Gizmodo
We've been fiddling with Time Capsule since it arrived this AM, and so far it works as billed, clean and easy. The star of the show is really the new AirPort Utility software, which now comes with some neat tricks for the network-phobic. Most of all, we're learning the ins and outs of adding external drives, using networked printers, and setting up that potentially nasty initial data dump.
We've actually set up the Time Capsule several different ways already, as the only router in the network, and as an Ethernet-linked node on an existing wireless network. The start-up wizard in AirPort Utility asks you plainly what you want to do, in increasing steps like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book. I know some of you don't need that kind of child's play, but this kind of thing will even help you when you tell your mom to get one of these and realize you won't have to do tech support too.
Once you've got it set up, either as your router or a node on your network, you can just pop into Time Machine and see it listed as a drive. If that's all you want, select the drive and you're as good as done. That first dump can be a real doozy though, so keep some things in mind:
• Set aside an entire night to get it done.
• Consider connecting via Ethernet, especially if you have an 802.11b/g Mac. (Time Capsule has Gigabit 10/100/1000Base-T wired connectivity.)
• Try not to interrupt the first dump, as the subsequent file-integrity check will take a long time too.
But say you buy the 500GB Time Capsule, and want to use an external 1TB drive to do all your serious backing up. When you connect it via USB, it is automatically visible in both the AirPort Utility and the Time Machine on your Mac. What you can't do is merge the two to make one massive 1.5TB volume, though. You have to choose one or the other.
In some cases, you may want to connect the USB drive you already use for Time Machine to the Time Capsule, to simply make the process wireless. Bear in mind that if you do that, you still have to make the massive initial dump: Time Capsule won't recognize that drive as your previous Time Machine drive, but just as new storage that you can use.
The internal drive and any external drives can be seen as standard network drives, too, across both Mac and PC platforms—checking the guest friendly option in AirPort Utility's disk settings is helpful there. Speaking of PC compatibility, Apple appears to be promoting Time Capsule, at least by word of mouth and in all the support literature, as a dual-platform product, even though its core Time Machine software is not available to Windows users. You can use third-party backup software and select Time Capsule as the target drive, though there are certainly many competing products that will let you do this for cheaper.
The only significant problem I've run into is the networked printer. I connected a printer to Time Capsule that I had set up for local use on my Mac. Time Capsule recognized it immediately, and the printer selection on the Mac itself showed it just fine, but when I went to actually send over a print job, I got an error that the printer was offline. (Eddie Izzard fans would've appreciated the ensuing angry outburst: "Not offline! No. Online. Control-P Print!!") I don't blame Time Capsule yet. I'm going to try it with some other printers soon, and will get to the root of it.
We will continue to test this and alert you to any issues, but in the meantime it's safe to say that this is a worthwhile product for people who have the money and want the convenience. How often do you refuse to connect the USB to your backup drive because it would hamper your style? How often are you afraid, after a long period of not backing up, of the time it may take you to perform a backup. Those issues go away with Time Capsule.
But there's a cost, particularly at the 1TB model, which is $200 more than the $300 500GB model. When we ask about this, all we get back is that these are "server grade" drives. Great, thanks, but we're gonna recommend the 500GB version. If you have 300GB of backup or less you're covered, and if you have 1TB of backup or more, you're better off scoring some massive drive or drive array at discount, and plugging it in via USB. Now go back the #&#;$% up!!! [Time Capsule on Giz]
Comments
What's the firmware version?
sold me on the time capsule.
Thanks guys!
Is this a new version of Airport Utility? If so, do you think it'll be available via Software Updater????
But just to be clear -- we still can't just plug our existing USB drive into our existing AirPort Extreme and have Time Machine recognize it without doing a bunch of stuff that Apple doesn't support, right? I guess now that these Time Capsules are shipping, they'll never get wireless Time Machine working without 'em. Oh well.
I would like to see some test done streaming content from the Time Capsule to an AppleTV just to be 100% sure before buying. I know it would be straight forward like using a USB or firewire hard drive hooked up to your mac, but that isn't ideal for video streaming over a network. Just being able to free up the internal drive on my iMac would be awesome, and I wouldn't have to leave it on 24/7.
So, no option to wirelessly connect AND extend/create a network?
If I'm extending my existing network by tethering two Extremes to each other with an ethernet cable, that just gives me half a house with AMAZING signal and still half a house with no signal.
This would be awesome if you could install this timecapusle service on any machine.
A question from someone completely inept: this thing can be used by both a PC and a Mac simultaneously, correct?
This sounds like a great way to tie together storage and backup for my desktop PC and macbook air. I have an external HD now (i don't use time machine), but it is a hassle to unplug from my pc, plug into my MBA, and repeat especially when the drive is not centrally located.
Plus now i would have wireless access to my entire music collection from my air with the added speed of n wireless
@Sharkey: The backup feature would be mac only (I'm pretty positive on that). But the wireless network it would create as a router should be usable by anything.
@ligerxx: I'm asking about that now.
@No, no, no: Still can't do Time Machine backup over AirPort Extreme, no. And I think you're right, probably won't happen in this generation.
@thechansen: I should maybe have mentioned that above, though it's really more of an Apple TV review topic: you can't stream from Time Capsule to Apple TV. You can use TC as storage for your Mac, which can stream to Apple TV, but nothing direct at this point.
@Hiphopopotamus: It's my understanding that you have to wire the two together, as opposed to some kind of a wireless-mesh setup. You may want to buy HD-grade powerline adapters to use as an Ethernet bridge.
@Sharkey: Yes. It can be used as a network drive by PCs and Macs, and if you have network backup software for the PC, you can backup to it. Only Macs have Time Machine though, which is the main backup app I discuss here.
Getting the 1TB - Planning on streaming the files from an Axis 211m directly to Time Capsule for archival + the usual time machine backup. No longer willl the MBPro be tethered to the desktop for fear of loosing incremental work.
@bobdobbs: Says "Version 7.3" oddly enough. And AirPort Utility is version 5.3.
I'm buying it... You sold me Wilson, warts and all.
hey, quick question. what was meant by: "if you have 300GB of backup or less you're covered"?
@Wilson Rothman: I've heard those powerline adapters are a load of crap... have you used them?
@Wilson Rothman: Is this using standard wireless encryption, or something a bit more robust?
Did anyone already take it apart to tell us what those "Server Grade" drives really are ?
@Hiphopopotamus:
I've tested the newer powerline adapters and they are much better than before and very fast.
I bought the Airport Extreme to be able to use Time Machine with an external USB drive. Apple said that would be an option.
Can I sue??
@Wilson Rothman: Current Airport Extremes are 7.2.1 so hopefully this means a software update will be released soon.
I just use Windows Home Server to backup my mac. It's also pretty simple, and unlike time capsule, it's complete configurable, both hardware and software.
how much room does the Time Machine backup take up?? or does it depend on what you have on your laptop? I am planning on purchasing MacBook and Time Capsule....I just want to know if I will have enough room left to store music and videos.
@Hiphopopotamus: I've actually used a newer Netgear pair, running for about 100 feet of floorspace in a late 1960s home for the purpose of downloading streaming video on Vudu, and I never had a problem getting the needed bandwidth. This was the 200Mbps "HD" set, I believe. It really depends on the application, but for one thing, they're very hassle-free. I just wish they were cheaper—$180 per pair!
@simplogic: Time Machine drives work best when they're bigger than the drive they're backing up. If you had you had 300GB worth of data backing up to a 500GB Time Capsule, the extra 200GB would be allocated to different versions of files over time.
@brendanm14: A Time Machine back up is basically everything currently on your hard drive plus about 20% of headroom for storing the stuff you delete by accident. You'll have to do the calculation, but the common mistake is to assume that your 160GB drive only needs 160GB of backup room, when it may in fact take more. That said, you still might have plenty room for your auxiliary files.
"freshly squeezed, mango juice......"
@silomunke: What I really want to know is, who at Apple told you that this was possible? That person should be sacked for spreading misinformation. At the very least, take it back to an Apple Store and complain.
@silomunke: sue sue sue!
@lafond66: What software do you use? Please share. There are of course lots of network backup options out there for Macs, and I have personally found the Windows Home Server to be great NAS system, but nothing we've seen is more simple than the Time Machine/Time Capsule combo for Mac users when it comes to backup. That's really what this is about.
@brendanm14: From my understanding, it's flexible - the bigger the better. How far do you want to go back in time?
For instance, with a 250GB drive in my MacBook, backing up to a 250GB external, Time Machine will work okay until my internal drive gets too full - around 220GB. Then it complains that there's not enough room on the external.
@simplogic: If the drive you intend to back up has 300GB or less of stuff (heck, maybe even 400GB), then the 500GB Time Capsule should give you the headroom you need if you use it strictly as a backup drive.
@bobdobbs: I don't know—if it had full Time Capsule functionality (with external drive) then it might chop out the legs from the whole TC product line. My guess is that even if there's a 7.3 update on the AirPort Extreme, Time Machine capability probably won't be a part of it. But yes, that is good news in general.
Nice design and simple approach, but that price is pretty steep.
@lafond66: Doesn't it also eat information from iTunes and even the Zune software?
Has anyone tried the functionality of running a Wii and an Xbox360 wirelessly thru a Time Capsule?
I need to extend my wireless network to the living room and I'm in severe need of setting up a backup drive. This could be two birds with one stone.
Today's stooopid question: You can back more than one Mac to a single TC, right? It creates different subdirs or volumes?
See, I *told* you it was stooopid.
Wasn't the issue with AirPort drives the ability to access Time Machine backups, not backing them up to a networked drive? If so, then can we see if you can access the External 1TB USB2.0 drive with Time Machine.
This may be an indicator of the AEBS also getting this ability.
@Wilson Rothman: I've got a test for you (and for all the rest of us laptop owners with large music libraries)
If you set up iTunes to store+access your library on the Time Capsule, can the setup handle streaming to a MacBook without any hiccups? (on b, on g, on n?)
I'm currently using a USB drive externally to hold my library, and I want to be sure I'm not degrading this performance before buying.
@AirSix: Yep. As many as you want. You can also through whatever else you want on that partition, it's not locked to just Time Machine updates.
So, can the time capsule be connected to an external Hard drive for added back up space? Or would you be only limited to the 500gb (or 1TB?)
Can you run it for a while and see if there are still connection issues with external hard drives, as seen in the Airports?
Also, print-wise, once you get it up and running, will it give you full functionality over an all in one printer? And how is performance with it?
Finally, what's the difference between 2.4 and 5ghz???
Also the word "dump" is used 4 times in this article.
heh.."..massive initial dump..."
I love technology!
SF Apple store told me they might be getting them today, and to check back after 2pm. I will be calling them hourly and updating as apropriate.
Here's what I'm fuzzy on - I've heard that Time Machine will just keep filling up available drive space with backups, and only when that drive is full will it start writing over the old backups. So if I've got 2 computers backing up to a time capsule that I also want to host my itunes library on, am I going to have to go in and manually delete old TM backups to make room for new music in 2 months?
Was there ever a Sizemodo done for this thing? I understand it's larger than expected. At least that's what the chaps over at (*whispers*) Engadget said.
Excellent, comprehensive post, by the way.
@getz76: Considering that the cost includes the hard drive plus the equivalent of an Airport Extreme (which would otherwise be $180), the price seems reasonable, especially for the 500G which is only $120 for the price of the drive (above the $180 you'd pay for the naked base station).
@Leonard Nimrod: Apparently, they just prevent you from SEEING network drives in time machine, not actually selecting them. There's a hack to make network drives visible to time machine:
[www.2putts4par.com]
Nice. I've got a question tho.
What if I wanna dump movies on the TC and hook it up directly to a (soon-to-be-bought-when-MGS4-ships) PS3? Is that possible? Or would I have to download Nullriver's software and access the movies thru my computer's wireless connection to TC? The latter method is ok, but having it go directly to the console would be awesome and open up some sweet HT setup ideas.
Anyone know? Hopefully something will pop up in a month or so.
At $200, I'd bite on this... 300 is too much for a backup solution right now. Maybe when my router dies, this will be it's replacement. If I know apple, in 6 months they'll be selling the 1TB version for 300 and 2TB for 500.
@Wilson Rothman: Apple is pricing these really well -- you'd be hard-pressed to spend less on an airport extreme and an external drive of the same quality/capacity. I can't see them cutting into sales by enabling it. The problem is backing up to the USB port of an AX is painfully slow. Is the speed better with the TC?
Heres a big question. What if I wanted to connect a usb printer and usb hard drive to it? Could I ad an usb hub to it and connect both?
If not, can you partition the time capsule 1TB into 2 drives: one for time machine and one for regular data storage? Then that would allow just the printer for the USB.
I am sure Apple will add more functionality in the future and I am pretty sure it will result in a re-purchase of hardware to get it but at its current state I would have to say Windows Home Server (WHS) has this beat in every category. Integration, Ease of Use, as well as, the ease of remote access just puts it over the top. I would love to see what Apple has up their sleeves in future iterations.
@Xavoc: Only if you are trying to save the large databases directly to the WHS. The Backup features are flawless and quite useful.