airport extreme+hard drive+ printer

[chucke]

Prob a simple question, but in searching, I can't seem to find a definitive answer. I have an airport extreme N. We are currently running three macbooks and two minis on this. We do use the airport for a print server. Works great. Now I want to use time machine to back up mainly the minis info. Can I buy a 1tb drive and connect to airport with a usb hub since printer is also connected and will this work fine. Or would it be a better solution to purchase a 1tb time capsule. I have no problem doing this, but if there is little to no difference, I would rather keep what I have and add to it. Also a little concerned because whenever a new wireless comes out, we will probably upgrade. Please advise as to your opinions
Chuck

 

[chaos86]

I have no idea, but there's a really simple way to test it! USB hubs cost like $10.

Also, I wouldn't worry about them updating wireless for a while. 802.11n has reached a high enough bandwidth for most, so there's not a huge market for a next best thing, and lets face it, a and b came out in 99, g in 2003, and n hasn't even technically been released yet, so I wouldn't hold your breath for o through z. At this rate, your hardware will be replaced before the spec.

 

[i.shaun]

I believe it says on the box that multiple devices can be hooked using a hub. You'll probably need a powered USB 2.0 hub, but it should work fine.


All you need to do is make sure the airport extreme can recognize the devices. It should recognize External HDDs, and printers. I don't see why it wouldn't see a time capsule drive.




edit:

oh, you want a regular 1TB External HDD, and to use time machine. It should work fine, as long as you format it as HFS+ on one of the macs because I believe time machine needs that to run.

 

[chucke]

airport extreme

Thanks guys. I would use a hub to test this idea, but don't have the hard drive yet. Was trying to decide to buy a hard drive only or the time capsule. I think I will buy the Newer Technology MiniStack v3 in the 1tb flavor. I was just remembering going with a friend to pick up a huge 1 gig hard drive back in the commodore days. I believe he spent 1200.00 on it. Technology does get cheaper, I guess.

 

[plinden]

Does the AEBS now officially support Time Machine? I thought you had to run some Terminal command to get it to work, and many people still saw data corruption.

 

[petermcphee]

AEBS works with a hub and Time Machine supports external drives connected to it. How do I know? It's my current set up!

 

[4now]

AEBS works with a hub and Time Machine supports external drives connected to it. How do I know? It's my current set up!

Mine too - for several months - without a problem

 

[akm3]

So to clarify, I can take my Time Capsule, hook a USB hub to it, hook a Drobo and a Laser Printer to it, and have all those services available over my network? (Network printing, and streaming from the Drobo to Macs connected to the Time Capsule?) as well as backup on the Time Capsule?

At what point does the Time Capsule processor get stressed?