Time Capsule usage in an SMB

[vurkolak]

Hi,

We just purchased a time capsule (3TB version) to allow our Mac users the ability to use Time Machine to do backups. We want to plug it into our server room and have them access it directly over the wired network. I have disabled wireless and it seems I can connect properly if I'm on the same subnet (in this case, 192.168.3.x) however our user subnet includes 192.168.4.x and 192.168.5.x and if I'm on either of those it can't detect the TC.

It looks like an issue with broadcasts but is there not a way to just tell time machine to connect to an IP for the backups? Is there any other way to do this short of turning on wireless and having the clients connect that way? Very frustrating.

Thanks
Alan

 

[maflynn]

Time Machine uses AFP not SMB so that's probably why you're not seeing it if you have AFP disabled or trying to connect via SMB

 

[vurkolak]

Sorry for the confusion - SMB as in small/medium sized business. I just wanted to get across the idea that we aren't using it at home, it's for an organization which uses different types of switching gear etc...

 

[Brian33]

Surely there's a way to do what you want!

If you run Airport Utiliity from a Mac on the -4.x or -5.x network does AU see the TC? Probably not. Maybe this would help (I just discovered):

In AU, select File->Configure Other...
put in the TC's IP address and password.

Possibly then the TM program on the -4x and -5x Macs could see the TC somehow...

Just a thought.

 

[vurkolak]

Surely there's a way to do what you want!

If you run Airport Utiliity from a Mac on the -4.x or -5.x network does AU see the TC? Probably not. Maybe this would help (I just discovered):

In AU, select File->Configure Other...
put in the TC's IP address and password.

Possibly then the TM program on the -4x and -5x Macs could see the TC somehow...

Just a thought.

Thanks for the tip - I didn't know about the "configure other" option. I tried it but even though I can ping the TC it gives a vague error about not being able to read the configuration. A quick search indicates it could have something to do with how the "network" is setup on the TC but I don't see anything out of the ordinary. I'm resigned to the fact that I'll have to just leave it as wireless only.

Alan

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Hi,

We just purchased a time capsule (3TB version) to allow our Mac users the ability to use Time Machine to do backups. We want to plug it into our server room and have them access it directly over the wired network. I have disabled wireless and it seems I can connect properly if I'm on the same subnet (in this case, 192.168.3.x) however our user subnet includes 192.168.4.x and 192.168.5.x and if I'm on either of those it can't detect the TC.

Alan, the backup features of the TC rely on Bonjour - which is a protocol that doesn't appreciate routing much.

You're using three Class C subnets, and they are presumably routed to one another (i.e. anything on 192.168.4.x that needs to see/communicate with a service on 192.168.3.x needs to go through a router). I don't know if it's even possible to get Bonjour to broadcast across a router - I've never tried.

Right now you're using three separate class C subnets each with a mask of 255.255.255.0. Ideally you want your network to be one single subnet. You could make it a class B (172.16.x.x with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0) or if you don't want to renumber anything that's statically assigned currently, you could "supernet" the range of 192.168.0.0 through 192.168.7.254, with a subnet mask of 255.255.248.0. Set up this way, any device on the network can talk to any other without going through a router, and Bonjour will work properly.