Help! How do i connect my BT homehub 4 and time capsule?

You should have one cable from LAN port of the BT Hub to the TC WAN port .. marked with sunburst symbol.

You don't need any other connection.. although ethernet to the computer can help.

You MUST use wireless for the setup. You MUST use v6 airport utility.. latest one is best.

You MUST set ipv6 to link-local.

This is often missed. So for example in wireless on your Mac it should look like this. (Ethernet as well if you use it).

Now..

1. Factory reset the TC.

The Factory Reset universal

Unplug your TC/AE. Hold in reset. and power the TC/AE back on.. all without releasing reset and keep holding in for about 10sec. The time is not important.. it is the front LED rapid flashing that indicates you are in factory mode.

Release reset.

If it doesn’t flash rapidly you have released reset at some point and try again.

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.

2. Run through the airport utility .. do not accept the Apple proffered base station or wireless names. Use simple short names, no spaces and pure alphanumeric. eg TCgen5 for base and TCwifi for wireless.

Make sure you set security on wireless to WPA2 Personal and use a password of 8-20 characters pure alphanumeric.

Allow whatever settings the airport utility wants automatically.. we will fix them afterwards.

3. Complete the setup and update the TC.

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

4. After the restart of the TC the list of errors that are causing it to flash amber will be listed.

Fix them one by one by changing the appropriate setting. Or post the details here of what they are.

For instance some can be ignored.

Some like firmware upgrades you will simply carry out.

And some like double NAT you will fix by changing settings.. but screenshot the problems and we can give you exact solutions for each one.

Thanks! Can you tell me what i should expect to use? For example, should i expect to set up the TC as a wireless network? Before receiving your reply i switched this off and that appeared to allow the macbook's wireless internet connection to work, me to switch to bridge mode and the TC to configure, download firmware and do a partial backup. Should i leave that as is, or use the wireless network facility on the TC?

Wireless on the TC will be much faster than the BT hub.. depending on the age of the computer.

There is no reason to not now go back into the TC setup and turn on wireless again. If it is setup and working in bridge then turning wireless on will not do anything harmful.

You need to give actual screenshots of the issues so we can help you.

First - At the moment i have the macbook connected to the TC using an ethernet cable (not sure i need that but have left it to be safe). I obviously don't want to keep that and would rather it backed up over wifi automatically without me having to plug in. Am i safe to remove the ethernet connection after the first full back-up or do i need to change any settings for that? And do i need to change any other settings on the macbook - when i returned earlier the backup appeared to have stopped - is this linked to any shut-down settings i may have inadvertently?

Second, i will want to set up my imac tomorrow to do the same thing - is that just a case of turning on time machine and allowing it the find the TC or do i need to do something more? I want to avoid the agony of today...

Third, does TC backup all the files/data on my computer, or only some?

Fourth, does TC backup OIS devices like the ipad and iphone?

Finally, should i be changing the wifi settings on my 2011 macbook and 2014 imac from the BT homehub 4 (just received and installed to replace the homehub 2) to the TC, or leave as is?

I do apologise for all the questions - i just want to get this right first time if i can.

Your help is very much appreciated.

1. Backup over ethernet is much better than wireless for the first backup.. you should have the wireless turned off. If not turn it off now as long as the ethernet is also showing as connected. Otherwise wireless is usually the first in the network order and will still take precedence.

There is no problem with disconnecting ethernet when you complete the first backup. It will work exactly the same over wireless except much slower.. not a problem for incremental backups.

If a backup has failed there should be a reason.. unfortunately the reason may not display. Please install the widget so you have a log of what TM does.

A1 here.

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

If it fails due to shutdown it should just pick up where it left off when you reconnect.. but a first backup over ethernet should be only a few hours. Later hardware will continue the backup in sleep mode.. it has a new name. Power Nap.. check the settings and look up what is happening. This is 2012 hardware and later AFAIK.

2. It is like the agony aunt column in your local paper. Your relationship with the imac is a hassle due to your previous love affair with the MBP. 😁

If you do it over ethernet it should work fine. Wireless IMHO is problematic at all times in the history of networking to today..

Edit.. event today.. my mac mini which has run beautifully for ages crashed an hour ago with the wireless refusing to connect and causing the whole machine to lock up. Sigh. Go back to ethernet.. !!

3. TM backups are designed to restore your computer fully to working order. It does not include every file.. there are lots of temporary files that are ignored.

Please read the info in Pondini.. he is our guru besar.

The second article on How TM does its magic.. should be compulsory reading. http://pondini.org/TM/Home.html

For what is quicker answer look at FAQ http://pondini.org/TM/FAQ.html

eg Q2 and Q8.

I would also highly recommend if you use Mavericks to not trust your TM backups.. see also the first article on the home page of pondini article about clones. Do a clone backup.. it is 1000% easier to get a dead mac running or files recovered if you use clones.. TM has gone downhill IMHO.. others might/will/have disagree/d but Mavericks has more issues.. Consider it an insurance policy. I have been helping people with this for a while.. they often discover a crashed Mac is awful hard to get back to working condition from TM .. but a bootable clone is a 2min job.. hold options during boot.. choose USB for boot.

The 2min is slow boot over USB.. you will need a USB drive to do bootable clone.. but you can do a clone to the TC as well as TM.

4. NO.. at least not directly.

iOS is designed to backup to iTunes on your computer or iCloud. See iOS: Back up and restore your iOS device with iCloud or iTunes

Indirectly TM is going to backup iTunes which has your backup for iOS.. So if both your iOS and your computer crashed on the same day.. unlikely or were stolen.. much more likely.. if they didn't steal your TC as well.. you can in theory.. recover the computer.. which will restore iTunes.. from which you can restore your ipad or iphone.

5. Your finally.. finally.

It is entirely up to you.. Since the connection to the TC is much faster using 5ghz.. and I mean hugely faster than the BT Hub.. especially on the iMac if it is close as it should have AC wireless. I would leave the BT hub as is.. give the TC a wireless name like I suggested. TCwifi (or even name the bands.. TC24ghz and TC5ghz) and change the wireless to connect to the fastest connection yourself.. this is due to my distrust of AUTO.. Others will tell you the opposite.. but I am old computer tech.. emphasis old.. and I find seldom does AUTO optimise anything. It picks the highest signal not the fastest speed for instance.. because the algorithms to do fastest speed are too complicated. Therefore you take control and you get the best.. but Rome wasn't built in a day.. start with auto and get everything working well first.. so you have no more agony days.. then you can slowly learn how to get the best out of the boxes.. you will also reduce problems and issues because control by manual settings means there is that much less to go wrong.