I need to know if my Time Capsule can be used as a wifi router with 1000 mbps speeds coming in. Some people in the neighborhood have bought high-end routers that are capable of putting out near 1000 mbps, and I want to know if my Time Capsule will be up to the challenge, or if I should start looking for a new router. Thanks!
Time Capsule-OTHER
The answer depends on how you have the Time Capsule set up on your network.
If the Time Capsule is the "main" router that supplies DHCP and NAT services for your network, the WAN to LAN throughput on the Time Capsule will be limited to 400-500 Mbps, on average. Same for wireless.
If you are using another device on your network that is acting like a router, and it can deliver 1,000 Mbps to the Time Capsule, and the Time Capsule is set up as a "bridge" for the network, then the Time Capsule will probably deliver close to 1,000 Mbps speeds.
Thanks Bob! The time capsule will can be either directly hooked on from the incoming fiber line, or I can hook it up after the modem they have set up. The problem I'm having is that when I connect to the line pre-modem I get 980mbps on my MacBook. When I connect after going through their modem I get 300mdps. So I guess my question should have been, if I replace their modem with the time capsule that has a line going in that is pumping 980mbps I should be able to get much more out of the time capsule than what they gave me. I hope that makes sense, or isn't leaving out too much info.
IF.....the Time Capsule can connect directly to the fibre line.....and the Time Capsule is set up as the router......then speeds coming out of the Time Capsule will be in the 400-500 Mbps range.
IF......the Time Capsule can receive a 1,000 signal from another router.....meaning that the Time Capsule will be set up in "bridge mode".....then the Time Capsule will deliver close to 1,000 Mbps speeds that way.
So, the answer goes back to what I said above.......The answer depends on how you have the Time Capsule set up on your network.
If you want 1,000 speeds from the Time Capsule, then it needs to be in Bridge Mode. It is quite a bit slower when it acts as a network router.
The bottom line to your question.......Is Time Capsule Capable of handling 1000mbps speeds?.......
Yes.....when it is in Bridge Mode. No, when it is not.
FWIW. Even the top AC5300 models available currently (Asus RT-5300 & Netgear R8500) do not reach 1000 Mbps through their WAN-LAN interface when routing is enabled. They're getting close 700-800 Mbps, but not 1000 Mbps.
In comparison, the current 802.1ac AirPorts are in the AC1750 class, with a MAN-LAN throughput of around 500 Mbps.
As a small addition.
The routers the other guys have mentioned, RT-5300 and R8500 etc.. manage their extremely high speed WAN to LAN speeds by having all router functionality turned off.. even NAT is handled outside of the firmware.. via special hardware in the processor to optimise speed.. ie if you actually turn on QoS or firewall or throttling or parental controls or anything at all.. the speed will drop to the same as the Airport. The processor in the routers is simply not capable of 1000mbit throughput without hardware NAT.. this is a special highly optimised hardware NAT built into the processor.. but for most people you want to use a router for its functionality.. and as soon as you turn on anything that works in software ie the firmware QoS for instance.. the hardware optimised NAT has to be turned off.
There is a warning that comes up in the routers when you do this.. telling you that you will cause slow down to the WAN to LAN throughput.
What is impressive is the actual processor you need to run 1000mbps in full router software control.
If you look at PFsense which is a good software router.. FreeBSD based so close to the Airports which are NetBSD.
http://www.firewallhardware.it/en/pfsense_selection_and_sizing.html
A 2.4ghz dual core CPU is only rated to 650mbps throughput.
To get gigabit you need faster rather than more cores.. so 3ghz dual core.
You then get into power and heat as well as cost considerations.
The supplied router is clearly not up the task though. Not if you expect those speeds in any consistent way.
Of course the reality of the internet is that most sites do not have the potential to supply you even 1% of your 1000mbps.. So for most people super high speed internet takes away one roadblock between the customer and the ISP.. without removing all the others.
Is Time Capsule Capable of handling 1000mbps speeds?
