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spaceballl

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 2, 2003
2,941
365
San Francisco, CA
I'd love to set up a 500GB disk with one 250gb partition, and two 125gb partitions. That way all the computers on our network can back up to it... Possible?

-Kevin
 

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Is it possible to make each partition exclusively available to 3 different computers?

No.. as far as i can tell, here is the best you can do..

you can set up multiple user accounts for access to drives
each account can have either read/write or read-only access
access level applies to all drives connected to an airport.

So you can't, afaik have multiple disks with different access permissions.

Check this out:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/DesigningAirPortExtreme802.11nNetworks.pdf
 
Is it possible to make each partition exclusively available to 3 different computers?
In another thread, someone mentioned a way you can edit something on the Mac so that it won't mount certain partitions.

I never tried it, so I can't vouch for it. I'll see if I can find that link.
 
I can't wait for mine. Is there a format option through airport? I just spent the last day trying to use a linksys WRT350N with a 500gig usb drive attached. Had nothing but problems. Everytime I copied a file to the share the mac would complain about permissions. Most of the time the file would copy, but sometimes not. I even had a zip that copied, but when I tried to extract to the share it would give error -13 permission denied. I finally decided to take it back and bought the airport lastnight online. Probably the wisest decision since I have a macbook pro with the n enabler. I did not see good speeds out of it anyway.

Back to formatting, I have formated the usb drive so many times, I think it is FAT32 now. Just want to have my ducks in a row ahead of time. Should I stick on a usb hub and put on my epson printer also? Right now it is on a windows pc in the bedroom for shared printing.

Last question, I have my own firewall / linux server. In the past I just plugged the network cable into the hub portion of any wireless access point because that was all I needed. Don't need the overhead of the built in router / security. Should I still do that or let the airport manage things and plug into the internet port?

Thanks,
James
 
Sorry, most of my questions were answered on the document linked in a message above. I have one more question if someone could answer. I have a mac mini with wifi (g) and the macbook pro (n). Right now I just use ethernet because I can, but it is one more cable and sometimes the kids / dogs trip on them. Would it kill my speed (macbook with N) to enable the wireless on the mac mini (g)? When the airport is set for backwards compatibility does it basically throttle down the speed while the mac mini is connected, reducing my speed (802.11n)? Should I just leave the mini hardwired and keep the airport (n) only?

- James
 
When I had my Extreme setup to allow 802.11b/g and 802.11n devices, the connection rate I saw between my MacBook Pro and the Extreme was 144Mbps.

When I had my Extreme setup as an 802.11n only network, the rate went up to 300Mpbs.

(Keep in mind, those are connection rates, not actual throughput rates ... even with a 300Mbps connection rate, the maximum I've been able to push through 802.11n has been ~80Mbps .. which is a huge improvement over my 802.11g performance of ~20Mbps!)

If you were going to mainly use Internet and the shared AirDisk from your MacBook and mini, then I wouldn't worry about the slower "backwards compatible" speed. Even though it's slower, it's still faster than your Internet connection and the speed at which the Extreme writes/reads from shared USB drives.

If you were going to copy files directly between the mini and the MacBook, then I'd leave the mini wired and set the Extreme up for an 802.11n-only network.

I have a USB hub on my Extreme sharing a drive and a printer and haven't had any problems.

Since you already have a firewall/router, when you setup the Extreme (using the manual setup, not the wizard), you should be able to go to the Internet section and set Connection Sharing to "Off (Bridge Mode)". That should stop it from routing, etc.
 
My Aiport Extreme works fine with 3 partitions, each one being a Super Duper Smart Update clone of my 3 Macs, two connected by ethernet and one by Airport.
 
However, as an update, the network crashed again shortly after the last post. Now it only works reliably if I log in "as Guest". Maybe the problem is related to the following, which (along with several similar (empty) folders) has somehow been parked in my Airport Preferences:

aebsn1.jpg


:confused: :eek: :confused: :eek:
 
has anyone been able to have a disk w/ multiple partitions on an airport extreme, and then use one of those partitions for TM?
 
Yup! I have a 250gig hd attatched to my N Airport Extreme.
I use Time Machine to backup my MBP and then I also have a separate partition for just extra storage space when my Pro fills up.
I also believe that I set up the 2nd partition as FAT32 so the PCs on the network can see it too, through Airdisk manager.


I have a question though: Has anyone been ablebto figure out and set up the "Global Advertisement"? In other words, access the disk from a remote location over the internet?
 
thanks for the reply!

i did have the global advertising feature figured out at one point. you need to set up something like dyndns on a computer at your house so that you can have a web address for your house. then how the airport configuration depends on how your home network is set up.

keep in mind that accessing files remotely will most likely dominate the upload bandwidth at your house unless you have symmetric up/down speeds. i ended up not really being able to use the remote access feature because it was too slow and it made internet use impossible for my roommates.
 
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