Newb help with Time Capsule

larrybar said:

New Mac user trying to set up first wireless network in home. Hopefully I'm just forgetting something stupid.

My AirPort Utility cannot find my Time Capsule. The TC has a solid green light, but there is no wireless network to be found by scanning with AirPort, and Time Machine cannot find the drive either. When I run an ethernet cable from the Time Capsule to my MB I can connect to the inernet by Creating New Connection in the AirPort menu, but nothing wireless.

I have a DSL cable mode, which I have reset, I've also disconnected everything and reconnected in various orders, but after the TC finishes booting up again, I get a green light but AIrPort cannot find the device. I'm going to try to Repair Permissions, and after that I am out of ideas.

Any suggestions?

Click to expand...

When your connected via wired Ethernet and in Airport utility, is the Time Capsule set to "Create a wireless network" or "extend a wireless network"? It should be set on create, and you should have entered a SSID. If you choose to hide the ID then you need to manually enter your SSID and WEP/WPA keys by selecting connect to another network on your MB.

larrybar said:

I've also disconnected everything and reconnected in various orders, but after the TC finishes booting up again, I get a green light but AIrPort cannot find the device. I'm going to try to Repair Permissions, and after that I am out of ideas.

Click to expand...

There's an ubersmall reset button on the back of the TC. If you find something to press that for a few seconds, the light on the front will flash. This will reset your TC back to factory settings.

After it's been reset, you should be able to click the Airport on your Mac (where you go to see WiFi networks) and you should see a generic "Apple" network that has a bunch of random characters in it (along with your neighbors wifi networks). If you join the Apple network and then run Airport Utility, it should see it.

Airport not "seeing" Time Capsule?

Yes, well I had exactly the same problem. TC had been working faultlessly for about 3 weeks up until the 19th April (my last backup). I recall that a software update occurred about that time (coincidence?). Today, I realised that both my iMac and MacBook Pro were totally disconnected after I tried to print to my USB printer connected to TC.

My environment is simply a US Robotics wireless ADSL router that everything "magically" communicates to.

I was given an additional clue to the problem: I also own an Airport extreme. Strange that Airport couldn't see both the TC AND the Extreme.

After trying various diagnostic attempts at getting Airport to recognise my other wireless devices (including resetting to factory defaults), I simply switched off my US Robotics router and switched it back on after 15 seconds.

Voila! Both TC and the Extreme restored. Strange that I could still surf and get mail, so to all in tense and purposes, my network was behaving as expected.

So my advice: don't start messing around with configuration stuff on hardware that's worked fine previously. A simple reboot of the ADSL router could be all that's required!

Hope this helps someone.