Time Capsule doesn't backup

Going back in firmware .. you open the airport utility.. click the icon for your TC..

In the summary page that appears.. option click on the firmware number.. a list of firmware versions will appear.. from what I am reading going back one version is not enough.. go back to 7.7.7 and then even do a factory reset of the TC again..

If you run into issues.. I gave a run down in the same thread I referenced above of how to downgrade firmware manually.

Re: Airport Time Capsule Not Connecting to Internet

If you are running the latest AC version TC the instructions will also work for you in exactly the same way.

Normally you don't need to be so pedantic.. but it does get some people out of trouble.

OK... strange..

Your setup looks mostly fine.. There are a couple of things to tweak.

1. The Mac has static DNS from looks of it.. ie the google public DNS values, and then picks up your ISP values from the TC.. and I did say to include 192.168.1.254 as one of the DNS values. So I think put that one to the top..

Please change your DNS settings in the Mac.. remove the two google values.. and I want you to put 192.168.1.254 at the top in the TC.. (see below for how to get into the TC).

2. You didn't fix the name.. which may be important. So I will also get you to fix the name.. which I know is a pain because you will need to change names on everything.. but I think it does help.

How to access the Airport when Airport Utility doesn't show the router.

1. Make sure if you have a connection by ethernet you select ethernet in the airport utility.. this is dumb and stupid.. but happens a lot.. Apple expect you to use wireless all the time. By default wireless is the top connection if you have both wireless and ethernet.

And if you have the wireless off .. or active but connected to modem you will have issues.

I found this by accident.. under Other Wi-Fi Devices there is option to select ethernet.. you will need to use ethernet if you connect by ethernet only..

2. Access to any airport on a fixed IP is simple.

Go to the top menu of airport utility and select configure other.

Type in its IP address which you set at 192.168.1.150 and the admin password.. it should then open to the full summary page and you can change the DNS settings on the Internet tab.

3. Since you know the IP of the TC.. you should be able to mount it .. now in Finder.

So is your TC showing under shared in Finder? Can you click on it to mount the TC hard disk.. if not do it manually..

From the Top menu select Go, Connect to Server.

Now you can type in AFP://192.168.1.150

The computer should discover the TC and you can then type in its password.. and save this in keychain which is important.

Once mounted in Finder Time Machine will usually wake up and happily find it as well.

I have few questions:

a) From now on, when I want to backup, I have to manually mount the AirPort Disk on the desktop through this procedure? Or time machine will do it automatically, when it needs it?

Time Machine should now have the ability to mount it.. if not you will need to fix Time Machine.. and I do recommend you delete TM plist and start over.

Do tell me how it is going.

b) should I stick with firmware 7.7.7?

You can upgrade.. I doubt anything is going to happen.

c) I don't need to bother about airport utility not showing the TC (yellow warning triangle, "Device not found")? And in case I need access, I will need to do it from File... and Configure others... ?

You can always access by using the static IP.

Something is wrong that Airport Utility is failing to find the TC. And that wrongness is related to Bonjour/DNS.

Did you change IPv6 on the computer to Link-Local only?

Your ISP is using a domain.. tiscali.it

That domain should be part of the name of your TC as well as the computer..

To check that open network utility in your computer.. (it is well hidden now so type network utility (in Italian)) into search.

Go to Netstat, and the first box, display routing table.

The results should look like this.. only I use local for domain.

Routing tables

Internet:

Destination Gateway Flags Refs Use Netif Expire

default rt-ac3200-82f0.loc UGSc 774 1 en1

127 localhost UCS 1 0 lo0

localhost localhost UH 3 60 lo0

169.254 link#5 UCS 4 0 en1

tcgen5.local link#5 UHLSW 1 10 en1

brokentc.local link#5 UHLSW 2 722 en1

aegenx.local link#5 UHLSW 1 8 en1

192.168.2 link#5 UCS 254 0 en1

192.168.2.1 link#5 UHLWIi 1 1 en1

Much further down the list you will see the names of your computers.

rays-imac.local link#5 UHLWIi 1 10 en1

I want you to make sure everything is on the one domain.

Now TC is in bridge mode. It has a static IP address (192.168.1.150, as configured from airport utility).

In addition, in the ISP modem configuration, there is the possibility to assign a static address to a given device. airport-time-capsule-dbb1bb is 192.168.1.150.

Ok... I am not sure if we can use the TC address as is.. but let's try.

Your current static IP Internet tab should look like this.. except for DNS.. what have you used..? It is important to use the modem address but you can use either ISP DNS or Google Public which are well worth using.. as it is reliable. And use them in whichever order you prefer..

So this is the major change you are making.. Instead of bridge you use DHCP only.

Now the address range you use is fairly simple because the modem router uses 64 - 252 so all we need to do is use the addresses between 1-63.. but here there is a bit of trial and error.

Don't use 1, as that is reserved generally .. so start at 10 or 20.. we don't need a huge number of addresses.

Now to be neat I picked 60 as the end range.. and I want to show you what happens.

When I attempted to update.. I got an error message.

You might get invalid for range beginning or ending.. and there appears to be no rhyme or reason to it.. simple fix.. increment a couple of digits.. so I tried 63 as the end of the range.. and that is all good and happy.

So the value is now 20-63 and the TC IP is in the DHCP range of the modem router and you have a static IP set by reseveration .. which is all good.

One more thing to do.. optional but I think helpful.. change the lease time to 1 hour.

So click on Network Options from the Network Tab..

Change it from 1day to 1 hour..

Try this.. if you still have issues you could go the other way and make it 10 days.. and if the TC drops out in 10 days then you know it has to do with lease renewal.. so with the one hour..

Lastly.. I think your name is too long. You don't have to meddle with this immediately.. it is better to change the other items first.. this one is more best practice than necessary.

donazipe wrote:

In addition, in the ISP modem configuration, there is the possibility to assign a static address to a given device. airport-time-capsule-dbb1bb is 192.168.1.150.

Fix your names.. network names are rather an issue now.. and your name with spaces is too long..

Simply make it short, no spaces and pure alphanumerics. I use simple TCgen5 .. Or the one I am on at the moment is broken and I am fixing it.. so it is called brokentc.

Make sure wireless names are also same rules.. and all passwords same rules but can be longer.. pure alphanumerics ie mixed case and numbers.

This is actually great that you asked.. because you will see no improvement (huge guessing on my part here) until you fix the Macs.

The Macs will connect to the Internet via the modem router just fine.. remember we are not double NATting in this setup.. but the TC will not have direct control over Mac IP addresses.. and how that will affect the ARP table (key method that routers keep track of the computers and other routers).. and likely (although far from certain) what will happen with the bonjour packets I am not sure. Keeping DHCP active on the router is more important than ever.. not just with apple brand routers btw.. I have run into the same issues with other brands.

So change the Macs back to DHCP.. and just try it out.. if you do need static IP on the Macs set it in the airport by dhcp reservation.

My numbers are different to yours.. so don't look at that.. but just click the + below the DHCP Reservations box.

You can then setup a reservation by MAC address or by Client ID with Mac.

You should realise.. the Airport router has Apple functions.. not just internet router functions.. so the main difference with an apple router is inbuilt Bonjour Sleep Proxy. Which is one of the key reasons this is going to help.

Just to round this out.. it is also important to have the right IPv6 setting .. so whichever connection, ethernet or wireless, that you use.. set IPv6 to link-local only. NOT AUTO.

You can also do this in the TC itself. From Internet options.

Tried to check through Network Utility/Netstat, anyway the names of my macs do not show up. They show up as IP addresses.

Hmmm... without names shows something is wrong..

I am not sure what will happen but I would like you to change the search domain to local in the TC and make sure that change also carries across to your computer.

(These are screenshots from my setup.. so you will only change domain name in the TC. the rest is still unchanged from your old setup.

Restart the computer and make sure the domain also changes to local.

If tiscali.it is manually configured in the computer removed it and try again.. the computer should show local as search domain.

Now what might happen is the TC show up in airport utility.. but your internet browsing has issues.. so just see how it goes.. Some of our ISP here used to force all computers on the local network to carry the ISP prefix.. but I think that requirement is now finished.. this was hang over from early days of internet configurations.. You will need to just test to see if it fixes anything or causes trouble..

Not at all.. don't give up yet..

It is a bit of complicated setup.. won't deny that.. but for you.. using the TC with a static IP and DHCP turned on is essential.

Just as in the other thread the OP had to use this method.. so do you.

Re: Airport Time Capsule Not Connecting to Internet

If you need help to do it.. I am happy to give you actual screenshots of the setup exactly as you will do it to your TC.

I do need to know what IP your modem router is running on LAN side and what DHCP range it runs.. and if you can change the DHCP range so we can use some of it on the TC would be great.. not essential but helpful.

However this is just to fix up the network problem.. this in no way fixes Time Machine which is deplorable. I strongly recommend to people running TM to network targets to STOP.. it is unreliable.. change over to Carbon Copy Cloner which I recommend (with no monetary connection whatsoever). It is cheap license you can use on all computers in your house and it works.