Mesh alternative for AirPort Time Capsule

There are no other manufacturers that offer a router.....mesh or otherwise.....with a built in hard drive like the Time Capsule, so your options are going to be limited.

If you really do need another router, Synology offers a product with a USB port that supports Time Machine, which will allow you to connect a USB hard drive to the main router and back up over the network that way. So, instead of a one piece solution like the Time Capsule, you will have two pieces.......the router and hard drive. Synology does offer a Wi-Fi mesh option with an additional unit.

Synology RT2600ac AC2600 high-speed Wi-Fi router ...www.synology.com › en-us › products

Asus also offers routers with a USB port that will allow you to connect a hard drive to the router and back up that way. Not sure about a mesh option with the Asus products.

https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1011283/

If you already have another router or a mesh WiFi system, it is possible to connect the Time Capsule to the network and have it function as only a wired back up device.

Another option.....if you already have a router......would be to add a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device to the router and back up to the NAS. Synology offers a number of products in this regard.

https://www.synology.com/en-us/support/nas_selector

As Bob has indicated mesh systems tend to be rather lacking in functionality. Even models that do have USB port don't actually use them. e.g. Netgear Orbi which has usb for future use.. and has never actually been used since introduced after several years and my guess is it never will. So all the mesh system is good for is wireless distribution. Even when you use it as a router it is basic. Pretty much lacking in features.

Both the Synology and the Asus do offer mesh as add on to their normal router products. The difference here is that mesh is no where near as good as the specifically mesh products. I would not recommend either Asus nor the Synology for true wireless mesh. If you can wire the Access Points together that is different story. Excellent routers though.

As far as backup target for Time Machine, I would definitely go with the Synology. Either router and USB3 disk. Find another method to extend the wireless. Like a cheap system Deco M5 or Google wifi.

Or go mesh with better mesh system (Netgear Orbi) if that suits you better with Synology NAS plugged in via ethernet to base station.

According to what you said, it seems that right now my best option is probably to buy Time Capsule from eBay.

Not sure about that. All of them are a few years old at least. And Catalina is proving very unreliable to the TC.. there are alternative backup software like Carbon Copy Cloner which will do a better job.

Anyway do you already have a mesh setup?? .. if not make sure you buy one with gigabit ethernet ports. e.g. the new google nest wifi has no ethernet on the satellites. Make sure you have the possibility in the future of used wired connections for backhaul.

You said something about Access Points, is that the way?

Access Point are wired by ethernet back to the main router. If you are prepared to invest in wiring, at least one outlet on each floor of your home, the result will be far superior to mesh.

Let me make clear there are a few different grades of equipment here.

Older Extend wireless systems like Apple used with airports is slow.. at least halves the connection speed and big increase in latency. And has poor range and no possibility of multiple hops.

Cheap mesh systems of which the Google wifi or TP-Link Deco series (M5) are good examples.. use 866Mbps links for both connecting clients and backhaul so are easily saturated. Better than extend wireless but still cause slow down and increased latency. Mesh gives superior flexibility and roaming at least sort of works.

Expensive mesh systems like Velop which Apple sell in their stores and Netgear Orbi use a third wireless on high speed 5ghz channel as purely backhaul. So they usually come out tops in most comparisons of mesh systems.

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/netgear-orbi,review-4263.html

Better they can be used with ethernet backhaul which improves speed and latency over even the best wireless. Some of the cheaper ones also allow this.

When used with ethernet your normal Asus and Synology routers also work well in mesh or AP mode. These different modes of operation are nearly identical only mesh removes all control from end user whereas AP mode allows you to actually connect onto the unit and set different wireless for example. Roaming should work well either way if setup for it.

Where you need to be careful is trying to mix and match. If you go for a particular mesh system for example.. you MUST stick to that brand. It is not interchangeable.

So can you plug a TC into a mesh satellite or main unit??.. answer is yes as long as it has ethernet ports.

Will it be reliable? Hmmm.. hard to say. Not great.. but there are some things in the setup that help loads. Nothing can quite guarantee the results.. and ESPECIALLY with Catalina which can fail miserably even in pure Apple setup.

If you go down this path.. be aware it is fraught.

I personally have it setup like this.. Asus main router. TC plugged in to switch in the network. Multiple AP units around the house. Reliability is fair with every tweak I know. I would not however recommend it to anyone without decent DIY and network skills.

I also have a synology NAS on the network and that is so far 100% reliable. A lot more expensive but you gets what you pays for.

According to what you said, it seems that right now my best option is probably to buy Time Capsule from eBay

That is an option, if you want to stick with an Apple product for backups. The downside to the Time Capsule is that it was designed about 8 years ago and Apple may be less than thrilled about providing support for a product that was discontinued two years ago.

If you purchase a mesh system, the Time Capsule will ideally need to connect to the "main" mesh router using a permanent wired Ethernet cable connection. So, anywhere you go with your Mac, you can connect to the mesh WiFi system and back up over the network that way. You won't be using the WiFi provided by the Time Capsule at all.

If you cannot connect the Time Capsule to the main mesh router, then it will need to connect to one of the mesh remote access points using an Ethernet connection. Not all access points include Ethernet connections, to if you plan to connect the Time Capsule to one of the mesh remote units, you'll need to make sure that it has an Ethernet port on the back of the device.

We can't really provide any specific "how to" instructions at this point on hooking up the Time Capsule because we have no information on the make and model number of the mesh system you might be looking at. If you could narrow your choices down to a few products, then we'll be able to take a look at them to make sure that the Time Capsule will work correctly with the mesh system.

but can I use somehow the current system to make it work in the smoothest way there is?

The only way that the Time Capsule can work with the Bezeq system is by connecting to the Bezeq router using a permanent wired Ethernet cable connection. Another way to say that same thing is that the Time Capsule cannot connect the Bezeq system using only a WiFi connection. The reason.......the Time Capsule can only connect to a network using WiFi when there is another Apple AirPort router providing the WiFi network.

It is possible to configure the Time Capsule to use the same wireless network name and password as the Bezeq WiFi network, but this would only make sense if you were planning to locate the Time Capsule a few rooms away from one of the Bezeq access points. This would mean that you might be running an Ethernet cable up to 50 feet or more from one of the Bezeq access points to the Time Capsule.

The bottom line......no matter whether the Time Capsule is set up to provide a WiFi signal or not, it must connect to the Bezeq system using a permanent wired Ethernet cable connection. Ideally, the Time Capsule would connect to the "main" Bezeq mesh router, but it could connect to one of the other remote access points......IF....the remote access point has an Ethernet port.

Please advise on exactly where the Time Capsule will be located and how you want to proceed.