How best to setup a time capsule?

[yawa]

Right i have a draytek 2820n wireless router which i will not be replacing.

I intend to buy a 1 or 2TB time capsule but was wondering the best way to set it up.

Would it be best to plug this directly into the router? or run it separately as a separate wireless network?

 

[rkdiddy]

That is a good question. If you purchase a new TC it will have dual band, which surprisingly makes a big difference.

I have an AEBS (located downstairs) and a TC (located in office). My AEBS is set to extend my 5ghz band (since 5ghz doesn't go through walls very well). The result is my house has full bars of 5ghz and 2.4ghz - it's a beautiful thing!

For your application, I'm guessing you might be able to do the reverse. Set your draytek to 5ghz and tell your TC to extend the network.

FYI: the way the DB TC works is it actually shows up as two seperate networks.

 

[slu]

I have a Airport Extreme Dual Band Base Station and it does not show the 5ghz and 2.4ghz bands as two different networks. I'd imagine Time Capsule works the same since it the same router with an over-priced hard drive built in.

But I agree in that I would use the Time Capsule to extend your current network if possible. But I think you are spending a lot of money to basically get a NAS device. There are many other features in the Time Capsule that it doesn't sound like you will be using. If you really want to go with TC, I'd sell the old router.

 

[rkdiddy]

I found this post from another individual that does a good job of summarizing what I was saying.

By Tesserax:

The important thing to understand about the new dual-band AirPorts is that they employ two (2.4 & 5 GHz) independent wireless radios that, by default, share the same Network Name or SSID. These radios operate simultaneously but are still independent.

Also, by default, the dual-band AirPorts will attempt to configure both radios to be as compatible as possible to a wide variety of 802.11 wireless clients. So for the 2.4 GHz radio, 802.11b/g/n clients can connect, and 802.11a/n clients for the 5 GHz radio. Note the "overlap" in "n" clients. That is because "n" clients can operate in either the 2.4 or 5 GHz band ... both not both simultaneously.

Most "n" clients will attempt to connect to the radio with the strongest signal ... but this is not an exact science. "a" clients will always connect to the 5 GHz radio and "b" & "g" clients will always connect to the 2.4 GHz radio. So, depending on how you configure the AirPort's radio modes, you can have either a wide variety or a narrow one of wireless clients that can attach.

For best bandwidth performance, you will want to do at least two things:
1. Set the 5 GHz radio to only allow "n" clients to connect, and
2. Set the 2.4 GHz radio to only allow "n" clients to connect.

This would prevent non-"n" clients from connecting and degrading the overall bandwidth of the radio they are connected to.

Ok, but what, like in your case, if you have non-"n" clients? My recommendation is to set the 5 GHz radio to the "802.11n only (5 GHz)" mode and the 2.4 GHz radio to the "802.11b/g/n" mode. Also, if you want to "force" "n" clients to the 5 GHz radio, select the option to create a second Network Name for that radio and point your "n" clients to it.