I have an old, junky Belkin router that I'm currently using for wifi. It's slow as molasses and I'm in need of an upgrade. What's the general consensus of the Time Capsule? I've read some less-than-stellar reviews online, and wanted to know if it's in my best interest to wait for an upgrade, or purchase one now. If not, how are the standard Airport Extreme?
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What's the general consensus on Time Capsule?
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yeah, i havent heard any problems with them, but there isnt much to them. so what can really be so bad.
First off I want to say that I've had no problems with mine and I love it. Got one in N-only 5 GHz mode with a Linksys serving b/g wifi in bridge mode.
However, if you have no use for the hard drive part of it, I say go for the AEBS. The TC's first gen and is bound to give more problems as the kinks haven't had enough time to be worked out. Some would argue that since the update, you could also use an external HDD connected to the AEBS for Time Machine, but I've read online that it's an unsupported feature and prone to problems (which subsequently won't be supported by AppleCare).
If you do have use for the wireless backups/NAS features of the Time Capsule, I say go for it. It's quite convenient and saves on the clutter. And keep in mind that you won't be reading about the happy customers on these forums as much as the ones that have had problems with their device.
However, if you have no use for the hard drive part of it, I say go for the AEBS. The TC's first gen and is bound to give more problems as the kinks haven't had enough time to be worked out. Some would argue that since the update, you could also use an external HDD connected to the AEBS for Time Machine, but I've read online that it's an unsupported feature and prone to problems (which subsequently won't be supported by AppleCare).
If you do have use for the wireless backups/NAS features of the Time Capsule, I say go for it. It's quite convenient and saves on the clutter. And keep in mind that you won't be reading about the happy customers on these forums as much as the ones that have had problems with their device.
I know that, what I meant is that ATM I have a netgear router, which doesn't like stress (all night gaming sessions with 3 ps3's and 2 360's fighting for bandwidth....) and if I plugged the time capsule in, wouldn't all the stress still be put onto the netgear? Or will the the capsule do a good enough job with all its ports full and 3 consoles connecting wirelessly?
I'm trying to work out if the time capsule will be able to process the information, or will it just lock up like the netgear I am using ATM
I'm trying to work out if the time capsule will be able to process the information, or will it just lock up like the netgear I am using ATM
I love the idea of time capsule. The execution however is less than what I expect from Apple (1st generation product, I know). Setting it up was a disaster for me, wireless backups failed constantly and the connection often dropped, performance was bad.
When I finally had it up and running it actually worked great. Sometimes the external drive on the USB port would not mount. But a quick reboot of time capsule solved that and it was not all that common.
However currently my time capsule is unable to make any backups. I suspect that the backup disk image got corrupted all of a sudden. If you look around on the apple discussion board you will see a lot of people with this problem.
A backup solution has to be reliable and stable more than anything. But my experience with it is that it behaves very quirky.
When I finally had it up and running it actually worked great. Sometimes the external drive on the USB port would not mount. But a quick reboot of time capsule solved that and it was not all that common.
However currently my time capsule is unable to make any backups. I suspect that the backup disk image got corrupted all of a sudden. If you look around on the apple discussion board you will see a lot of people with this problem.
A backup solution has to be reliable and stable more than anything. But my experience with it is that it behaves very quirky.
I really like mine as well, but the speeds are definitely not great. When backing up single, large files (will full signal) I only get around 1.5-2Mbps...quite low. It's running in b/g/n mode, but i should be getting closer to 15 MB/sec.
No problems here...
Let's see. we have the one TB Time Capsule which has been flawlessly backing up 5 Macs.
We have 2 Airport Extremes one running in "N" mode and one bridged "b/g". The TC is a stand alone on an extended "N/b/g" 2.4 network.
And I read of all of the problems associated with the TC before purchasing one at my local BestBuy. I checked out the Apple support forums and set up the network using info off of there. I had no problems, in fact it was the easiest network I ever set up! I thought I would be in for one heck of a time, but all worked flawlessly right out of the box on the very first try.
As of now, I would highly recommend the Apple Time Capsule.
Mike
Oh, and all of my Macs from the G5 Dual to the MacBook Air are running the latest Mac OS along with the latest AirPort software. I didn't cut any corners or had to use older software to make the above work, as I have read in other forums.
Let's see. we have the one TB Time Capsule which has been flawlessly backing up 5 Macs.
We have 2 Airport Extremes one running in "N" mode and one bridged "b/g". The TC is a stand alone on an extended "N/b/g" 2.4 network.
And I read of all of the problems associated with the TC before purchasing one at my local BestBuy. I checked out the Apple support forums and set up the network using info off of there. I had no problems, in fact it was the easiest network I ever set up! I thought I would be in for one heck of a time, but all worked flawlessly right out of the box on the very first try.
As of now, I would highly recommend the Apple Time Capsule.
Mike
Oh, and all of my Macs from the G5 Dual to the MacBook Air are running the latest Mac OS along with the latest AirPort software. I didn't cut any corners or had to use older software to make the above work, as I have read in other forums.
Mine is working fine. I have it bridged through a Linksys b/g/n router so the Time Capsule is running 5 GHz Wireless N only. The Linksys serves my Windows machines and the Time Capsule is serving my Macs.
Wireless speed and range are fantastic. As others have said, backing up isn't real fast but after the initial backup runs, it doesn't really matter. The Time Capsule works quietly in the background.
Wireless speed and range are fantastic. As others have said, backing up isn't real fast but after the initial backup runs, it doesn't really matter. The Time Capsule works quietly in the background.