Time Capsule

Johnz0r

Johnz0r

Johnz0r

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Hey guys, was just wondering what your thoughts are on the Time Capsule?

Been looking at getting a new router for a while now since my old Belkin one has pretty much bitten the dust (keeps forgetting WEP passwords etc etc) and is basically a good excuse to myself to get yet MORE apple products!!

Was just wondering if any of you guys/gals have had any experiences with them and whether the performance of the 802.11n is worth the price point over a standard 802.11g variant?

Plus, is it possible to store things such as Music and Movies and then stream them over to Windows PCs using the built in hard drive too? It mentions something about installing the bonjour software for Windows but it all seems a bit Vague.

Cheers,

Johnz0r
 
Mine arrived Thursday, and I've had a little play with it since then. :)

In respect of 802.11n, the only wireless device I have had a chance to test it with is my Iphone, but it seems to be significantly quicker in loading pages through the Safari browser than my old Netgear .11g router. I expect it to slow down once I fire up my laptop with .11g wireless though - routers normally default to the lowest setting, and afaik the TC only has one radio.

I've put anything on the HD just yet, but it basically works as a network drive. The airport utility on the PC will automatically set it as drive Z. It won't stream as such as it is not a media server, but you can open files like any other HD. To be honest, I'm not likely to use until I get my MBP, and then I will use it in its intended "backup" form.

Personally I think the £199 price tag for the 500GB edition I bought is slightly overpriced, but it is Apple so to be expected. Really, you would be looking at around £120 for a Airport Extreme router anyway, so you are getting a built in 500 gig HD for 70 quid.
 
Gog said:
...the only wireless device I have had a chance to test it with is my Iphone...
Click to expand...

Which is a G device :p

Gog said:
...you would be looking at around £120 for a Airport Extreme router anyway, so you are getting a built in 500 gig HD for 70 quid.
Click to expand...

Exactly my thinking.
 
Gog said:
Mine arrived Thursday, and I've had a little play with it since then. :)

In respect of 802.11n, the only wireless device I have had a chance to test it with is my Iphone, but it seems to be significantly quicker in loading pages through the Safari browser than my old Netgear .11g router. I expect it to slow down once I fire up my laptop with .11g wireless though - routers normally default to the lowest setting, and afaik the TC only has one radio.

I've put anything on the HD just yet, but it basically works as a network drive. The airport utility on the PC will automatically set it as drive Z. It won't stream as such as it is not a media server, but you can open files like any other HD. To be honest, I'm not likely to use until I get my MBP, and then I will use it in its intended "backup" form.

Personally I think the £199 price tag for the 500GB edition I bought is slightly overpriced, but it is Apple so to be expected. Really, you would be looking at around £120 for a Airport Extreme router anyway, so you are getting a built in 500 gig HD for 70 quid.
Click to expand...

Cheers for the reply, sounds quite easy to use then. I am sure I can soften the blow by getting the 500GB time capsule on the cheap using HE discount.

I have a few 802.11n devices including my MBP and a newly acquired Mac Mini, so should see a speed increase.
 
Time Capsule is wicked...

I've had one for a couple of months now and it really is very good.

Some of the settings are a bit daft and its by no means perfect, but imho, its the best solution out there! You won't be disappointed! :)
 
I didn't want to start a new thread but... I just ordered a 1TB Time Capsule :D

Sold my AirPort Extreme Base Station on the 'bay (for a good sum) and it'll be arriving tomorrow.

Not really interested in the Time Machine feature.. just going to use this as a network attached storage drive unless I can be swayed that I need hourly backups.
 
The is one major flaw in Time Capsule that you should be aware of. Time machine will not backup drives physically connected to the USB port on TC, this is because it sees them as network drives. This might seem reasonable, but it has caused a lot complaints by certain users. The problem is that many people only have laptops, consequently they have copied their itunes library onto an external drive to save space. This can then be connected to the USB port on TC and easily accessed. But, there is then no easy way to back this drive up. I fail to see why Apple did not allow you to manually specify the drives you wish to backup. Apart from that, it's a lovely bit of kit.
 
I have no intention of extending the storage via USB. The 1TB of space is more than enough.

I am however, interested in the "Archive" feature for some off-site backup goodness :cool:

Is it possible to do this when using the drive as a NAS, or is it only possible to archive the Time Machine backups?
 
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