Servers: Are we there yet?

Yeah, as a veteran in the software/cyber industry it is my experience that MOST software sucks, so I am not surprised at this in a music server. 
...However, you might do some discovery work here: The server has at least one IP address (wireless and/or Ethernet), have you tried accessing it directly via a web browser? (As in http://?.?.?.?  ...where ?.?.?.? is the 4 octet server address.) The server may express its service management through a web server that you could navigate.

@djohnson54 @sbank @psag I say this as a cyber security guy: Devices that allow connectivity to and from the Internet (actually ANY network) represent a danger to other devices in your network that will subsequently develop a trust relationship with said Internet-connecting device.
You absolutely need to understand that your home network now has devices in it that run software that came from whom?That is just a simple fact today and alone it should not stop you from using them, but you need to mitigate against those mechanisms being insecure (who wrote the server code, who configured it?). Think of these devices as requiring constant immunization otherwise every other device might also get infected...
What to do? You have several strategies, at minimum you need to lock down your Internet facing router and perhaps add a second device (such as a firewall) between the server and the router. That acts as a second level of defense against door-rattlers, knob-turners and server-probers who are sitting in their moms basement on their junior high laptop.
The reason for all that above is two fold: First, create awareness that IP devices are dangerous to your home network if they are insecure; Second, to complain at how poorly such devices generally are configured and that if the vendor gets enough calls from us they might do device security better.
QUESTION: Has anyone seen ANY penetration analysis results for any of these music servers? 

Interesting and thought-provoking post by Vicweast. To add some perspective, I’ll mention that the log of the SonicWall hardware firewall/router I mentioned that I use shows, on average, an unwanted and in most cases presumably illegitimate incoming connection attempt (that it throws away) approximately every two minutes, 24/7/365. With those requests originating from IP addresses in just about any country one could name, around the world.

I’d imagine, though, that the majority of those attempts would fail to get through even a very basic router, due to the network address translation function routers provide between the user’s external IP address and the internal addresses of each of the devices on the LAN. And while I have no specific knowledge of the Aurender products, I’d expect that more often than not such products are Linux-based, which I suppose is targeted by the bad guys much less frequently than Windows operating systems.

That said, and although I’ve never been accused of being particularly paranoid, I personally would not want to be without a SonicWall or something comparable.

Regards,
-- Al

"Why lack of internet updates should affect performance?  Performance is always the same if nothing is changing."

Upgrades need to occur, for both the Ipad and server operating systems.

Here's an analog analogy: There's a room in your house where you store all your LPs and CDs. The door is locked by default, so you need to use an electronic key fob every time you wish to enter. The charger for the key fob is a bit unreliable, so you don't always have access. Not many audiophiles would tolerate such an arrangement, but we have to accept it when a computer is involved.

System can work forever without internet access.  Software code doesn't change.  Unreliable charger is hardware and not the software.   People use PC computers controlling production without any access to internet.   Many of them still run Windows NT while some run Windows 98 or even DOS.  They don't have any updates since there is no updates.