AFP Access to Snow Leopard Server with Time Capsule present on network

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boss302beav Author

Level 1

65 points

AFP Access to Snow Leopard Server with Time Capsule present on network

Here is what I have:

1) A cable modem bringing in the internet signal

2) a 1TB time capsule set to port fwd services to my server & also set as my wife's wireless back up time machine

3) snow leopard server running on a mid 2010 mac mini

4) my wife's macbook pro

Here is what I am trying to do -

Have my wife's macbook pro be able to backup to the time capsule - and still have AFP request go to my Snow Leopard Server ( from LAN or WAN )

When I set my server up I disabled the disk sharing on the time capsule to lower the chance of conflicts during set up of the server, but didn't know that this disabled my wife's time machine backup to the time capsule.

Now I am trying to get both services running smoothly -

I can enable the file sharing on the time capsule and get my wife's time machine to the time capsule working fine - but then this conflicts with any AFP request to the server

I know that that the Time Capsule is using port 548 for what its doing, and I can't find any way around this setting - so I tried setting my firewall on my server to use port 9090 as AFP to hand off any AFP request using 9090 - thinking that it would now listen for AFP on 9090 and respond - and I set the time capsule to port fwd AFP to 9090 - but when i try to access AFP now - it only takes me to the Time Capsule drive for files on it - the time capsule is blocking me from getting through to my server

Any ideas or articles that anyone can point me to to fix this - otherwise the capsule is useless to me as a backup for my wife's macbook pro since the disk file sharing has to be disabled to make the server recieve its AFP request

Please let me know,

Posted on Dec 14, 2011 7:50 PM

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Answer 1

boss302beav Author

Level 1

65 points

Dec 14, 2011 9:01 PM in response to boss302beav

been doing more research and found this in the community boards:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2378528

Basically to have both running I need to enable VPN access

anyone see any other way besides this ?

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Answer 2

Dec 15, 2011 2:24 AM in response to boss302beav

boss302beav wrote:

been doing more research and found this in the community boards:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2378528

Basically to have both running I need to enable VPN access

anyone see any other way besides this ?

No, if you want to remotely access both then you need to use a VPN. You should be using a VPN in anycase to better secure access to your systems. I would therefore advise you turn of port forwarding for AFP and only enable port forwarding for VPN.

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Answer 3

boss302beav Author

Level 1

65 points

Dec 20, 2011 8:03 PM in response to John Lockwood

Good idea on turning off the port fwds - thank you

The thing is - after talking to apple today - the time capsule and its disk do conflict with AFP on my server - so in order to enjoy both on my LAN - I have to, even while on LAN , VPN into my server to AFP - or simply bind to my server and work off the files that way logged directly into the server.

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Answer 4

Dec 22, 2011 7:45 AM in response to boss302beav

It is perfectly possible to run more than one AFP and TIme Machine server on a single LAN. So it should be possible to have and use both on your LAN.

Is your TIme Capsule configured to do network address translation (NAT), it maybe you would have to have it in bridge mode to make this work.

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Answer 5

boss302beav Author

Level 1

65 points

Dec 26, 2011 1:39 PM in response to John Lockwood

I thought about that - but the apple rep told me to always make sure to only have one time capsule per network - or for me per house - and to always put the time capsule at the modem so the capsule is recieving all outside traffic from the modem - I guess this is to ensure remote access to the disk - I relaly dont care to remote access the capsules disk since I really want to access my server remotely or even access my server on my LAN - since we only use the capsule as time machine backup for my wifes laptop - I think if I did move things around and put it in bridge mode - even then if I activate the disk to allow my wife's laptop to time machine back up to it - it will again conflict with the AFP protocol to use the AFP port that the server would want to use and conflict and cause havoc again - its not too bad to just VPN or bind and go into the server so its ok to sitck with the workaround I have now - I do wish Apple would allow you to assign a different port that the capsule could use to avoid conflicts like this since more families are into using their macs as servers to streamline the tech in the home etc.. - Thank you for taking the time to relaly think out of the box on it - but I think the capsule is a network hog and until it has more flexible settings I am stuck

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Answer 6

Dec 26, 2011 3:05 PM in response to boss302beav

It sounds like you and the Apple rep are talking about using the Time Capsule as a router, if so they are right you should only have one. However it can like an AirPort Extreme be used in bridge mode which is how I use my AirPort. I see no reason why you could not then have more than one as long as they have different names. You would need some other device to act as your router perhaps an ADSL router.

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Answer 7

boss302beav Author

Level 1

65 points

Dec 26, 2011 3:13 PM in response to John Lockwood

Right now - I have this set up - the time capsule it at the modem - then I have an airport extreme base station recieving the internet signal in bridge mode from the capsule using ethernet over power line since our house is so funky the signal is hard to get near the server - - so are you saying that if I switch them and put the airport extreme base station at the modem and then set the capsule beside the server - it would work ?

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