iTunes home sharing: how reliable is it?

[space-time]

rich in distress wrote:
Silly as it sounds, I would check your computer 's sleeping settings.
Good luck!

good idea, but I was in fact working on the mini at the time of the first glitch, then wife was working on that mini (logged under her account, but I was also logged in) during the other glitches.

Still, I can increase the time until it sleeps to see if it helps.