How can time machine not work with some wifi routers

uncleMonty · Mar 22, 2013, 07:29 PM

I bought a new router (Cisco EA3500) and a Western Digital 2TB hard drive with USB 3.0. The router works fine, and I can use the external drive over the network from multiple machines in the house. But I've just found out that Time Machine isn't "supported" on this router and so I can't do automatic incremental backups. How can that be--if I can read and write from the HD over the network, why does the router care exactly which program on my Mac is sending bits to be written to it? What would a router need in order to be able to support Time Machine?

Weaselboy · Mar 23, 2013, 10:00 AM

For Time Machine to work properly with a router that router needs to support the Apple Filing Protocol (AFP). This AFP support would need to be present in the router's firmware.

blueroom · Mar 23, 2013, 10:05 AM

A better solution might be using a Synology NAS.

Mar 22, 2013, 07:29 PM	#1
uncleMonty macrumors member Join Date: Jun 2012	How can time machine not work with some wifi routers I bought a new router (Cisco EA3500) and a Western Digital 2TB hard drive with USB 3.0. The router works fine, and I can use the external drive over the network from multiple machines in the house. But I've just found out that Time Machine isn't "supported" on this router and so I can't do automatic incremental backups. How can that be--if I can read and write from the HD over the network, why does the router care exactly which program on my Mac is sending bits to be written to it? What would a router need in order to be able to support Time Machine?
	0

Mar 23, 2013, 10:05 AM	#3
blueroom macrumors 601 Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Toronto, Canada	A better solution might be using a Synology NAS. __________________ My iOS devices are not jailbroken. Bill My Blog
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Mar 23, 2013, 10:00 AM	#2
Weaselboy macrumors 604 Join Date: Jan 2005	For Time Machine to work properly with a router that router needs to support the Apple Filing Protocol (AFP). This AFP support would need to be present in the router's firmware.
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