TC connectivity issue- self assigning?

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TC connectivity issue- self assigning?

I have used TC for about 18 months. Perhaps 6 or 7 times now, I got an error message that it can't back up because parsebundle is in use. At Genius Bar, they have just eventually wiped it clean and told me to rebackup. It happened again last week. {Note: Immediately before I took macbook and TC to GB again, i did update to Maverick OS X 10.9.2. ***Perhaps this is part of my issue?***}

At store, i was told this shouldn't be happening and since it started in warranty, they gave me a replacement. When I took home and hooked up, the Airport Utility indicated no internet. Made no sense, but to be sure Xfinity sent tech to replace modem. He said there were some issues with the port and hooked up their current configuaration, which meant adding a seperate internet modem to the existing one I had. He checked and saw this message about self assigning IP address

I headed back to GB and they hooked up TC and it worked fine in the store. But when I bring home, net works when plugged direct to macbook, but as soon as i plug into TC, Airport Utility reads as disconnected.

Thanks in advance for any exeperience with this and suggestions

Time Capsule 802.11n (4th Gen), iOS 7.0.2, hair pretty much pulled out

Posted on Apr 6, 2014 2:40 PM

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Answer 1

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LaPastenague

Level 9

67,202 points

Apr 6, 2014 3:22 PM in response to Tedheadone

Reset the TC to factory and start over.

Plug the TC into the main router.. run through the setup in airport utility.

Don't be too worried about how it sets up the TC.. you can fix it once finished.

If you use later OS, ML or Mavericks..

Make sure you have IPv6 set to link-local. This is now important.

eg wireless

Both wireless and ethernet should have ipv6 set link-local.

The apple setup in the airport utility will attempt to promote the TC to being the main router.. this is wrong if the box that your ISP installed is also a router.. I am 99% sure it is.

So put the TC in bridge mode..

Set it to create a wireless network.. with a name that is short and simple.. eg TCwifi.

And make sure the internet tab is set to dhcp.. that would be the default.

Please post screenshots of the setup of the TC and we can work from there.

Reset to factory thusly.

Universal Factory Reset.. any model TC or AE.

Unplug your TC/AE from power or turn off at the power point.

Hold in reset. and power the TC/AE back on.. all without releasing reset and keep holding in for about 10sec. (this is often difficult without a 2nd person or a 3rd arm).

Release it when the status light flashes rapidly. If it doesn’t flash rapidly you have missed it and try again.

Note..

Be Gentle! Feel the switch click on. It has a positive feel.. add no more pressure after that.

TC/AE will reboot after a couple of minutes with default factory settings and will wipe out previous configurations of the router.

No files are deleted on the hard disk in a TC.. No reset of the TC deletes files.. to do that you use erase from the airport utility.

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Answer 2

Tedheadone Author

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Apr 7, 2014 8:16 AM in response to LaPastenague

Thank you.

I did factory reset and Airport Utility still gives me:

I don't get the EXACT screen you suggested but these seem to have info

The only thing I notice on my scree shots is no IP6 address is indicated

Still shows as "disconnected" on initial Airport Utility page

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Answer 3

Apr 7, 2014 12:59 PM in response to Tedheadone

Ok.. you have the wrong setting on the Network tab.

Sorry I read the symptoms wrongly and got you to do the wrong thing.

In your case you must have it set to dhcp and nat. You have a pure modem.. and it is correctly passing the public IP to the TC.. you just need to NAT it to the network. So change to dhcp and nat as the network mode.. and then save the settings to your TC.

If that doesn't work.. power down the TC and the modem. Leave the modem off for about 20min.. power up modem and power up the TC 2min later. The TC must be in router mode though.

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Answer 4

Tedheadone Author

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Apr 7, 2014 1:13 PM in response to LaPastenague

LaP

Never been so glad to see a little green light!

Thank you my Australian friend!

Van

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Answer 5

Tedheadone Author

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Apr 7, 2014 1:16 PM in response to Tedheadone

But when I tried to start a backup it

says "backup disk could not be found"

have I moved on to a new problem?

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Answer 6

Apr 7, 2014 1:31 PM in response to Tedheadone

Yes, in a way.

That is pure mavericks.

Does the Mavericks have the TC listed in Finder under shared.. double click and does the hard disk mount?

If not there is a good chance TM cannot work.

Time Machine must mount the sparsebundle to be able to backup. If it cannot find the backup disk, try and force it by manually mounting the disk.

In Finder.. use Go, Connect to server. in the top menu

Type in the actual network name of the TC or its ip address.

AFP://TCname or TCIPaddress

It is much easier if your TC name is short, no spaces and pure alphanumeric.. is it?

Otherwise just use the IP address.. for TC by default in router mode it is 10.0.1.1 and if you didn't change it that is where it will be.

Type AFP://10.0.1.1 into the connect to server.

It will ask for a password.. that is the disk access password on the TC. The default is public, type in whatever you changed it to or the default.

Make sure you save it in your keychain.

The disk, data should now have mounted in the computer and you can actually access the content.

Now try again with TM.. no luck.. reset TM as well.

See A4 http://pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting.html

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Answer 7

Tedheadone Author

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Apr 7, 2014 2:03 PM in response to LaPastenague

Thank you LaP-

Before i saw your answer, I accessed thru icon on toolbar and thru a couple of steps I elected to replace, otherwise it said it would share and alternate backups to it.

Same icon is not "spinning" like it used to, but when clicked, i see it say in light gray

that it is backing up.

Your assistance has been very much appreciated.

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Answer 8

Apr 7, 2014 2:08 PM in response to Tedheadone

Same icon is not "spinning" like it used to, but when clicked, i see it say in light gray

that it is backing up.

The spinning icon is no longer in Mavericks.. they decided it was not useful although a lot of TM users would beg to differ.. I like icons that move if they are doing something.. call me old fashioned.. but some changes are not for the best. Human Engineering which is something Apple has excelled in, tells me that simple things like spinning an icon tells people an awful lot of info without needing to do anything.

And very glad you got it working.

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Answer 9

Tedheadone Author

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Apr 7, 2014 3:34 PM in response to LaPastenague

Thanks for your further comment, i agree..

and, totally random, but since we have gotten the wireless working, and backing up,

my girlfriend says that my text messages show up on her iphone as being not from

my name assigned in her contacts, but it shows up as coming from my email address.

Not a huge problem but any thoughts on this?

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Answer 10

Apr 7, 2014 4:17 PM in response to Tedheadone

On phones I am thick as a brick.. sorry.. !!

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Answer 11

Tedheadone Author

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Apr 7, 2014 6:27 PM in response to LaPastenague

Here we go...

Wireless was working fine and TC was backing up hard drive.

Roommate came home and tried to access thru his Dell laptop.

This network (labeled Minuteman) showed with a full signal. Tried to connect to that and it would not even

get to screen requesting password.

I then attempted to set up Minuteman Guest Network and AU seems to be unable to locate

base....as well as showing disconnected from the network.

Minuteman seems to have been deleted; it does not show up. Minuteman Guest shows up in the list of Networks, but wouldn't accept the password I assigned. (it was the same for Minutmean and Minuteman Guest)

Fells like I'm back to ground zero or worse. Not understanding, really, the unconnected internet aspect

Do I have to go all the way back to a reset....what the heck is happening here?

Thanks!

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Answer 12

Apr 7, 2014 7:04 PM in response to Tedheadone

Right.. here we go.

This is key.

Roommate came home and tried to access thru his Dell laptop.

Wireless is a big heap of voodoo.. it is not science .. it is beads and rattles with sacrifices of chicken livers.

There is a good chance the dell crashed the TC.

What is the main LED on the TC doing? Is it flashing amber?

A reboot should get it going again.. which I am assuming you did to reconnect to the website here.

A Gen4 TC will be much more stable running 7.6.1 firmware.

Please do downgrade.

Hold down the option key while you select the version in the summary page.

I would really like you to do a factory reset after that but up to you.. test and see if the stability improves.. especially when the dell is added.. if it doesn't improve then do a factory reset and redo the setup.. it is pretty fast as you get used to doing it.

If the dell still crashes the TC.. you will have to adopt exclusion of the PC. This is not hard.. simply buy a cheap wireless router router, eg N lite TP-Link for $35 or so and plug it into the TC and use that as your guest network for your friend to join. You will find using a typical PC type router will cause far less issues.

Or you can do it the other way around.. buy a better PC type router.. not expensive.. eg TP-Link WDR3600 or Netgear WNDR3800 and flash it over to gargoyle.. which is just a straight upgrade.

You can then use the TC in bridge to the gargoyle which will be rock hard stable.. and reserve the TC for your usage only.

EDIT> Please note this.

Your wireless name Minuteman is fine.

Your Guest wireless name is not alright. Minuteman Guest might be ok on a Mac but a pc sees it differently.

Please call your Guest network.. Guest or MMGuest.. anything you like but stick to the rules.. short, no spaces pure alphanumeric.

Make it completely different to the main network name so it cannot look the same to the network.

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Answer 13

Tedheadone Author

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Apr 8, 2014 6:25 AM in response to LaPastenague

"Wireless is a big heap of voodoo.. it is not science .. it is beads and rattles with sacrifices of chicken livers."

Thank you for confirming what I have long suspected. Smoke and mirrors are in the mix as well. It explains why Minuteman Guest worked last week but not this, and why plugging the same piece of hardware back in has caused so much problem for a week!

I actually have not rebooted yet, I am communicating huddled next to the cold Time Capsule, tethered by a short blue cable.

I am going to forge on with your directions- short of buying a new router.

Frankly, when I went back into Apple a week ago, I was considering abandoning TC completely and buying a router and external storage. I originally bought the TC after not quite getting the handle on a Western Drive external storage that was partioned. I bought the TC because of "ease of compatability" that I perceived. And I was able to take it out of the box and simply set it up and get it going. That was one of life's small triumphs, trust me.

So let me ask the question in advance:

IF the preliminary course of action above does not solve, and IF I buy a basic router, can I then use the TC simply as storage? And by "simply" I mean put it on my desk in another room, and once a week, come in and cable it directly to my macbook, power it up, and back it up? Will there be a lot of settings change to do that..either intitially or every time I want to back it up?

BTW "flashing (or bridging) over to gargoyle" is the next level of voodoo for me.

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Answer 14

Tedheadone Author

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Apr 8, 2014 11:45 AM in response to Tedheadone

Final update:

On your overnight, I threw in the towel. This process has left me feeling like my mind got wiped clean!

Airport Utility was showing yellow light for Internet and could not find a configured base and so I went to

backup plan... $60 for a Belkin N600 DB. Set up and worked simply, and roomies Dell has been set up to work without issue.

So my last question from previous post is now not so much hypothetical...can the TC be used as a standalone, periodic backup device without having to reset/reconfigure/change settings. Can it be as simple as periodically hardwire to the mac, plug in TC and start backup from the aforementioned "spinless" icon?

Thanks!

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Answer 15

Apr 8, 2014 2:30 PM in response to Tedheadone

So my last question from previous post is now not so much hypothetical...can the TC be used as a standalone, periodic backup device without having to reset/reconfigure/change settings. Can it be as simple as periodically hardwire to the mac, plug in TC and start backup from the aforementioned "spinless" icon?

You can do this .. but i would say no.. that wasn't the way it should work.

A USB drive plugged into the computer will do the same thing, faster, cheaper and more reliably.

But I would still use the TC.. it will work fine plugged into the belkin.. bridged and setup wireless. Once you take away the routing problem and the possible PC wireless incompatiblity so you have your own wireless on the TC it will provide internet and backup for your computer. That is certainly how I use my TC.. I do not find it a good enough router.. but it works great as a wireless AP and network backup.

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