Airplay or internet access - not both simultanously

[#1]

Hi
Generally pretty pleased with the year I've been with plusnet but one thing has rankled throughout the past 12 months. I stream music via an apple airport express connected to the wifi network in the house, streaming from my pcs to a stereo and  a separate airplay speaker. At my previous address, where my ISP was Virgin, there were no issues with using the internet whilst streaming through airplay. However, with my plusnet wifi, with Thomson tg585v8 router, i can use the internet (across 7 or 8 devices with no issues) or I can stream music, but whilst I'm streaming music through airplay, it blocks the internet access for all other devices. It doesn't seem to be firewall issue, and I wouldn't think it's a capacity problem (getting about 700 mbps) - but something is amiss. Have phoned up to get some advice about this (about 10 months ago - can't remember the specifics) but couldn't sort this problem. My contract is up next month, so I'm anxious to either sort this issue, or try another provider. Would be great if anyone can give me some help with this.
Thanks

[#2]

Quote from: patchebe

Hi ...whilst I'm streaming music through airplay, it blocks the internet access for all other devices. It doesn't seem to be firewall issue, and I wouldn't think it's a capacity problem (getting about 700 mbps) - but something is amiss. Thanks

I don't have an Airport Express but can try with my Apple TV tonight. I can't see why there would be an issue. Anyone else seen this?
Graham

[#3]

I don't have airport express either, but using AirPlay to the apple tv for iplayer / music is fine.
EDIT: just noticed I'm not using the tg585v8 either, but the Netgear PN provided on fibre connections for a time.

[#4]

Anyone offer any advice yet? Lining up another ISP in case I can't get any solutions. Have tried changing the channels for the broadband but doesn't seem to help...
Thanks

[#5]

Is the airport express on the same subnet as the Thompson router?
I don't think switching ISPs will help as such, sounds more like an internal network issue. Something is incorrectly configured, either the router or the Airport Express.
Virgin predominantly use Netgear routers and they usually use the subnet of 192.168.0.* whereas Thompson/Technicolor use 192.168.1.*
Maybe you set up the Airport for the Netgear previously? 

[#6]

Can't think why this should be a problem.
I habitually stream wirelessly from a small Linux (well, Ubuntu) box to a Squeezebox network and have no problems accessing my broadband simultaneously, wired or wireless with a TG582n.

[#7]

Changing ISPs seems quite an extreme way of sorting out a local network issue. When you're streaming music over airplay your music isn't going over the broadband link to or from the ISP, so it's nothing to do with their network. Could you provide a bit more detail of the problem:

• When you start airplay from one of your devices, internet access totally ceases on all the other computers, or it slows down radically to an unusable speed?


• When you stop airplay streaming everything else springs back to life immediately?


• Are all your computers connected wirelessly, or do you have any connected to the router by ethernet? If so, is that affected as well?


• Is your airport express connected to the rest of the network just by wifi?


• If your PCs are connected by wireless, which base station are they connected to? The TG585 or the Airport?


• Is your TG585 router acting as the DHCP server for the whole network, or is the airport express also trying to be the DHCP server?


• Can you connect to the management interface of the airport express from one of your PCs? If so, what is its IP address? Is it on the same sub-net (eg 192.168.1.*) as the TG585 and your PCs and other devices?

It definitely sounds like something isn't configured right in your local network, so it should be fixable once you can identify where the problem lies.
UPDATE: A quick bit of Googling suggests other people having similar sorts of problems with the TG585 router (although none that I could find identical to yours). Which version of firmware is it running? If it's not 8.2.7.8 or later you should try updating the firmware. Instructions here.

[#8]

Thanks for taking the time to respond so thoroughly, Bright, really appreciate that. And to others who have responded. To answer your questions:
- I can just about perform a really slow google search sometimes, but usually not even that - just says 'waiting in chrome'. Can't synch evernote or access email either, neither of which are huge bandwidth gobblers
- Yes
- All wirelessly
-yes
- the tg585. Have tried this afternoon to get the airport to be the router, but with no joy
- this one might be the issue. In the airport utility under TCP/IP it says 'configure IPv4' and it's set to 'using DHCP'; the other option is 'manually'. Below there is also  a button for 'Renew DHCP lease'. Reluctant to change these without knowing their effects!
-  Pretty sure they're on the same subnet. RPMozley - both are 192.168.1 IP addresses, though it was a netgear router I used previously.
I'm on the latest version of the firmware, though strangely I can't update the firmware for the airport express - it starts to download then stops about a quarter of the way through
Would be great if you can crack this - it's starting to annoy me more and more!

[#9]

So, just to make sure I've understood the set-up correctly:
Your TG585 is connected to the broadband link.
All your PCs are connected wirelessly to the TG585's wifi network.
Your airplay speaker is connected wirelessly to the TG585 wifi network.
Your Airport Express is connected wirelessly to the TG585 wifi network, and then by cable to your stereo.
Let me know if I've got anything wrong. Could you try this:
Unplug the Airport Express from the mains socket so it is powered down and inactive. Then send some music to the Airplay speaker (you said you have an Airplay speaker, which I assume is a stand-alone unit, not connected to the Airport Express). Does the music play OK through the speaker? Does your internet access stop again on the PCs?
If internet access stops, then the problem is nothing to do with the setup of the Airport Express and must be a problem with the TG585 (or I guess, possibly with the Airplay speaker - you could check this by powering off the Airplay speaker totally, powering up the Airport Express and checking if the problem exists when you stream music to the hi-fi via Airplay).
If internet access continues normally, then the problem must be something to do with the Airport Express and the way it is configured in your network.
If you let me know the results, I'll have a think about some further tests.