Time Capsule Ethernet connection

Why is the ethernet connection between Mac and TC not recognised?

You always want to perform a complete power cycle on the entire network when any new device is added or a confguration change is made.

Power off everything on the network....all devices including modem, printers, drives, etc.....order is not important

Wait moment

Power up the modem first and let it run for a few minutes by itself

Power up the next device connected to the modem and let it run a few moments

Keep powering up devices one at a time the same way until everything is running

If you connect a good Ethernet cable from your Mac to one of the LAN <-> ports on the Time Capsule, the connection should default to Ethernet...even if wireless is turned on at the laptop. It would still be good idea to turn the wireless off on the Mac when you want to transfer files using Ethernet.

You might want to double check to make sure that the Time Capsule is still in Bridge Mode as this setting can sometimes change if you make other changes on the Time Capsule

Bob,

Thank you. Have done the power down and up and I know it now works if I have wi-fi switched off on the iMac - so the connection is recognised. Have yet to establish whether it works as ethernet default even when wi-fi is switched on.

Ian

Hello Bob,

Your posts are very interested and helpful.

I would like to tell you my thoughts about using my new TC.

Let me describe to you my needs.

I have an iMac connected with a LaCie (via usb) to make back up, also connected with a Netgear wireless modem router.

From Netgear's ethernet ports I'm giving also internet connection through a long ethernet cable to a hub in a long-way distance room.

If I connect TC to this hub in purpose to :

1) Use TC to give wireless internet to that place of my house (because my Netgear's signal is very poor) so I could use iOS devices and a MacBook Air

2) Connect MacBook Air with TC to do also a back up with Time Mahine (wirelessly)

3) Use a power strip with a button on it to turn on/off TC (I want to avoid having continously the wireless on)

4) Maybe iMac could make a back up to TC through the ethernet connection

5) Could I put TC vertically?

How do they seem my thoughts?

Thanks in advance

Harris

1) Use TC to give wireless internet to that place of my house (because my Netgear's signal is very poor) so I could use iOS devices and a MacBook Air

Yes, this can be done easily.

2) Connect MacBook Air with TC to do also a back up with Time Mahine (wirelessly)

Yes, easy to do.

3) Use a power strip with a button on it to turn on/off TC (I want to avoid having continously the wireless on)

That is a personal choice that you can make. I do not recommend this since I do not think that it is good for the Time Capsule to be turned on and off on a regular basis. Apple designed the product to be always on.

4) Maybe iMac could make a back up to TC through the ethernet connection

Yes, easy to do.

5) Could I put TC vertically?

I would not recommend this because the product is designed to work flat on a desk or similar location.

Hello Bob,

Thanks for your immediate reply.

The only issue for me is that I don't want to have always "on" the wireless mode.

Is there a way to turn on/off the wireless abillity from the preferences of TC?

As I have another external HD (LaCie) to back up iMac the only use for TC is to back up my MB Air and sometimes to connect iOS devices or MB Air for internet surfing.

How do you see that?

Thanks

Harris

You can turn the wireless off as follows:

Open AirPort Utility - click Manual Setup

Click the Wireless tab below the row of icons

Wireless Mode = Off

Update

You will have to re-enter the wireless network details again when you want to turn the wireless mode back on.

Hi Bob,

When you are saying that I have to re-enter the network details, is it time consuming or you do it fastly?

(A siily question : If someone has a TC using it without wireless signal and only for back up with Time Machine why doesn't he buy a single hard disk?)

Thanks

Harris

When you are saying that I have to re-enter the network details, is it time consuming or you do it fastly?

It takes me about 30 seconds to.....

Open AirPort Utility - Click Manual Setup

Click the Wireless tab

Change the Wireless Mode setting to "create a wireless network"

Enter the name of the wireless network

Enter the password and confirm

Click Update

Allowing another 15-20 seconds for the AirPort to restart, the total time to get things going is well under 60 seconds

(A siily question : If someone has a TC using it without wireless signal and only for back up with Time Machine why doesn't he buy a single hard disk?)

Maybe he likes Apple products.

Hi Bob,

If I connect an access point to TC with an ethernet cable in 1 of 3 LAN ports is it possible to make a back up with Time Machine using my MacBook Air?

(I'm telling that in order to have the control for on/off)

Thanks

Not sure if this is the place to ask this semi-related question. But here goes.

I have an old (1st generation) Time Capsule and a new Airport Extreme (5th gen) . I want to use both, Extreme as my primary router connected to my DSL modem, printer, external hard drives etc and continue to use use my old Time Capsule on the network for backups but also utilize the wired Time Capsule ports for other devices.

I have the Time Capsule in "Bridge Mode", It's wired (ethernet) directly to my Extreme.

Everything seems to work fine for a while except my backup at times cannot complete. It's as if it loses it's path to the Time Capsule. My only solution is to resart my Time Capsule. Then it works for a period of time but then I have to resart Time Capsule periodically to maintain backup connectivity. It's problematic. Any ideas?

Thanks

Your setup sounds fine. What firmware version is the old TC now? What OS on the computer?

There have been issues with Lion and latest TC firmware.

Once you lose the connection have you tried opening airport utility to see if the TC is still recognised?

At that age the series 1 TC may simply become unreliable.. it is kind of a wonder it still goes.

Try rearranging the network.. For instance use the TC directly on a single computer using ethernet or wireless.. you will need to use a different IP address range to your main network connection and check its reliability.

Thanks for your response.

I'm running 7.6 firmware on both the TC and the Extreme.

Airport Utility maintains connectivity.

I've had (2) 1st "gens" TC's. One was a replacement for this very reason. So it maybe inherent to the device. I was really hoping that 7.6 and the new Extreme would overcome the problem. I was thinking maybe someone might have a solution like a static IP config idea.

I've also tried reformating the TC and starting a fresh backup, since adding the Extreme.

Hi Bob,

Since the latest AirPort update, there doens't seem to be an option for turning bridging mode on/off. I don't see such options in the internet of wirelesstabs.

Any ideas how to go about enabling this now? Thanks.

carml wrote:

Hi Bob,

Since the latest AirPort update, there doens't seem to be an option for turning bridging mode on/off. I don't see such options in the internet of wirelesstabs.

Any ideas how to go about enabling this now? Thanks.

Not Bob but this might help.

Download version 5.6 of the airport utility.

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482

They eliminated a whole pile of stuff from the normal v6 in Lion to make it look svelte.

what a nice word

svelte (sv lt). adj. svelt·er, svelt·est. Slender or graceful in figure or outline; slim. ... svelte [svelt] ADJ → esbelto. svelte [ˈsvɛlt ˈsfɛlt] adj → svelte. svelte ...

Hi guys, and Bob in particular since you seem to know this stuff well, here's my situation.

- I have a Macbook Pro, running Lion 10.7.3

- I have a 1 TB TC not connected to the routher to provide a wirelss signal, but only to back up my laptop wirelessly to TC with timemachine.

The issue:

Till now I only used to TC for Time Machine to back up my computer wirelessly in the background. The other day I decided to manually move A LOT of files (60GB) to the TC manually to store them on the TC, since they were only taking up a lot of space on my computer. Since it was taking forever wirelessly, I decided to do it via ethernet connection between the TC and the laptop, but realized it would not work via ethernet, since from what I understand you must disable wireless first to establish a connection between the laptop and the TC via ethernet. So i turned off wireless on the TC and ethernet then worked great to move the files over. Now however I am stuck on ethernet and the TC no longer has the option to use it wireless, and it has disappeared all toghether from my airport utility devices.

How can I solve this and use wifi as main back up system and ethernet as an alternative, like the case above in case I need higher transer speeds? Is there a way?

Did I understand correctly that if you connect your TC to your home router via ethernet then you can connect it to your computer both via wireless and ethernet? I have no problem moving the TC near the routher in another room to keep it connected to the routher via ethernet pemanently...

Also, In case I need to reset my TC to go back to wifi backups, will I now lose everything stored on it?

Thanks!