Replacing my Airport Time Capsule
Hi all, I went through all the info I could find here on this topic and learned a lot, but not enough to start buying expensive NAS devices, modems and storage drives.
What I'd like to have setup is a hassle-free, simple solution to wirelessly backup my Macbook Pro. My Airport time capsule does exactly that via the Time Machine app, but the capsule is over 7 years old, gets overheated, and I think it is going to die soon.
There seems to be no equivalent to the AirPort time capsule, and if I understand correctly, there may be 2 alternative setups that could work:
- A modern wifi router with a USB3 port to which I would attach an external storage drive. An SSD storage would be my preference, as it is faster than an HDD. I looked at TP-Link WiFi 6 Router, AX3000 Dual Band WiFi Router with Samsung T7 Shield, Portable External Solid State Drive, Black, 1TB connected to the router. Will setup do the trick for automatic wireless Time Machine backups from my laptop? Or is it more complicated than this?
- The other option seems to be a NAS device, such as Synology DS120J or DS220J. But here I am not so clear about what else is needed besides the NAS device. First, NAS doesn't seem to come with storage built in, you have to buy that separately? Then, it looks like the storage for NAS is HDD, not SSD(which is my preference)? Third, I guess I still need to buy a wifi router?
Option 1 would cost me 180usd, option 2 - 400usd. If option 1 works reliably, the choice would be obvious, but will it work?
Or, are there things I don't understand about NAS - is it somehow more secure or works better for automatic wireless backups?
Thanks in advance for any help on this.