Internet in rural area via Hotspot and Airport Xtreme/Time Machine

I have an A1392 Airport Xtreme

There may be some confusion here. A1392 is an AirPort Express model number.......not an AirPort Extreme.

IF.....you really do have an Airport Express, it can likely be configured to do what you want......"Join a wireless network". When it does this the Ethernet ports are enabled as well, so you could connect a Time Capsule or other router to the AirPort Express and have it join the network that way.

But.....an AirPort Extreme cannot "Join a wireless network" so if you are asking about an AirPort Extreme, that is not going to work.

Assuming that you have an AirPort Express to "join" the wireless network, you will likely have to configure the Time Capsule in a router mode of DHCP and NAT, which will create what is known as a Double NAT error......but you may be able to get away with this on a simple home network.

You could try Bridge Mode as well, but the hotspot may not be able to provide all the IP addresses that you will need for all your devices. If you set up the Time Capsule as a DHCP and NAT router, up to 50 WiFi devices and another 150 wired devices will be able to connect using the default settings.

I have an A1392 Airport Xtreme, so what I would like to do is to use it to Join an Existing Wireless Network, then plug my Time Machine into the LAN port of the Xtreme and then plug other gadgets into the LAN ports of the Time Machine. And also still have other gadgets far away use the jetpack WIFI signal to have access to the Internet. That network "created" by the

Few questions:

Will this work?

Sorry, but no. This may work if you use an AirPort Express to join the wireless Hotspot network, but not with either the Extreme or Time Capsule. Both of the latter would require an Ethernet connection to a modem or another router.

Will there be bottlenecks in speed? The hotspot provides speeds of about 10-30Mbps

Since I also reside in a very rural area, I can assure you that performance is always going to be an issue. You'll be lucky to get those speeds that you quoted. Most likely, you can expect less than 10 Mbps down and only if you have a strong cellular connection.

Will I have to look for interference issues in bandwidth between the networks?

This will become a mute issue since you won't be able to use your current base stations for this. For the Express, it would be joining the existing network and would not be a source of Wi-Fi interference.

When I connect computers/printers to the network "created" by the Xtreme they can share files/print, etc. - right?

Yes, that would be correct ... but again the configuration would be something like: Hotspot >>> Express > Extreme and/or Time Capsule

connect to the hotspot wirelessly, then plug the Time Capsule into the LAN port of the Express - and then plug in any more network clients into the Time Capsule - correct?

Yes.

If you use Apple's default set up though, the Time Capsule will be set up in what is known as Bridge Mode and the hotspot may not be able to generate enough IP addresses for all your devices. For example, most hotspots will only allow 4-5 devices to connect. So, you will probably need to set up the Time Capsule as another router in the DHCP and NAT mode.

I tried the speeds with the hotspot this weekend and got anywhere between 10-30Mbps consistently. So that won't be affected once I put the slew of machines to work, right?

Not quite. Remember that all of your devices are sharing the same bandwidth for the Internet connection. So, if you have a 30 Mbps connection and 3 devices connected, each device will be allocated about 10 Mbps. But, if you have 10 devices connected, then you have only about 3 Mbps allocated to each device when most of the devices are connected to the network.

The bottom line is always the same......the more active devices that you connect, the slower the network will become.