist or is unavailable at this time. Check the server name or IP address, check your network connection and try again.
Sometimes I'll have access to most songs, but a certain few will get the message above.
Is my setup the thing that's causing this 'slippery' network connection?
I'm wondering whether my hard drive isn't fast enough - it's a no-name brand which I got cheaply about 5 years ago. Maybe it's just not up to it? Or is it the fact one puter's on Tiger, one's on Leopard?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

LachlanG wrote:
the problem is in getting a stable connection in the first place.
have you checked for _*wireless interference*_ ?
download iStumbler (may not work on 10.6) or AirRadar (it has a trial period) and note the channels other networks in your vicinity are broadcasting on. change the channel(s) of your network as far away as possible from those.
any improvement ?
I'm wondering whether my hard drive isn't fast enough - it's a no-name brand which I got cheaply about 5 years ago. Maybe it's just not up to it?
possible but i doubt it. in my iTunes test environment, i have a cheap USB drive connected to my TC. iTunes fetches tunes from it via the network, then streams the music back via the network. i have no issues streaming even HD movies in the 10 gig range.
i assume the extreme is your main router ? what you can try is hardwire as much as possible, i.e. run ethernet cables from the extreme to all Macs. if physical cables is no option (due to location), you might consider *powerline adapters* _*such as these*_.
here's an interesting read on the subject.
Or is it the fact one puter's on Tiger, one's on Leopard?
as long as all Macs are current on the software side, it shouldn't matter.
JGG