Using Time Capsule with Powerline

I have a new home that has Ethernet pre wired but I'm not sure where the switch is.

Ethernet is the right way to do this.. in a new home ring the people who did the wiring and ask where is the connection panel.

It could be a simple patch point on the wall or in garage or under the stairs.. there may not be a switch at all.. after all this has to be powered and I doubt there would be no access to it.

Do not use EOP adapters when ethernet is available.. it is hugely superior.. but the Express may not be the best units to extend with.. You could have them in the wrong mode..

What I would like to do a way to use the airports as a wired network extension. I have tried to use the netgear 500 power line adapter (XAVB5421) to provide Ethernet over power line to the airports, but when I plug the time capsule into the source power line, it ends up disabling the entire internet feed from the time capsule, which I can't figure out (maybe double NAT, maybe port blocking, idk).

Please post how you have the express setup from airport utility.. give us a few screenshots and we can tell you.

It is likely you have the express setup to extend wireless.. the minute you plug them in by ethernet (EOP is still ethernet just slower).. you cause a network loop which will crash your network.. The express must be in bridge mode and set to create a wireless network.

Your first screenshot already tells us what we need.. the dotted lines indicate wireless connections.. So the express are all wirelessly linked to the main router which is the TC.

In this setup you cannot plug those express into ethernet (EOP same) .. you must reconfigure each one before you do so.. reset them to factory.. plug in ethernet and then run through the airport utility.. it (might) work, that the airport utility will automagically extend by ethernet.. Bob Timmons who posts regularly here.. a more pure Mac person.. less sins of mixing routers.. has far more success at this than I ever do.. I usually have to do it manually.. where I simply put the secondary router into bridge and name the wireless myself to the same SSID and same security and same password.

Then again I follow a strict set of rules.. I find this also helps.

IMHO you will have better success following these rules, "guidelines."

Start from a factory reset. No files are lost on the hard disk doing this.

Factory reset universal

Power off the TC.. ie pull the power cord or power off at the wall.. wait 10sec.. hold in the reset button.. be gentle.. power on again still holding in reset.. and keep holding it in for another 10sec. You may need some help as it is hard to both hold in reset and apply power. It will show success by rapidly blinking the front led. Release the reset.. and wait a couple of min for the TC to reset and come back with factory settings. If the front LED doesn’t blink rapidly you missed it and simply try again. The reset is fairly fragile in these.. press it so you feel it just click and no more.. I have seen people bend the lever or even break it. I use a toothpick as tool.

N.B. None of your files on the hard disk of the TC are deleted.. this simply clears out the router settings of the TC.

Setup the TC again.

Then redo the setup from the computer with Mavericks--Yosemite--ElCapo. (MYELCAP)

1. Use very short names.. NOT APPLE RECOMMENDED names. No spaces and pure alphanumerics.

eg TCgen5 for basestation and TCwifi wireless name.

If the issue is wireless use TC24ghz and TC5ghz with fixed channels as this also seems to help stop the nonsense. But this can be tried in the second round. ie plan on a first and second round of changes to fix this.. hopefully.. I will point out other steps that can be round2.

2. Use all passwords that also comply with 1. but can be a bit longer. ie 8-20 characters mixed case and numbers.. no non-alphanumerics.

3. If the TC is main router you can skip this point. This is only an issue when the TC is bridged.

Ensure the TC always takes the same IP address.. you will need to do this on the main router using dhcp reservation.. or a bit more complex setup using static IP in the TC. But this is important.. having IP drift all over the place when MYELCAP cannot remember its own name for 5 min after a reboot makes for poor networking.

4. Check your share name on the computer is not changing.. make sure it also complies with the above.. short no spaces and pure alphanumeric.. but this change will mess up your TM backup.. so be prepared to do a new full backup. Sorry.. keep this one for second round if you want to avoid a new backup.

5. Mount the TC disk in the computer manually.

In Finder, Go, Connect to server from the top menu,

Type in SMB://192.168.0.254 (or whatever the TC ip is which you have now made static. As a router by default it is 10.0.1.1 and I encourage people to stick with that unless you know what you are doing).

You can use name.. SMB://TCgen5.local where you replace TCgen5 with your TC name.. local is the default domain of the TC and doesn't change.

However names are not so easy as IP address.. nor as reliable. At least not in Yosemite they aren't. The domain can also be an issue if you are not plugged or wireless directly to the TC.

6. Make sure IPv6 is set to link-local only in the computer. For example wireless open the network preferences, wireless and advanced / TCP/IP.. and fix the IPv6. to link-local only. Do the same for ethernet if you use it.

There is a lot more jiggery pokery you can try but the above is a good start.. if you find it still unreliable.. don't be surprised.