RickMB
Level 1
(0 points)
Q: Two Time Capsules: Extender setup issues
I have purchased a new 2TB Time Capsule along with a new Macbook Pro, as I want to take advantage of the newly increased 802.11ac Wi-Fi speed potential. I also have an older 1TB Time Capsule and plan to use one of these units as a wireless extender of the network. This setup raises several questions for me.
Does it matter which of these devices is the primary and which is acting as the wireless extender? If the new TC is set as the extender, will it still be able to deliver the higher speed, or does it need to be set as the primary in order to take advantage of its higher speed?
Since both are Time Capsules, will I still be able to access and employ both of their internal hard drives with this setup? Also, can the unit which acts as the network Wi-Fi extender also be used to directly connect external devices such as a printer, and/or an extra hard drive, similar to that of the primary unit? Ideally, I would like to be able to directly connect printers to both TCs. Is this feasible or would I be limited to direct connections to the primary TC only?
How can I set my new Macbook Pro to "point" to the new (faster) TC?
Is there a document I can access which fully details such a setup and other potentially related issues?
Thanks,
RickMB
LaPastenague
Level 9
(52,991 points)
1. Does it matter which of these devices is the primary and which is acting as the wireless extender? If the new TC is set as the extender, will it still be able to deliver the higher speed, or does it need to be set as the primary in order to take advantage of its higher speed?
2. Since both are Time Capsules, will I still be able to access and employ both of their internal hard drives with this setup?
3. Also, can the unit which acts as the network Wi-Fi extender also be used to directly connect external devices such as a printer, and/or an extra hard drive, similar to that of the primary unit?
4. Ideally, I would like to be able to directly connect printers to both TCs. Is this feasible or would I be limited to direct connections to the primary TC only?
5. How can I set my new Macbook Pro to "point" to the new (faster) TC?
6. Is there a document I can access which fully details such a setup and other potentially related issues?
Thanks,
RickMB
I have split your original post into numbered questions.
1. It should make no difference.. the best way to find out is have a go. My suspicion is that the wireless link speed will kill any advantage to the AC.. so definitely use the AC as the primary and the old TC as the extender. But even doing that might reduce the AC speed.. Test with just the AC .. then add the second TC in extend wireless and see if it is affecting the speed.
2. Yes.
3. Yes. For both 2 and 3 remember you are now one wireless hop from the main unit.. and therefore speed will be much poorer than when directly linked. So if you connect to AC unit for example but reaching the hard disk on the extend wireless unit.. you have double hop wireless.. and the AC will give no improvement whatsoever.. it is much faster to conenct directly to the extend unit.
4. Both can work. Printers on either should be accessible to whole network.
5. Here you will run into a problem. There is no way you can force the connection, in this setup the MBP will connect to the best signal.. you cannot dictate that.. If you linked the two TC using ethenret you could use different names. But in this setup no.
6. There is nothing specific to mixing AC and N wireless .. but there is plenty on extending wireless.
How to extend apple wireless networks.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4145
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5077
