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Time Machines cut into profits from iCloud backup plans. Easier to discontinue the product line than push out an update that removes the feature.
 
A huge failure on behalf of the modern router companies whose devices are indeed better than Apple's own, is that their designs still aren't simple and elegant. All feature rows of obnoxious LEDs and LCDs. None have come to realize Apple's one, small indicator light is all that's needed.

eero's design is simple and elegant. The base stations and beacons have one small indicator light.
 
Time Machines cut into profits from iCloud backup plans. Easier to discontinue the product line than push out an update that removes the feature.
iOS devices can’t backup to Airport/Time Capsule on their own, and iCloud sync isn’t a replacement for Time Machine, so nope.

It’s just a case of letting other manufacturers specialise, because from apples point of view, there are enough options now. It’s no different than when they stopped making printers, or even a couple of years ago when they stopped making displays - it just turns out they made the wrong call on displays, because there aren’t a lot of good quality high-PPI screens around.
 
I always recommend synology routers over other brands as the updates come thick and fast it's the most stable router I have used and the signal strength and quality us insane. Plus you can add synology add ons for more functionality. If you attach a hard drive and configure correctly as time machine it appears as an available back up drive. To be fair I dont use it for that as I also have a synology nas which I do use for time machine.

The only downside to using a USB drive on a router is if its USB 3 it can Interfere with the 2.4ghz channel synology add a virtual switch to downgrade to usb2 to avoid that.
 
I always recommend synology routers over other brands as the updates come thick and fast it's the most stable router I have used and the signal strength and quality us insane. Plus you can add synology add ons for more functionality. If you attach a hard drive and configure correctly as time machine it appears as an available back up drive. To be fair I dont use it for that as I also have a synology nas which I do use for time machine.
That's over AFP, not SMB2. TM over AFP has been deprecated by Apple.

I found Synology routers to be subpar for filesharing. No btrfs, only ext4 as underlying filesystem. No RAID (though arguably with just support for USB devices, usefulness would be limited). No guest WiFi support either, and even in AP-only mode it continuously reaches out to various Internet addresses to "check reachability". No Docker hosting. Very limited set of packages compared to their bigger, Intel-based devices.

The only downside to using a USB drive on a router is if its USB 3 it can Interfere with the 2.4ghz channel synology add a virtual switch to downgrade to usb2 to avoid that.
The 2.4 GHz band is dead anyway if you have neighbours.

All in all, with 10.13 you don't need to spend money on the macOS Server component anymore in order to allow sharing a TM backup target. So if you have a desktop, you can use that. And for WiFi there are much better and more featureful options available.
 
This has probably been answered already but one of my main reasons for using the AirPort Extreme is the benefit of being able to attach an external HD to it and use it as a poor-man's NAS, are there other routers that allow this nowadays?
Asus RT-AC68U, Netgear R7000P, or even a QNAP or other NAS will support Time Machine.
 
2832. Airports are lovely if you want something simple and straight forward with minimal features. But that’s it.

As for rock solid you must mean software those expiring capacitors on the time capsules were quite a problem on the hardware side.
The bad capacitors is hardly an "Apple" thing. Dozens, if not hundreds, of manufacturers of electronic gear of all sorts got caught up in the bootleg capacitor snafu.
 
"Apple's AirPort base stations provided some unique benefits that are not available through third-party options like built-in Time Machine backup support in the Time Capsule"

My Asus Wi-Fi router actually supports remote time machine to a hard drive plugged into it.
This is getting more popular now that samba supports Time Machine natively, and you don't have to install Netatalk to support time machine on an open source platform. I imagine most products will be able to support Time Machine now, if they choose to.
 
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This is a very sad development.

I suspect they weren't selling many, but that's because they were so good and reliable. The product was a victim of its own success.

My time capsule is by far the best router, and backup facility I have ever had. Simply outstanding.
 
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Because Apple Router was never designed with performance in mind. Nor was it designed to offer the best coverage. It was designed to be Stable, an Appliance that you didn't even know it exists. It wasn't based on Linux, it was NetBSD. The WAN Port was kept at 300Mbps, despite it is a 1Gbps Port. Port to Port LAN speed wasn't top notch either, it didn't do 900Mbps as other router tries to do. It did that so the CPU and overall system won't push to the limit and overheat or what other edge case happened.

I think only Eero comes close to ease of use and stability. Apple could have made its own Apple router. The thing about an Apple Router is that it is tested against all of Apple devices. You don't get this something silly mistake Router and devices not working in perfect harmony and requires a firmware upgrade.

I really wanted an Apple router. The mesh Router market offer the margin that Apple is happy to operate in, and not a race to the bottom. And yet Apple decide to quit.

I still think it make sense to have an Apple TV with Router function. That way the Apple TV streaming services get the QoS it needs. It will be like an Airport Express with Apple TV built in.
You make some very good points. Interesting post.
 
That's more of a function of the luck of the draw of the supply chain used by each company's Contract Manufacturer than anything else.

And you should know that.
Yeah, probably not.
As a product manufacturer, I have the choice to order consumer grade, military grade or whatever else grade components for my machine.
It is up to me what I choose and I very likely know up front what the MTBF or anything else is before I use these components.
I also have the option to design in overhead to try and account for problems like this.
The Apple way of making everything thin and then throttle like crazy indicates that this is something they might not be doing.
 
The only time I'm aware of Time Machine 'prompting' is to ask if you want to use the plugged in external drive, to do backups.

So, you're seeing the prompt literally because you've plugged in something you can use to do backups with.

Not entirely true. If you set up TM and then stop using it, you'll get bugged via notification popups. My wife had one pop up on her MacBook that said like 400 days :eek:. (I gave her grief about it)

3APr2.png
 
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Had a couple now. When the first one died I just replaced the hard drive, it’s still going strong. The hardest part was getting the rubber base off, it was well glued on. Unless the power supply fails, and even that can be replaced, they can go on for years.
 
Asus RT-AC68U, Netgear R7000P, or even a QNAP or other NAS will support Time Machine.
As I pointed out previously, do some research on Mac owners having difficulty using NAS drives for Time Machine backups. I gave up trying to get a Western Digital My Home NAS drive to work as a TM server and a simple data server (it seems to need a internet connection which sought of defeats the purpose of a local cloud device).
I have opted for a fast, reliable thunderbolt HD attached to a "spare" Mac that any Mac on the network can access. That way I can do disk checks/repairs at any time - something that I cannot do with Time Capsule or other network drives.
 
Yeah, probably not.
As a product manufacturer, I have the choice to order consumer grade, military grade or whatever else grade components for my machine.
It is up to me what I choose and I very likely know up front what the MTBF or anything else is before I use these components.
I also have the option to design in overhead to try and account for problems like this.
The Apple way of making everything thin and then throttle like crazy indicates that this is something they might not be doing.
Yeah, well, I have spec'ed plenty of parts, too in my life. So, I know how it works. These caps were NOT employed outside of their design-spec. They were DEFECTIVE. MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS OF THEM. Didn't matter if you put a 105C cap in a 70C application, or a 35V cap in a 15V application, they STILL FAILED. THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE APPARANTELY NOT GETTING!!!

This was a unique situation, in that, capacitors that were very much "in-spec' were actually DEFECTIVE, in such a way that they FAILED PREMATURELY, due to a STOLEN ELECTROLYTE FORMULA.

Apple didn't know this. I'm pretty sure their Contract Manufacturer didn't know either.

You need to learn some history. Apple was by NO means the only VICTIM. And this went on for EIGHT YEARS!!! :

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/blog/2010/jun/29/dell-problems-capacitors

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/4xx5z9/plague

https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=323912


So, please tell me how this was Apple's fault. Answer: It wasn't. And it was doubly not their fault because it took a bit of time to start showing-up, and longer than that to be recognized as a pattern, and then longer than THAT to find out the REAL culprit (the bogus electrolyte). NONE of these were typical supply-line failures! They. Just. Weren't.
 
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Although I have an Xfinity modem and a Netgear modem in my house, I'm still also using an AEBS from 2007 as an extender in my basement.

These things were designed to work forever.
 
Airport Extreme disappears along with the Express earlier... I wondered why Apple waited so long for them to discontinue this one.

It it were me, I would discontinue product lines, do them at the same time instead of stretching it out. from April.
 
Have you actually tried this? I ran into tons of issues with Samba running out of "SMB2 credits" (which means that macOS kept sending commands without permission from the server), making initial backups take multiple days instead of hours.

Yes, I have. And mostly without issues. I did have some credits errors, and reported them to Apple. They replied and investigated quite extensively.
Some of them seemed to be caused by bugs in Samba. Have you tried with the newest versions?
 
Ah yes, of course... 400 days is quite the achievement.
And don't even ask about all the update notifications. It's sobering to help a non-tech family member every once in a while and realize that a lot of users just the notifications that folks here would act on immediately. I'm surprised Apple doesn't make the super important ones red or something.
 
Time Machines cut into profits from iCloud backup plans. Easier to discontinue the product line than push out an update that removes the feature.

That's not the issue, just Apple is getting out of the router business. Tim Cook always said laser focus was important, and you can only be great in some places.

Don't let the Apple goggles fool you. Apple is pretty far behind in that area now, the competition is much better.
 
such a wasted opportunity, Apple.

Integration and/or control center for HomeKit, beautiful seamless UI and features controlled from a MacOS/iOS app, etc

Especially when all the money you shoved to iPhone development and you're slashing a third of production numbers because people won't buy them. Should've kept your diverse ecosystem healthy, Apple.
 
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