airportitunes
I have a Windows desktop and laptop (no Macs) and an Airport Express for listening to music in the living room. I also have sets of speakers in two other rooms. I don't want to spend another $200 just to redirect sound to other rooms.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Airport Express that would allow me to stream music from iTunes (on a Windows computer) to these distant speakers?
(I intend to control the music playlist/volume remotely via a mobile device)
I've seen that on a couple of them, and the problem seems to be tied to IPv6 support. Mine would drop connections randomly, sometimes requiring a reboot of the AirPort Express before it would return to the network.
Turning off IPv6 entirely in the Network Control panel of our Macs seems to have fixed it. I can stream music to it for hours now without problems, so give that a try.
Your impression is correct. AirPort Express's USB port does not support hard drives, and AirPort Extreme doesn't have an audio output jack:
Sucks, don't it?
Best Answer
Unfortunately, there aren't any products other than the Airport Express that are compatible with iTunes music streaming (unless something new has come out recently). However, it's usually very easy to find a used model online for much less; I was able to pick up two of them on Craigslist for about $30 apiece. They may not be the latest model, but if all you're interested in is streaming music, then any model will work just fine.