Is the Time Capsule still worth it at the current prices and storage?

[mossme89]

$100 for a single extra TB seems like a ripoff. You can plug in external drives to the Time Capsule so it seems to me that it would be more worth it to spend the extra $100 to get a 4TB external USB 3.0 hard drive to hook into the Time Capsule... Unless I'm missing something?

My intention is to use the Time Capsule as cloud storage via an Ethernet connection to my router. Time Machine backup compatibility is a must. Perhaps even using it as a router and putting my current one in bridge mode. Does it have prioritization features as a router? I.e. can I prioritize the traffic of certain IP's over others, or content types (QoS)? Ideally I'd like to have extensive QoS settings.

Are there any non-Apple routers that would be compatible for what I'm trying to do? Either with storage or compatible with USB 3.0 devices.

 

[mossme89]

No thoughts?

 

[zipur]

I have that setup but with a 2 Tb WD drive. it works but not like I had hoped. Its not as smooth to get to your external drive as I had hoped. If I had it to do again I would skip the time cap all together.

 

[Fishrrman]

No... I don't think that "it's worth it" any more.

 

[GuilleA]

Honestly, it's been around 3 years since we got an update to the Airport line. Don't get me wrong, I love my Extreme and it's one of the best routers and Wi-Fi AP I've ever used. That being said, it lacks advanced features and you can't really do much on the configuration side, apart from the basic networking settings.

You can put it in bridge mode and will essentially become a switch+Wi-Fi AP, so you can leave your other router to do NAT and QoS. As for Time Machine, I understand that the Time Capsule does have a few differences from the Extreme. In my experience, using Time Machine with the Extreme+USB hard drive hasn't worked very well. Lot's of corruption, re-validation and full backups had to made over time.

I've since moved to using a Mac mini as a server, sharing that same USB hard drive as a Time Machine destination and it's been working perfectly fine for a long time. High Sierra added new features for Time Machine shares, mainly quotas and permissions.

 

[rgarjr]

The prices are pretty much outdated. The Synology RT2600ac router has those features you’re looking for.

 

[ZapNZs]

With the current offerings, aggressive pricing, and good Mac support, I think Synology alternatives may be worth a look, or at least a call to discuss what options you have for using some of their routers with the extensive traffic prioritization settings you wish to implement.