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dmmcgowan

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 1, 2008
36
0
Is Time Capsule worth the money? I know you can get allot of External Hard Drive for allot less money. It seems the biggest benefit is the ability to backup wirelessly and that it can act as a wireless router. Also, can I use Time Capsule as a wireless router connecting my PC to the router via an Ethernet cable.

Thanks
 
Is Time Capsule worth the money? I know you can get allot of External Hard Drive for allot less money. It seems the biggest benefit is the ability to backup wirelessly and that it can act as a wireless router. Also, can I use Time Capsule as a wireless router connecting my PC to the router via an Ethernet cable.

Thanks

Short answer, Yes, it is worth it.

Long answer - If certain conditions apply. Conditions being:
- You need/want a wireless router
- You need/want backup space for multiple macs
- You have the money to afford it

You can access the internet from your PC wirelessly through the AEBS - it is not computer specific. You do, however, need to set up the wireless to run in a range that your PC will read, which it should be by default. Most PC wireless cards that I have found only run in the 2.4GHz range of wireless N, which, in my experience, limits bandwidth to 130MB/sec, which is better than a 10/100 wired connection, good enough for internet browsing. But if you can get a card for the PC that will run in the 5GHz range, then you can have speeds up to 300MB/sec. You won't notice the speed change if you just use it for internet with the PC, but backing up from you Mac wirelessly to the time capsule will be noticeably faster if you can run it in the 5GHz range. (BTW - All (that i have come across) of the recent wireless cards put out by Apple can run in the 5GHz range.)

Anyways, I do not know if this helps or if it is just too much info and a bore, but I hope you can use it.:apple:
 
It will be worth every penny if you ever really do need it. depends more on your personality whether you can really commit to backing up on a regular basis or want something that will do it for you.
 
I find seamless wireless backups to be very much worth it (and honestly at $300 WITH a terrific router its a pretty good value)
 
Since others have already answered most of your questions, I'll just stick to the one that hasn't been addressed yet. Yes, you can use it as a wireless router and still have your PC hardwired to it. It has 3 LAN ports that allow any Ethernet devices to be plugged in, allowing them to access the network, just as with most other wireless routers. Plus it has a USB port to allow sharing of printers, hard drives, or a combination of both (with the use of a hub). Just a word of advice, multifunction printers that connect via USB will NOT be able to use functions besides printing (only Ethernet MFPs will be able to).
 
I was going to buy that but then I asked myself what am I going to do if the HDD goes bad in it. so I got the Airport Extreme and purchased a 500GB External HDD for 100.00 and it works great. This way if I want to upgrade to a 1TB I can do that as well. I can even install a USB hub and have them both on there.
 
I was going to buy that but then I asked myself what am I going to do if the HDD goes bad in it. so I got the Airport Extreme and purchased a 500GB External HDD for 100.00 and it works great. This way if I want to upgrade to a 1TB I can do that as well. I can even install a USB hub and have them both on there.

Hi
I am a bit of a luddite when it comes to these things. I have been thinking about time capsule but is a bit pricey for me. reading the above can I have an external HD connected to to airport express remotely and manually back up to the external HD via the airport express?

sorry of that seems a bit of a simpletons question but as I said I am not great at these things and dont have £300 to spunk on it (airport is £64 and an ext HD I can get 1Tb for £80)
 
that is what I do. I backup via wireless to my USB HDD connected to my Airport Extreme. FYI the first backup you should connect the Laptop to the Airport Extreme via Ethernet Cable. and then do the remaining ones via wireless. I have had ZERO problems with this setup.
 
Hi
I am a bit of a luddite when it comes to these things. I have been thinking about time capsule but is a bit pricey for me. reading the above can I have an external HD connected to to airport express remotely and manually back up to the external HD via the airport express?

sorry of that seems a bit of a simpletons question but as I said I am not great at these things and dont have £300 to spunk on it (airport is £64 and an ext HD I can get 1Tb for £80)

The Express' USB port is ONLY for sharing printers. You can't attach a hard drive to it whatsoever. You'll need an AirPort Extreme Base Station to do that.
 
Thanks for the advice. Can timemachine b set up to do my backups automatically? I haven't really got to grips with time machine as it is set up for an external hd that I only connect occasionally so it doesn't get a chancecro do a backup

Edit: Just had a thought. I already have a wireless router (BT Homhub v1.0) with a USB connector. Rather than buy a new router and HD I could connect my HD to this via USB. I guess if I could get this to work (first attempt completely failed) the transfer speeds would be too slow (wireless to USB)? Someone suggested a NAS to speed things up but they are a bit more pricey so I would be as well going for the airport extreme option.
Advice, again, greatly appreciated especially if anyone has experience of the BT homehub!!

or
can you expand the capacity of the 500Gb by adding an external HD to the usb port? that might save a few quid and give bigger capacity overall.
 
I'm not sure about your router's USB port. To my knowledge, AirDisk does not work on routers other than TC and AEBS (I could be wrong though).

You CAN add an additional HDD to your Time Capsule, but it will not expand the storage size of the internal drive. It won't be viewed as one large drive, but will be two distinctly separate drives. Also, you can't span backups over two drives, so you may need to start a new backup if you connect a bigger HDD.

If anybody can answer me this question, it'd be greatly appreciated: I'm not sure if this can be done (I've yet to test this) but can you copy the backup from your Time Capsule to a larger capacity external, and set up Time Machine to continue the backup (seeing as it would be the same file)?

Also, I'm not sure about external drives connected directly to the computer, but Time Machine automatically backs up every hour on my Time Capsule.
 
Back when I got it in February, it was slow, unstable, and buggy. Not sure if they fixed that yet.
 
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