There is an iFixit guide about replacing the Airport Time Capsule hard drive. It ... doesn't look very easy, but uses a standard 3.5" SATA drive. I suppose you could probably use a 2.5" SATA SSD too.
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Apple's Mystery 'Network Adapter' Found in FCC Filing Likely for Internal Use Only
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Sadly, this was the biggest problem with my Airport Time Capsule. Even the 2019 update was pretty minor, and the issue is that it only has outdated sharing support.
I believe they can only do AFP (works, but deprecated) and SMB 1.0 (horrifyingly insecure).
I love these things. And I discovered that with Time Capsules, if you're handy, when the drives die you can just pop them apart and swap them out with high capacity 12TB Drives. They recognize them just fine and run great. Nice to have on your home intranet.
Given the specs it’s likely a Point of Sale device or badge access reader.
FCC ID BCGA2657 Network Adapter by Apple Inc.
FCC ID application submitted by Apple Inc. for Network Adapter for FCC ID BCGA2657. Approved Frequencies, User Manuals, Photos, and Wireless Reports.fccid.io
I seem to recall Apple designed one many years ago for their spaceship campus. It’s likely an upgraded access reader for their campus.
FCC ID BCGA1846 Wireless Device by Apple Inc.
FCC ID application submitted by Apple Inc. for Wireless Device for FCC ID BCGA1846. Approved Frequencies, User Manuals, Photos, and Wireless Reports.
Apple will likely never enter the time capsule or airport market again. It’s a constantly changing technology, with a huge customer support
yep I had one in my old house and didn’t reboot it in 4 years and never suffered signal degradation.
expense, on a low margin appliance.
I wish Apple would come back to these for us common folk. I used to have an Extreme that worked brilliantly, but in the end couldn't keep up with the times.
Apple computers running macOS can act as a base station. - System Preferences > Sharing > Internet Sharing.
You can share your hardwired connection out as a Wifi signal, or share another connection to a another device.
Really, an impressive little feature totally under the radar. I used it extensively for work back in the day with an iBook; it's been around at least as long as OS X.
Could this be an AppleTV Stick? Those devices often include USB-A to draw power from the TV. It would also need networking, and a processor like this little thing...
I'm still bitter about them no longer making routers — they were THE BEST. When I purchased my first Time Capsule in, probably '06 or '07 — I could not have imagined how much better it would be than the crap I've used in the past.
Mine died, but it kept up well as home broadband still is less than 500Mb/s (~100Mb/s) so no were near to saturate old Extremes.
Apple is not one for clutter so I believe they might build an AirPort Extreme into an Apple TV or Speakers as an option. I miss the Airport and I went through a series of mesh products (sent back to amazon) before I landed on Eero 6 pro. I'd return back to apple in a heartbeat.
I totally agree. I have got a speed of 1.2 GHz wireless and that from this old router. I still have not found one to replace it. Any suggestions would be welcome!
OK, so a bit of a quibble with the "apple sent ... to the FCC." I've been involved in FCC testing of products before. We didn't send them to the FCC. At one company, we had our own anechoic chamber. Other places, we rented time in such a facility. You put your equipment in the chamber, set it up to be doing work (so it generates as much RF as it will do), and with a spectrum analyzer get reports on what your device emits. If there are issues, you go fix them, and test again. Then you submit a report to the FCC, not the device itself. Maybe things have changed since I was last involved in such, but that's how I've seen it done.
I think Apple missed a huge opportunity to get into Mesh Networking with routers that combine both HomePod and a Mesh Node. You could have a speaker in each room, extend your network throughout your home, and improve connectivity for HomeKit.
Apple earlier this year sent a "Network Adapter" to the FCC for approval, an unearthed filing has revealed, although suggestions that it could be an AirPort successor or other unannounced networking product for consumer use are likely wide of the mark.
Consumer networking products from Apple's discontinued AirPort range
Whenever a company designs a device for use in the United States that uses radio frequencies like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, it must get FCC regulatory approval. According to documents shared by the FCC, Apple sent a "Network Adapter" with the model number A2657 to the agency on January 22, with the following description.
The documents suggest that the device runs "19F47" firmware, which matches an early internal version of iOS 15.5, suggesting it is powered by Apple silicon. The FCC tested the device by connecting it to an iMac, but other than that, no other details are given, and Apple has requested a non-disclosure agreement that runs until November 2022.
The filing doesn't include any images of the device either, but there are some telltale signs in the description that it is unlikely to relate to a forthcoming consumer product.
For one, the device appears to lack support for the 802.11ac wireless networking standard. Also known as Wi-Fi 5, 802.11ac was announced in 2014 and has been superseded by Wi-Fi 6, which is already supported in newer iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks.
Secondly, the device only uses the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi band, whereas most modern commercial routers and consumer Apple devices support both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, with the 5GHz spectrum usually offering the best performance. For example, the discontinued sixth-generation AirPort Extreme base station operated on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz radio bands.
Lastly, the device is "intended to receive its power through a USB-A port during normal use." Apple has replaced USB-A with USB-C connectivity on all of its MacBooks and iMacs, and the idea that it would launch a consumer device with a legacy port as a primary connector is unrealistic.
Apple officially ended development on its AirPort line of products in 2018, and the company has since sold third-party routers. Apple has many FCC-certified devices that are solely intended for internal use, and this filing very likely relates to another device that falls into that category.
(Via 9to5Mac.)
Article Link: Apple's Mystery 'Network Adapter' Found in FCC Filing Likely for Internal Use Only
As some said, it didn’t do well and they had ideas in the cloud business as we know now.
I finally replaced our Extreme with some other brand (can't recall now) a few months ago. We're paying for 600 mbps and it topped off at 400. The new one works fine and we get full speed, but it's noisy. It sounds like water dripping down the inside of the wall it sits next to. Very strange. I miss the Extreme as the new one is ugly.
Software integration is why most people that want a new Airport wants it. It should be part of an eco system. I'm holding out using my airport extreme as a mesh network and its doing fine. But wish I could take advantage of wifi6 that the newer Apple products use. Come on Apple/Tim, not everything has to be as profitable as the iPhone to be worth it.
I replaced both the HD and capacitors in the internal power supply of my 1G Time Capsule years ago although I had upgraded to the last generation TC.
The capacitor replacement took basic soldering skills but the drive replacement was easy, just crack the unit open and swap drives, the TC software does all the rest as to configuring drive.
I’ve not had to service my 2013 5Gen TC, it’s been rock solid, but I can’t imagine a drive swap would be that hard.
The ifixit instructions are always good (note: for the capacitor repair, the instructions I used came as part of a repair kit I bought on eBay.)
Agree. Similar situation here.
I’ll add that I also have a better feeling about the security of the AP devices vis-à-vis other consumer brands.
So many showed up in articles about vulnerabilities but nary a problem with AP because they used a different software than most other routers.
(Often wondered if AP never made these lists because they never had problems or because they are relative unicorns in the market. That they had s/w updates seems to indicate issues just not the ones in the big articles.)
My 5G APTC had a squeak every time something started up inside, don’t know if a fan, or the HD.
I don’t hear it anymore but this could be as much due to losing hearing acuity as due to the APTC healing itself. Haha.