Using Time Capsule as shared drive?

Yes, it can be used as a media storage center. Quoting from promotional information Apple has posted on their web site:

"Time Capsule with Time Machine in Leopard is the ideal backup solution. But that doesn’t mean Tiger, Windows XP, and Windows Vista users can’t enjoy the benefits of Time Capsule, too. Because it mounts as a wireless hard drive, Tiger and Windows users simply access Time Capsule directly from the wireless network for exchanging and storing files quickly and easily."

Do you think it will be possible to connect to it with the XBOX 360 and Playstation 3?

Since the Time Capsule is a standard wireless network access point - yes. Getting it to actually work appears to be a source of frustration for many, based on postings to this forum from people who have done this with Apple's previous Airport base station products.

Probably the ideal way is to have Time capsule connected to your computer, and then use a media server type program, Twonky or EyeConnet, and let your PS3 connect through ethernet to Time Capsule, so that way you can have the n speeds from the network, since the PS3 is g. I'm guessing that could be a solution.

Consider the current Time Machine backup scheme.

You can Use the TIME MACHINE drive as a regular hard drive. However you can not Backup data that data in Time Machine. Time Machine drives will not backup themselves but it will backup any other hard drives that are attached.

That said, and if that's applies to Time-Capsule as well, it would be wise to attach a external USB drive to the TimeCAP-AirportEXBaseStation and store your "working" data there. Then let TimeMachine Backup the external drive.

D
out

I want to use the built-in HDD for backup and media storage, can it do both? Can you configure TM to use a maximum GB and leave the rest media storage.

From the limited information available to date, it seems the answer to your question would be YES.

Is it possible to connect via ethernet from Capsule to another Mac with 10.3.9 and use the hard drive to do backups since it isn't possible to do this wirelessly?

Message was edited by: Hj Coble

Has anyone heard if the Time Capsule can use attached HD's as an extension of its internal drive when additional Time Machine storage is needed? Apple says "back up all the computers in your house", but they must be assuming you have a house full of Macbooks with 120GB / 160GB drives. 1TB would just barely backup my 160GB Macbook and 750GB IMac with little room left over for more than a few days of history.

transco - not enough technical details have been released for us to be able to answer your question right now. My speculative answer is that Apple's support for Time Machine backups will be limited to the internal drive.

From what I've read there still is hope that there will be an Airport Extreme Base Station firmware update that will make it possible to use attached drives for Time Machine storage. If so, I could add a 2TB drive to mine... problem solved.

I have Verizon FIOS wireless and have 2 printers connected via Ethernet switch. I also have a 500 gig USB NAS (that I just bought!). What I am trying to figure out is the best way to connect the NAS, the 2 network printers and add Time Capasule. I already know that Airport Express does not support printing over Ethernet, so I am not sure if I can use TC with the these printers. It would be nice to use TC as a print hub for my 4 Macs.

I could keep the printers on Ethernet connected to the Verizon router, but what would be the best way to connect the TM. Would it be better with a faster connection speed to go with Ethernet as well? And will Time Machine work with TC on a Ethernet connection?

Time Capsule was announced the day I went out and bought the USB drive and since I didn't open the package, I was thinking TC could be the answer to my prayers; a wireless network backup drive and wireless print hub. I thought I was going to return it, but now I think I will keep the NAS because I like the idea of a separate USB storage device. This way you can have files such as music, video and photos off all computer hard drives and still have backups in 2 places.

MKayden:

The only way to integrate Time Capsule into your existing network is to cable it to a spare LAN port on the ethernet switch connected to your Verizon wireless router. You would need to turn off the router built into Time Capsule. You would also need to make a decision about what to do with the wireless access point built into Time Capsule - you could turn it off, or you could leave it on and use it to provide an 802.11n-only wireless connection into your LAN in parallel with the 802.11b/g wireless connection provided by your existing Verizon wireless router.

Yes, Time Machine will work just fine regardless of the method (cabled or wireless) that Macs use to connect to your LAN.

You discussed using Time Capsule as a "print hub" for your Macs. It isn't clear to me what you had in mind. Yes, you could connect a USB interface printer to Time Capsule (with the setup I described above) and that printer would be accessible to all computers on your LAN. However, the addition of Time Capsule to your LAN won't change anything about the way you are currently using your existing network printers - which should remain cabled along with your NAS drive to your ethernet switch.

Reading between the lines I'm wondering whether you thought it possible to have Time Capsule connect wirelessly to your existing network - and that isn't possible.

Thanks. In answer to your last question, I have 2 Airport Express devices that join flawlessly to my Verizon network, so I was wondering if TM would do the same.

I probably will leave my printers connected as is. But I have postscript software that came with my color Epson printer and it is possible to keep that on a server or NAS, have printers connected to it and use it as central "hub" for all network computers to access the software without having to install on all the computers. This is much like what some have been asking about having iTunes library on TC and everyone sharing it.

In the end it sounds like I really don't get any added value buying a Time Capsule, since I am connecting it via Ethernet and my printers will still be connected to the switch. Also it doesn't seem like I can connect Ethernet printers to the TC and have act as a hub and switch. So I could just buy any Ethernet NAS and get the same functionality?

Does it still sound like a good idea to connect the USB hard drive to Time Capsule or another Ethernet NAS (if it excepts one) as a drive to store images, video and music that can be backed up with Time Machine and shared by all my computers? I bought it to connect directly to one of my desktop computers, but since I still haven't opened the box, I could easily return it.

Message was edited by: MKayden

Indeed, there is no indication from the currently available specs that Time Capsule can be configured as a wireless client to an existing wireless network (as the Airport Express can do).

I agree with you - Time Capsule isn't a product that you really need.