How do I connect external HD to my network

Check your router or modem, most have USB ports you can plug the drive into to share it to the network.

If your router does not have a USB port you can use, the you would need to get a router that does.

You cannot plug an adapter to the drive and have it show on the network. Since the drive itself would have no way of knowing its connected to a network.

The drive requires a router ro computer that can see it and share it out to the network.

For supported remote access, your router (acting as a NAS, here) needs to support Time Machine access.

See > Backup disks you can use with Time Machine - Apple Support

Your router might not, or you might have to enable the feature within the router’s configuration interface.

If you want us to look up that detail, you’ll have to tell us the vendor and model, or you can open the router specs and the router user reference manual, and search both for “time machine”.

If your router can provide enough power to it from the USB port it should be fine. In most cases there should be no issue.

You may need to do some setup in your Router's configuration website to get the drive to be shared and accessible. Check your router's User manual for how to do that.

Most ISP-provided routers won’t support advanced features, and yours is seemingly no exception.

Cheaper for the ISP to buy, and fewer features that the ISP will then need to support.

This router is decently capable, but I can see no NAS features and no Time Machine features.

Mid- and upper-end residential and mid- and upper-end small-business network configurations will replace this router with a customer-chosen model with the necessary capabilities, or will switch this into bridged mode with a customer-provided router with the necessary capabilities, or—for your local storage-serving preferences here—with this or other router and a separate NAS box or a Mac.

For attempting access to the Time Capsule contents? Maybe try this:

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/401144/how-to-reuse-hdd-from-timecapsule-without-losing-the-data

For continued use of that HDD? I wouldn't touch a flaky HDD, nor an HDD from a Time Capsule, with the proverbial barge pole. Flaky HDDs don’t ever get less flaky tending only to get more flaky, and any HDD from a Time Capsule is starting out old and from long use in an enclosure not known for its HDD cooling. Well, not unless I was looking for some powerful magnets.

As for a replacement for Time Capsule, some NAS devices offer Apple Time Machine support, with Synology having both NAS boxes and Wi-Fi routers with support for that.

You can turn a Mac into a Time Machine server

macOS Built-In Time Machine Server

Mac Geek Gab episode 853

https://www.macobserver.com/podcasts/macgeekgab-853

You can use a Mac (High Sierra or more recent) as a Time Machine backup server. Maybe as a Time Capsule replacement.

System Preferences -> Sharing -> File Sharing

Create a Shared Folder

Control-Click on the Shared folder

Select "Advanced Options..."

It might be best to create the shared folder on an external drive.

Control-Click on the new Shared Folder, and select "Advanced Options..."

Check [X] Share as a Time Machine backup destination

And maybe limit the amount of space that Time Machine can use for this shared folder.

Remember you can have multiple shared folders for different family Macs that you want to backup.

You can choose whether you want only encrypted SMB connections.

You can find the product features from the vendor specs, and find some options using web searches for "best time machine NAS" and other such searches. I've been running Synology, and some others can use FreeNAS/TrueNAS core.

TrueNAS core / FreeNAS can run on much of the old computer hardware some of us accumulate, or on new and purpose-acquired hardware: https://www.freenas.org

...or for those inclined to more creative solutions, Raspberry Pi as a NAS: https://jeremycollins.net/using-a-raspberry-pi-as-a-nas-mac-os-time-machine-2020-edition

I'm not sure what "wireless drives" are, in this context. There are Wi-Fi-connected NAS boxes, as well as wired.

I prefer to hook NAS to wired networks, as that offloads (~half) the Wi-Fi traffic.

Your particular router has four gigabit-capable LAN ports for that or other uses, and a switch can be connected to one of those four ports if you need or want yet more wired ports.

Just noticed that router also supports WPS. I'd shut that off. https://www.howtogeek.com/176124/wi-fi-protected-setup-wps-is-insecure-heres-why-you-should-disable-it/

changejobs wrote:

bob,

thank you for your detailed post. this seems quite interesting. however I realize my desktop is about 6 years old so id worry about the drive. i have a new 2gb external drive and i'd actually like to use it to back up both my desktop and my 1 year old laptop with any future backups. although i plugged it into my router, i cant figure out how to see the drive and start the process. any thoughts appreciated

First you can specify the external disk as the destination for the network Time Machine backups.

Second, just like the Time Capsule, you can backup multiple Macs to the 2TB external drive.

As to your 6 year old boot disk, you could buy a USB3 SSD, transfer your macOS to SSD, and boot from that. It will actually make your desktop Mac faster, assuming it is running off of a rotating disk.

If you want an NAS, then I have been using Synology.

I have 2 of Synology NAS boxes (one backs up the other). However, I do not use Time Machine, rather I use Carbon Copy Cloner to do my backups. It is a bit of a Rube Goldberg setup, where I have an old Mac running Carbon Copy Cloner. It mounts an SMB Share from the Synology. On the SMB share is a macOS Disk Utility image file, which CCC also mounts. I then use CCC's ability to pull a backup from my Mac over the network (local home network in this case, but it could be across the Internet, if the remote Mac has a dynamic DNS name that can be addressed, and appropriate ssh ports have been opened in the remote Mac's home router).

I backup 4 Mac laptops in my home, and before my mother passed away, I backed up her iMac from 300 miles away using this Rube Goldberg approach.

As you may guess I have a lot of storage on my Synology boxes. About 20TB

NOTE: If you get a NAS I would suggest using NAS rated drives. They are more expensive than your typical consumer drive, but in a NAS box, they will generally last longer.

1: No. A NAS box is "just another computer" on your home network, as far as your router is concerned. Your Mac and Windows systems will spot the NAS and allow access, though. And as BobHarris mentioned earlier, a Mac serving its storage is also a NAS.

2: Not entirely sure what you're trying, here...

...2a: I've not swapped AirPort Time Capsule drives to an AirPort Extreme. Whether that'll work with this drive and its existing contents in a USB sled, I don't know.

...2b: And if you're thinking of swapping another (new) HDD into an AirPort Time Capsule, I'd assume that AirPort Time Capsule might be fussy about the drive vendor and model. The Seagate NAS-focused HDD models used were fairly common years ago, but they're going to be somewhat tougher to find in this era, and some of what's around for new-old-stock may already be ancient.