Connection to 2TB Time Capsule drops

[oysterpower]

For over a year now, we have had a 2TB Time Capsule in the house to take backup of our two Macs. Backup works fine for a up to couple of weeks and then suddenly, the macs can't locate the Time Capsule. Why would that be?

I then switch the Time Machine off, wait, and turn it on again. Things then work fine for another week or two.

Background info:
Our house has solid walls where Wifi signals hardly can travel through. Fortunately, the company who built the house put in place a Cat 5 LAN so we have access in all rooms. The router is placed in the garage which is connected to a Netgear GS116 switch, which in turn distributes signals to all rooms.
Because of the walls in the house we have two additional access points in the house.
The signal from the Macs goes via Wifi to an access point, which connects to the Time Machine through the LAN.

Any help much appreciated.
Thanks

 

[sjinsjca]

Do you have intermittent WiFi in those locations where its connectivity is otherwise acceptable? It is possible for Time Capsules' RF circuitry to misbehave, in which case the only recourse is to replace it.

The new Airport Extremes support Time Machine via external USB drives-- you can (and should) have several connected via a powered USB hub. This is a far preferable solution, as a dead or malfunctioning router it doesn't take your backup with it. I recently replaced my Time Capsule with this setup after two failures and the consequent lost backups. Recommended.

 

[oysterpower]

Thanks for your reply.
Fortunately, Wifi signals are reliable as long as I stay in the vicinity of access points/Time Machine.

Other thoughts?

 

[Altemose]

Thanks for your reply.

Fortunately, Wifi signals are reliable as long as I stay in the vicinity of access points/Time Machine.



Other thoughts?

How full is the Time Capsule?

 

[h9826790]

Did you try a full reset of your network system? (unplug all power of the TC, modem, router, access point... wait for about 5 min, and then reboot the whole network.)

 

[oysterpower]

How full is the Time Capsule?

Not very full at all. Our two Macs have a total capacity less than 500Gb.

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Did you try a full reset of your network system? (unplug all power of the TC, modem, router, access point... wait for about 5 min, and then reboot the whole network.)

Worth a try...

Out of interest, why 5 minutes? A bit long isn't it. Wouldn't 40 secs do?

 

[Altemose]

Not very full at all. Our two Macs have a total capacity less than 500Gb.

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Worth a try...

Out of interest, why 5 minutes? A bit long isn't it. Wouldn't 40 secs do?

Try factory resetting the Time Capsule. The data will not be lost.

 

[Boyd01]

Funny, I did a reset of my Time Capsule a few days ago and Airport Utility hung forever, until I did a force-quit. Tried again and had the same problem. I was starting to get annoyed when I happened to go into the other room and found that the reset caused Airport Utility to open on my other Mac, and it was waiting for me to click on something.

Evidently a reset will fire up Airport Utility on all Macs on the network. Or at least that's what happened to me. Seems like strange behavior.

 

[eduardrw]

What "access points" are you using? I had mixed results with non Apple "access points".
Using a couple of Airport Express creating a roaming network works without a hitch.

 

[Altemose]

Funny, I did a reset of my Time Capsule a few days ago and Airport Utility hung forever, until I did a force-quit. Tried again and had the same problem. I was starting to get annoyed when I happened to go into the other room and found that the reset caused Airport Utility to open on my other Mac, and it was waiting for me to click on something.



Evidently a reset will fire up Airport Utility on all Macs on the network. Or at least that's what happened to me. Seems like strange behavior.

Yes. AirPort Utility monitors Base Stations you originally set up.