Do I need AEBS or Time Capsule

[OlafTHairy]

I am trying to put together a shopping list to resolve my home network issues.

I am looking for a device to run in my office that supports both wired and wireless networking, currently using around 6-8 ports of GigE.
I would also like the same network to be available in the main house around 200yds away, again, both wired and wireless connections required, (2xGigE).
There is cat6 cable already running between the two buildings.
I am unsure if AEBS / AN router + USB hdd will support wireless time machine backups, so may be heading towards TC.

For reference i have a 2011 iMac i7 and a 2010 MBA + a host of windoze based pcs.

Thanks in advance for your time guys.

 

[skorpien]

Officially, it's not supported by Apple, however many have gotten an AEBS with a USB HDD to work for Time Machine backups.

I wouldn't suggest going with a Time Capsule unless that is not your only means of backing up your data. I'm a bit biased in my opinion as I've had a Time Capsule die on me, and it may be that Apple has fixed those issues with recent revisions, but something doesn't sit right with having the HDD within the router along with the PSU and no ventilation.

Depending on your budget, you may want to look into getting a Synology NAS enclosure or other similar NAS enclosure that supports Time Machine backups. This will also give you plenty of other features that an AEBS/TC alone cannot.

Lastly, you'll need a gigabit Ethernet switch in order to have that many ports. AEBS/TC have 3 LAN ports and one will be used up to extend the network to the other building. Also, a second switch will be needed at the other end.

 

[blevins321]

+1 to previous post. You'd definitely want a bit of redundancy involved with a NAS option, especially with a numerous computers you mentioned that would be accessing it. The price of the 2-bay DS211j and 2 SATA drives is about the same price as the entry-level Time Capsule. If you want to beef up the drive size, it's still cheaper than the 2nd tier Time Capsule. The USB drive speeds of an APE are very slow with multiple accessing simultaneously. But my Synology can read at up at 75Mbps and write at approximately 30 Mbps. If you want to beef up your investment further, the 4-bay DS411j and 4 drives is about 1/3 higher than the high-end Time Capsule. But the storage is upgradeable in the future. HERE is a Synology mostly-software review that I wrote about my DS411j. The 211j uses the same software so it has the same features.

You'd need a wireless access point and switch (possible with some devices to combine these functions) in the remote location to be able to share one CAT6 cable between multiple devices.