Hi. I live upstairs from my brother and share his wifi. So the only thing I get from him is wifi signal.
Can I still wirelessly backup with Time Capsule? Or what are my backup options? It's an 2TB Time Capsule A1409 (wiki says that should be mid 2011) model.
I bought it few years ago but never set it up.
MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
You cannot backup to it by wifi and use the main wifi at the same time.. you can do it sequentially which means you will forget to backup most of the time.
You can do it with ethernet (buy a thunderbolt to ethernet adapter).. you can do both wifi and ethernet connections at the same time.
Or you plug the TC into the main router downstairs so it becomes part of the main network.
Generally it is better to setup the TC as part of the main network.
Plugging in the TC to the main router sounds like a good idea. Additional item needed would be an ethernet cable connecting the router to TC? And then follow the onscreen setup?
Yes, plug in the TC WAN port to the main router LAN port..
Setup the unit in bridge mode, and create a wireless network.. use that wireless network for your Mac not the main router wifi ..
It is good if you can get the TC as close to your room as possible to use 5ghz.. for backups it is a lot faster than running over 2.4ghz.
You will need to purchase a suitable length ethernet cable.
If this is inconvenient then you can also try Ethernet over Power (EOP) adapters.. homeplug in the US.. they can manage about 40-80Mbps if the house wiring is compliant. You cannot guarantee it though so return policy of the store is important.. they should be under $100 for a pair.
Ok. Plug TC to router.
Assuming I usually connect to "123network"
At setup there's an option for bridge mode? And create "ABCnetwork" and I should be good to go?
When I'm ready to backup I select ABCnetwork in my network list and then launch Time Machine and the first time should be mega long.
Can I ask when I set up TC, I should do partition? One for my spouse and one for me, and we'd Time Machine to our respective side? Or doesn't matter?
At setup there's an option for bridge mode? And create "ABCnetwork" and I should be good to go?
Yes, all correct.
When I'm ready to backup I select ABCnetwork in my network list
You connect to the ABCnetwork all the time.. it provides your internet as well as local LAN connection to the TC.
launch Time Machine and the first time should be mega long
Yes, in fact it is so mega long we usually recommend you do the first backup by ethernet.. but it does depend.. if you have MBA with a small drive backup over wireless is not a biggie.. otherwise do get the thunderbolt to ethernet and use that plugged directly into the TC for the first backup.. all the subsequent backups can be done over wireless. The first backup is crucial to the integrity of all backups and takes a lot of time over wireless because it does checking as well.. files being double handled.. copied and then compared is much much faster over ethernet which is by nature duplex.. whereas wireless must stop one direction and work in the other direction. called half duplex.. you cannot transmit and receive at the same time.. fundamental nature of wireless.
Can I ask when I set up TC, I should do partition?
You cannot partition a TC disk with the tools Apple make available.
It is not required.
we'd Time Machine to our respective side? Or doesn't matter?
Time Machine creates a sparsebundle for each computer .. this is like a virtual disk or partition and so each computer that backs up to the TC is kept completely separate.
Oh, I see, so essentially from his line there will be two wifi routers, his 123network, and ABCnetwork that I'll be using. Would that effect the speed?
And by setting the bridge network, Time Machine can do the automatic backups too?
The thunderbolt to ethernet is the $29 one from Apple?
Would that effect the speed?
No, there is enough band available for 3 separate wireless access points in 2.4ghz and 6 or more at 5ghz.
And by setting the bridge network, Time Machine can do the automatic backups too?
Yes,, it will find and use the TC without issues.. or well as little issues as can be expected with the new Apple OS which seem to still be beta release in terms of their networking.
The thunderbolt to ethernet is the $29 one from Apple?
yes
If I wanted to add an external hard drive to have duplicate backup of certain files (music, pics, videos, documents, and pdf) is it possible to attach it to the TC so I can do it wirelessly? What are other options?
rexracer wrote:
If I wanted to add an external hard drive to have duplicate backup of certain files (music, pics, videos, documents, and pdf) is it possible to attach it to the TC so I can do it wirelessly? What are other options?
Yes, that is no problem.
A USB drive can be plugged directly into the computer and Time Machine can backup to multiple targets. It simply rotates each time it does an incremental backup to the new target. That is much quicker and more reliable than using it on the TC. Albeit less convenient.
Personally I use a USB disk occasionally plugged into the computer and use Carbon Copy Cloner to create a bootable backup. That means the backup drive has the entire operating system loaded in it. A direct clone of your internal disk.. If you ever got into trouble this is the best way to get a computer working again. CCC is cheap enough and has much less issues than Time Machine. I still use Time Machine to a TC.. I also have a proper NAS on the network and use both CCC and TM to backup to that..
Setting up Time Capsule for backups without using as router
