Time Capsule security information - Setting up user accounts.

_TimeCapsule security information - READ THIS before copying data!_

+By Ewen and Xafoe+

Background
Having bought a Time Capsule, and then spent all night (literally) copying data off some old usb/firewire drives you may be struck by the idea: "Not everyone on my network should have access to all of this stuff!".

To add security to your Time Capsule via user accounts:
1. Launch the Airport Utility (Applications->Utilities->Airport Utility) select your Time Capsule device, and this time select the "Manual Setup" button at the bottom of the window.
2. At the very top you will see a blue disk on the toolbar labeled "Disks". When you select that you will then have three things to choose from - Disks, FileSharing, and Accounts. Click FileSharing.
3. You will see a dropdown called "Secure Shared Disks". By default it will say "With disk password". Select "With accounts". You will get a message that states: "Setting up user accounts will make any files already on AirPort disks inaccessible".
4. Click "OK" on the warning message, select "Accounts". Time Capsule will not automatically pick up on the accounts on your Mac or others. You have to enter them here. It really isn’t a big deal, when users connect the first time they can save their info so they don't have to do it again. Put in all the accounts and passwords you think you might want - you can add more as needed later.
5. At this point the utility restarts Time Capsule. Once it comes up connect to the drive (select it in Finder and then "connect as"). You will be prompted for an account name and password - you know what to do here.
6. Remember the disk folder that was visible to anyone and everyone when you first set TimeCapsule up? Well, it's still there. It's now, more or less, a "public" folder for everyone to share (that's where my iTunes library will go) and there will be another folder - with your account name on it. Guess what? It's private just for you (actually for whoever is logged on with the respective account). No one else can even see it. I have been testing this with four different accounts and it works great! One account will be shared by two people (a collaboration area of the drive) while at the same each will have their own private area (virtual, not physical like a partition) on the drive.
7. Now proceed with copying all your data to the appropriate account folders.