AirPlay (AirParrot) not working since moving to BT

[nickymoo]

Good evening.

For years I've been using AirParrot to AirPlay from my PC to Apple TV devices and currently my Apple TV 4K.

I was with Sky Broadband for several years and used to plug my old Apple Airport Extreme into the Sky Broadband box and use that for all devices to connect to.

I recently moved to BT and I have a BT Smart Hub 2 on a FTTC connection which sits stable at around 55mb down and 10mb up. Given that I had multiple WiFi networks before I decided when I moved to BT that I should simplify my setup so the only wireless connections that I have running now are the BT Smart Hub 2 (which has a wireless connection to the BT Hybrid-Connect 4G device) and the small mesh network that my Sky Q box (which connects to BT Smart Hub via ethernet) creates for my Sky Q mini boxes.

Everything seems to be working fine. I have no signal problems and wireless devices are all working perfectly now that they're not struggling with four separate 2.4 & 5ghz networks.

Both my laptop and Apple TV 4K are connected to the same wireless network via the BT Smart Hub but I can't use AirParrot to AirPlay from my laptop to the TV. AirParrot just doesn't find any devices to connect to. AirPlay from my iPhone 12 (on the same network) works fine.

I reached out to Squirrels (who make AirParrot) to explain the situation and they have directed me to their support article: https://help.airsquirrels.com/support/solutions/articles/11000092403-airparrot-and-reflector-3-netwo...

Given that everything worked fine before using my Airport Extreme the only thing that's changed is my ISP (Sky to BT) and the SmartHub. Given that the connections are all local, I'm guessing something needs configuring on the SmartHub, but I've no idea what.

I don't mind forwarding ports but I don't see why my iPhone works fine with AirPlay but my Windows 10 PC now can't connect via AirParrot & AirPlay to my Apple TV. It appears that I would have to forward in excess of 16,000 ports when I don't think it should be so complicated.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I don't have the McAfee Virus Protect product installed, I don't have anything on my laptop other than Windows Defender & the Defender Firewall (which is set up to permit AirParrot through). 

[licquorice]

I suspect Sky used a different IP subnet to BT and the device still has an IP address within that range rather than the subnet that the BT hub uses. Check that it's address is in the correct 192.168.1.xx range

Also ensure you have turned off Smart Setup on the hub.

[Les-Gibson]

From the Windows Start Button, click on the Settings cog, click Network and Internet and then click Properties. Make sure the network type has been recognized as private (as opposed to public)

[nickymoo]

I turned off Smart Setup as soon as I turned everything on as I suspected that might be an issue with some of my devices.

Let me just check what everything is sitting on:

Windows 10 laptop: 192.168.1.244 (DHCP)
Apple TV 4K: 192.168.1.208 (DHCP)

The aTV 4K does have GUA temp & GUA perm addresses set but I'm not sure what those will do.

[nickymoo]

Network is recognised as Private, it was originally set as Public until two days ago but while trying to make AirParrot work I faffed it around in case that was the problem. Both the Apple TV and my laptop have been restarted (shut down and restarted) since then in hope of it working but not success yet.

[nickymoo]

I emailed their support team saying that AirPlay worked on my MacBook Pro & iPhone 12:

"

I’m not sure if that’s the cure.

I can AirPlay from my iPhone 12 to my Apple TV 4K, but AirParrot can’t find the Apple TV 4K on the same network.

I would imagine that if my BT Smart Hub was completely at fault then the iPhone 12 wouldn’t be able to use AirPlay either."

They've replied back with:

"This would make sense, however many modern Apple devices are able to create a wifi direct connection for Airplay, which bypasses any local network involvement. Because of this, it is not always a consistent comparison to the type of network based discovery that we must use with AirParrot. I apologize for any inconvenience! "

I might just have to just accept that it's not going to work.