Mac OS X 10.5.2: World of Warcraft Fix, Still No Airport Extreme Backups

Using Time Machine wirelessly over any external drive,whether it's connected to an AEBS or the USB slot on a Mac has proven to be unreliable because external disks have a nasty habit of going to sleep unless your using it from the computer itself.It Causes connection errors. I have personally tested this many times.
This is why only internal drives or the new Time Capsule can be used wirelessly.

Take it for what it's worth.;)
 
synth3tik said:
I'm sorry but thats just crap. Apple fixes WoW drivers, but not the AirPort issue. Lame.:mad:
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Man, it's Nvidia that has fixed the drivers. Are you actually going to say Apple shouldn't include them in the update, because you think something else is more important..?
 
dethl said:
Routers are a dime a dozen these days and I bet that if you have a TC you probably already have a router that you can keep on backup just in case.
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Apple's target market for Time Capsule are the Mom and Pops of the world, who, I'll be willing to bet the farm, are NOT geeky enough to have a spare router on hand like you and I do when their Time Capsule goes belly up. Nor the patience nor interest to reconfigure a different router while their TC is in the shop. With TC, all the advantages of detachable USB or ethernet drives are gone. And for what gain? Convince me, I might buy one. For now, I just don't see the advantage.
 
Spike Lightfoot said:
There is no WAY I'd want a Time Capsule for backups. When your hard disk crashes, do you really want to be without a router for two weeks while your TC is in for repairs? This is a major flaw in the TC concept, in my opinion. I'll stick with my AEBS and some sort of attached disk. There are at least a few different options, even if Apple decides not to sanction AirDisk backups via Time Machine.
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Ah, that's always the worry with any device that combines multiple functions, isn't it? You could say the same thing about the iphone - if your ipod needs repair, do you really want to be without a phone while it's fixed (yes, I know apple will give you a loaner phone, but you see the point, I hope).

Such "combo" devices are a gamble - greater simplicity but also greater harm if the device fails. Of course, you can have redundant backups of everything (HD, router, ipod, phone... you get the point), but then you've got a good deal more clutter (albeit maybe in a closet) and expense, which are exactly the things that I buy "combo" devices to avoid.

In any case, much as I'd like a TC, I just got an external HD for TM, and my router (not apple) works fine. But for the sake of those of you with AEBS, I hope apple fixes this. :)
 
Yeah it's interesting.

I've followed this hack to make my airport extreme work with time machine. However, just like other posters I have connection problems often, even when not using the computer thats setup for time machine. Other computers on my home network can sometimes mount the drive, and sometimes it times out.

I've found that restarting the computer sometimes addresses the problem, and sometimes I restart the airport to make it work; neither solution works all the time.

I wonder just how well the time capsule will work based on the history of airport disks with airport extreme.
 
flipperanubi said:
Secondly, Fry's often runs specials on their hard drives for 500GB for $100-$150. An Airport Extreme is $150. $300 is a lot less than $499. I call Apple Tax. Also, if you already have an Airport Extreme, you can't just add the HD for $150, you have to rebuy hardware you already have. Given that a Linksys jobbie is $70, that's already $80 of Apple Tax, plus another $199 of Apple Tax on the HD.
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of course 300 is a lot less than 499, but so is half a terrabyte compared to a full terrabyte.

500GB drive + AEBS (which is 179, by the way) = about 300. Time Capsule with 500GB drive = 300

1TB Time Capsule = 499.
 
Spike Lightfoot said:
There is no WAY I'd want a Time Capsule for backups. When your hard disk crashes, do you really want to be without a router for two weeks while your TC is in for repairs? This is a major flaw in the TC concept, in my opinion. I'll stick with my AEBS and some sort of attached disk. There are at least a few different options, even if Apple decides not to sanction AirDisk backups via Time Machine.
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It's also not a really good backup solution. First, it's based on a single disk. Second, there's no off-site storage option.

Imagine a small office scenario with a few computers... The best backup solution is the one that allows you to take some of your data home on a regular basis.

I can accomplish this using my great infrant RAID unit.... I simply rotate disks every friday and so I always have a spare disk at home with a full backup that is at most 1 week old. It only takes a few seconds to accomplish.

If I could get Time Machine to backup to that... That'd be a dream come true.
 
What about NAS and Time Machine?

Hmm, all this AirDisk talk, what about backing up to a NAS? I have a gigabit 802.11n router and a 2TB Hammer Storage NAS array that I would LOVE to use Time Machine with. Would this be possible now or even sometime in the future?
 
Peace said:
Using Time Machine wirelessly over any external drive,whether it's connected to an AEBS or the USB slot on a Mac has proven to be unreliable because external disks have a nasty habit of going to sleep unless your using it from the computer itself.It Causes connection errors. I have personally tested this many times.
This is why only internal drives or the new Time Capsule can be used wirelessly.

Take it for what it's worth.;)
Click to expand...

Using TM over AFP to another Leopard box also works fine. Doesn't matter if its wireless or wired. In fact, its supported by Apple.

There are no excuses why TM shouldn't be able to work over AEBS.

At home, I am backing up over Samba to a Linux server. My machine most of the time backups over wired LAN. However, my girlfriends laptop (except initial sync) always backs up wirelessly. Been doing it since Leopard was released and it works fine.
 
God dammit Apple. How about some kind of word on when you're going to fix this? This is making it very hard to make purchasing decisions, and it is not helping my overall impression of your brand.
 
Spike Lightfoot said:
There is no WAY I'd want a Time Capsule for backups. When your hard disk crashes, do you really want to be without a router for two weeks while your TC is in for repairs? This is a major flaw in the TC concept, in my opinion. I'll stick with my AEBS and some sort of attached disk. There are at least a few different options, even if Apple decides not to sanction AirDisk backups via Time Machine.
Click to expand...

I didn't want to buy a Time Capsule because it's only one disk. What if that goes bad? If it came with RAID1 as a possibility, I'd get it. For now I have my gigbit DIR-655 and 2TB Hammer array in a RAID 1 for backup at home. I want to use Time Machine with it tho!!
 
/dev/toaster said:
Using TM over AFP to another Leopard box also works fine. Doesn't matter if its wireless or wired. In fact, its supported by Apple.

There are no excuses why TM shouldn't be able to work over AEBS.

At home, I am backing up over Samba to a Linux server. My machine most of the time backups over wired LAN. However, my girlfriends laptop (except initial sync) always backs up wirelessly. Been doing it since Leopard was released and it works fine.
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I never said you couldn't do it wirelessly. I said it's unreliable to do it wirelessly to any external USB drive connected to whatever kind of machine you have.
That is the difference. Until Apple can figure out how to keep external USB drives from going to sleep and losing connections you are not going to see it being used reliably over wireless.
 
Lord Sam said:
wow. Apple really clinched this one, didn't they. One Time Capsule please.
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I assume this was ment as a joke. You are right then. Think of all the possable failure scenarios
  • The internal disk fails. You have to send you router in to Apple for warenty repair. No you have no routers.
  • The disk gets full. No upgrade option
 
Spike Lightfoot said:
There is no WAY I'd want a Time Capsule for backups. When your hard disk crashes, do you really want to be without a router for two weeks while your TC is in for repairs? This is a major flaw in the TC concept, in my opinion. I'll stick with my AEBS and some sort of attached disk. There are at least a few different options, even if Apple decides not to sanction AirDisk backups via Time Machine.
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Agree 100%! Plus you have the added benefit of attaching another drive to the usb port if you fill up harddrive. What happens when the time capsule fills up? Have the hassle of transferring and/or deleting.

And btw ... My Airport Extreme with USB Harddrive works fine without any hacks ... I just disable the (not even used) IPv6 and it works like a champ. I did nothing at a unix terminal ... I simply used airport utility to disregard IPv6.
 
bytethese said:
Hmm, all this AirDisk talk, what about backing up to a NAS? I have a gigabit 802.11n router and a 2TB Hammer Storage NAS array that I would LOVE to use Time Machine with. Would this be possible now or even sometime in the future?
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This is possible now, any network volume you can follow this hack with.

The important thing is to plug in some sort of local volume to generate the files. Then copy the files over to the NAS in a specific directory (you need to mount directly to). You don't need to connect locally to the NAS, just plug in some sort of external volume to create the files.
 
stevetimmac said:
Agree 100%! Plus you have the added benefit of attaching another drive to the usb port if you fill up harddrive. What happens when the time capsule fills up? Have the hassle of transferring and/or deleting.

And btw ... My Airport Extreme with USB Harddrive works fine without any hacks ... I just disable the (not even used) IPv6 and it works like a champ. I did nothing at a unix terminal ... I simply used airport utility to disregard IPv6.
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Works fine HOW? As an AirDisk or a viable source for Time Machine?

If so, everyone's airdisk works fine without hacks for a network drive ;)
 
I asked a friend who works at the Apple store about this. Here's his reply:

Here's a tool you can try: http://www.xiotios.com/itimemachine.html

Some of the stuff I read made it sound like Apple knows it is an issue and an update might come out soon that would allow it.

Here is another work around I found.
1) disconnect airport disk and plug into computer as a USB drive directly.
2) Set up time machine to use this volume.
3) In terminal cd to volume "cd /Volume/HDD"
4) In terminal "touch .com.apple.timemachine.supported" this will create an invisible file.
5) In terminal "sudo chown root:admin .com.apple.timemachine.supported"
6) In terminal "sudo chmod 1775 .com.apple.timemachine.supported"
7) In terminal "ls -l -a" the .com.apple.timemachine.supported file should be -rwxrwxr-t
8) eject disk, unplug from mac, plug into Airport.
9) mount at mac using connect to server in finder (command k) and afp://airportname.local./HDname
10) see if time machine now sees the drive and tries to use it.
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Wondering if anyone can comment on the effectiveness or reliability of either of these approaches?
 
grappler said:
I asked a friend who works at the Apple store about this. Here's his reply:


Wondering if anyone can comment on the effectiveness or reliability of either of these approaches?
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That's too cumbersome of a hack .. there's a one line fix:

Terminal.app

"defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1"
 
lord patton said:
IMHO, Apple planned the SDK all along. They didn't need whining custormers to convince them the iPhone could be a mobile computing platform. :rolleyes:
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I totally disagree. Before they announced the SDK, Apple was pushing the web apps concept pretty hard. Remember that terrible LDAP addressbook app they demo'd ? That was put together in a day as a last minute effort to fend off people hounding them about an SDK.

I lost count on how many people ask Steve Jobs why Apple didn't create an SDK. His response ... Look how great applications can be written for Safari!

The pressure finally hit them and Steve wrote an open letter announcing the SDK. I dunno about you, but the way it was announced was very suspicious.

Don't get me wrong, I am sure they talked about it. But, they had no plans to release an SDK until shortly before that announcement.
 
Peace said:
I never said you couldn't do it wirelessly. I said it's unreliable to do it wirelessly to any external USB drive connected to whatever kind of machine you have.
That is the difference. Until Apple can figure out how to keep external USB drives from going to sleep and losing connections you are not going to see it being used reliably over wireless.
Click to expand...

Again, I still don't see the problem. My USB drives spin up just fine when a backup is requested. Once an hour I can hear them spin up and I can see increased network traffic over my switch. No problems.

If a disk is in use, its not going to sleep. Bad coding on the AEBS will cause this. No reason it can't be fixed.
 
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