Time Capsule and Thunderbolt HDD very slow access via wifi enabled MacBook Air

I have a Q-RAID thunderbolt external drive attached to the Time Capsule. I use it to archive movies for viewing via a media server around the house (mostly via WIFI). Using my MacBook Air to access the files, performance is very spotty. Sometimes it's very fast (monitoring the "Data Received" via Activity Monitor typically > 3MB/sec) and sometimes it's very very sluggish (Data Received < 200kb/sec). Any idea? It's not a home network issue b/c when it's slow, i test it immediately against a networked iMac and i can access large files just fine (Data Received > 2MB/sec). Thanks.

I have a Q-RAID thunderbolt external drive attached to the Time Capsule.
You are killing it.. The connection on the TC is USB2. USB is slow.. slow .. slow interface. It is very CPU intensive.. and depending on what the TC is doing it can slow it down like crazy.. the fact is, the TC was designed to plug in a simple drive.. not a raid array. The access to files in the array .. frankly it is a wonder it works at all. But you should move the Q-RAID to a computer with thunderbolt port and share the disk to the network.. it will go at 10times the speed. or maybe 50times or 100times when you have slow speed. TC is not suitable.

Similar Messages

Time Capsule and multiple hdds

I have just bought a 2tb time machine but want to attach 2 other external HDDs to it and a printer.
Is this possible to do using a usb splitter.
I want to use one of the drives as a backup drive (1tb external) and another as external storage (2tb tiem machine) and the 3rd is a portable half tb drive that i use for work and home so travels a lot with me.
for backup i only want to back my macbook pro so the smaller drive is good for that (1tb)
Any advice or thoughts.. to be honest i never thought to check how many usb ports it had before i bought it lol..
Thanks for any advice in advance.. (sorry if its a dumb question i only recent switched from pc to mac)

Is this possible to do using a usb splitter.
The Time Capsule only has one USB port, so you will need to look for a powered USB hub with 3-4 USB ports for devices.

Pictures were saved to Time Capsule and now I can't access them. Help!

I moved my library to Time Capsule a few weeks ago. Worked ok, but was kinda clunky--although I use my TC for wifi, I still had to go into finder to connect manually to TC to open my library (this happened as well with iTunes). As well, I kept having to assign the library every time I opened iPhoto. For the last two days, I have not been able to access anything. iPhoto opens (without asking me for the library) completely blank. I can see the iPhoto icon on TC and shows the file size (which I'm guessing means the pictures are still there). I can't access them by going into TC either and it won't roll back (specifically when I try to view backups through iPhoto). I've tried rebooting TC. Still no luck. Please help.

first - you do not want to put dynamic files like iPhoto and iTunes on the same volume as Time Machine is using for its backups - TM will fill the volume and your iPhoto library will fail due to lack of available space
second iPhoto simply does not operate well over wireless - library corruption often occurs due to minor fluctuations with the WiFi signals during editing and importing
I can't access them by going into TC either and it won't roll back (specifically when I try to view backups through iPhoto).
having your iPhoto library on a Time Capsule does not make it a backup that iPhoto can view - iPhoto is viewing backups made by TimeMachine - and if your iPhoto library is on the TC that TM is using to backup to, it is not likely that you have a backup of the iPhoto library
Basically the answer is to get a hardwired external drive for your iPhoto and iTunes libraries and have TM backup that EHD
LN

Time Capsule: Wired connection works but cannot connect via wifi to net

Hi all,
I've had a Time Capsule for a year or so. I've been having problems with connectivity over recent months and I'm not sure where the issue is.
I have plugged in an ethernet cable joining my MBA to the TC, and another from the TC to the wall socket. I can access the internet without any problems.
However, if I unplug the ethernet cable from my MBA (or indeed if I don't plug it in in the first place) then I cannot connect to the internet. I can still back up to Time Machine etc., but nothing can get 'through' the TC.
Also, if I turn Mobile Data off for my iPhone, I cannot then access the internet via WiFi through the TC.
Any ideas as to how to fix this? The TC is in bridging mode, which has worked fine before. All suggestions welcome!

Ok.. let me try again..
Going back to your first post.
I have plugged in an ethernet cable joining my MBA to the TC, and another from the TC to the wall socket. I can access the internet without any problems.
However, if I unplug the ethernet cable from my MBA (or indeed if I don't plug it in in the first place) then I cannot connect to the internet. I can still back up to Time Machine etc., but nothing can get 'through' the TC.
When you plug in via ethernet the MBA works but not by wireless..
Now add that to the new info.
The campus network relies on each PC's individual MAC address and then assigns IP addresses as required;
Is the MAC address actually registered?? Because the MAC address of the ethernet port of the MBA and the MAC address of the wireless are different.
If the MAC addresses are not registered.. how does the Uni know the difference between a computer and a router??
You are not allow to run a router that feeds DHCP into the uni system.. but they cannot know what you have behind the MAC address of the item plugged in. A computer or a router.
So the TC has to be in bridging mode - which has worked perfectly well previously
Try releasing the MAC address to the PORT.. because the uni might have decided they don't want hubs connected either.. therefore the address of whichever device that is plugged into the wall is registered at the switch and will not allow a change for a fix period.. that is one way to stop people changing stuff around.
Try powering off the TC.. when you use another item.. or change from ethernet to wireless.. then power up the TC again and then power up the device .. eg the wireless on the laptop.. If it fails, it is not the TC that is causing it.. because in bridge the TC is completely dumb. It has no ability to control the MAC address being sent to the main router. None whatsoever.
If your TC recently upgraded to 7.6.4 firmware.. though.. well it can do all kinds of nasties.. flash it back to 7.6.1 and factory reset it.. and hope it works as it did before.. if not the uni changed the system to prevent your TC acting even as a hub.

Time Capsule Ethernet Transfer rate very slow

Hello,
In order to transfer a 65Gb file from an iMac to TC, I decided to use the Ethernet port instead of wireless. The transfer rate is about 1-2Mbs /s instead of a regular Ethernet 100Mbs /s. It's been 4 hours so far and will probably be 7 hours when it's completed.
Facts
I turned off Airport.
I'm using an Ethernet CAT5 cable.
Why is it so slow?? Is there a setting I'm missing?
Thanks,

In the real world if you have ethernet 10/100/1000 and are using a cat 6 cable then expect no more than 11M/sec
8 M/sec if wireless N
4 M/sec if wireless B/G
Cat5 you'd use for ethernet 10/100 narrow band width.

I have a new MacBook Pro, it has a small hard drive, can I plug an extra Hard Drive into my time capsule and access from my Macbook?

I have saved my itunes Library to an exteranal drive, can I plug that drive into my Time Capsule and tell my itunes to access the music from there?
TH

Yes, but it's probably better to keep it connected directly to the computer.
(104209)

Time Capsule and BT Home Hub compatibility

Hi
I would be very grateful for your help.
I have a BT Home Hub (brand new) connected via ethernet cable to my Time Capsule (gen 4). I get the combination to work together OK (without switching off the BT Home Hub wireless), and I have the option of using the BT Home Hub wireless network too. I notice that the Time Capsule network is much less consistent than the direct BT Home Hub one. I also see that the BT Home Hub seems to have a much better coverage of the rooms in our house thean the Time Capsule network.
Is there some sort of conflict going on here? Should I permanently switch off the wireless router function on the BT Home Hub?
If I do straight speed checks - most of the time they both seem to perform similarly, yet every now and then - perhaps 3x weekly, the Time Capsule one just goes very slow or stops all together.
I was hoping the Time Capsule would give the best possible coverage around the house, so if that issue is not linked to the BT Home Hub compatibility issue, then are there different settings I should be trying on the Time Capsule via Air utility?
For completeness sake I also notice that the hourly back up sometimes fails as my iMac does not find the Time Casule every hour, and sometimes very small updates can take longer thah I would expect. Perhaps this is linked to the above, but perhaps not.
Anyway, I would be most grateful for your advice.
Best wishes,
David

Hmmm.. TC should auto select channel to not interfere with the Home Hub.. but the home hub might also be set to auto.. this means you have auto-auto.. and no controller who dictates the terms. Set fixed wireless channels.. and keep them separated as far as possible from each other. Even using EOP or long ethernet even better to run the TC in some wireless dark area of the house.
In my case I have a Thomson G wireless adsl modem.. and it beats the TC wireless hands down at the other end of the house.. simple fact is, the TC is no wireless power house.. regardless of Apple's so called improvements to the antennas and power output. The design is just not good for wireless.
So for 2.4ghz there are only 3 non-overlapping channels, 1, 6, 11 (13 in UK).. I recommend you set the BT to 1 and the TC to 11 or 13.
Use wireless names in the TC that are short no spaces pure alphanumeric.. and use wpa2 Personal security.
That is about the best you can do.. I like to force 5ghz to a different name.. so I can select it and it is much faster if you are in range.. but 5ghz has poor range.

Time capsule and Viera Cast

Hi - I've just purchased a Panasonic TC-P50G10 plasma TV that is able to be directly hooked up to the internet. I have a cable modem connected to Time Capsule and the TV is connected with via a LAN port from the Time Capsule to an ethernet port on the TV. When I check the network connection to the TV it says it successful and can obtain an IP address. However when I try to connect to the internet via the Viera Cast function of the TV it says "connection to server failed 006". I think that there is something about Time Capsule that is not allowing the TV to talk to the server. Any suggestions on how to proceed? I've tried rebooting the router and modem with no success.

Welcome to the discussions!
Suggest that you perform an additional troubleshooting step as follows:
Temporarily disconnect the ethernet cable at the TV and plug it in to your laptop. Make sure that wireless is turned off on your laptop so that it will connect using ethernet.
Try to pull up several websites on your laptop. If you can, there is nothing in the TC blocking access to a website.
Reconnect the ethernet cable to the TV and power the TV down as well as the rest of your network. Then start the modem first for a few minutes alone, then the TC for a few minutes, then your TV and computers.
Any help? If not, you will need to check with Panasonic support to troubleshoot further as you can verify to them that you have a reliable internet connection at your end.

Time Capsule and multiple USB drives ... no show

Hi,
probably one of the Apple wizards can enlighten me here, as also the information in this forum seems inconclusive.
I have a Time Capsule, and everything is fine with that.
I can connect one drive via USB, and this drive shows.
However, I seem to be unable to connect two drives, regardless of HUB I use (I tried two powered and two passive ones fron three different vendors), and which sequence I turn these things on and off.
The first drive that is connected shows.
If I connect the hub with already spinning drives, it is nondeterministic which one will show up.
But only one will show.
Is this expected behaviour?
I find references on the Apple site and throughout this forum that multiple drives are possible.
Greetings,
- Thomas

This is not an answer, but it seemed like a good place to post my latest experience.
I got the Time Capsule and connected three drives to it via USB hub. It worked fine for awhile but then I realized that the backups were not running.
It was a struggle. I finally reinitialized the TC and then got another software program other than Time Machine to run the backups.
So that worked, but now when I plug the other drives in by USB the TC drops off. I can't connect to it.
The TC shows up on the network, but when I plug other drives in to it, it drops off the network.
I finally worked around the problem (with fingers crossed!). I plugged in a couple of the drives to one of my older macs and networked to that drive and the backups seem to be running.
The I plugged one of the drives in to my older Airport Extreme via USB and that backup is running via wireless.
Then if I leave the TC alone with nothing connected to it, I can run a backup to it.
But it is frustrating. First, I could run the backups with TM to the attached drives, no problem. Now, I cannot use the drives connected to the TC via USB. I have to connect them to something else completely.
And that is after the backups stopped working under TM.
It seems like the Holy Grail - a backup program that works.
For today, I think I have worked around my problem, but it is disappointing. I was hoping the TC would allow me to connect drives to it by USB and run the backup through TM. Now TC is basically a networked drive. (Forgot to mention that i am not using it for wireless connection.) I turned that function off and it just a networked drive.

Updated to firefox 4.0. since then my computer is very slow accessing the internet, websites and getting information from within a website.

Over a week ago I updated my computer to Firefox 4.0. Since then my computer is very slow accessing the internet, websites and getting information from within a website. Also, a tool bar has shown up for YAHOO which I did not request. The old detailed tool bar for Firefox has disappeared. All that now shows for Firefox is the area to enter website urls and an area to enter topic for a Google Search.
Many times I have to exit Firefox and re-enter it later to access the internet.
Please advice what I need to do to get back to the speed I had with the older version of Firefox.
Thank You,
Dennis

Over a week ago I updated my computer to Firefox 4.0. Since then my computer is very slow accessing the internet, websites and getting information from within a website. Also, a tool bar has shown up for YAHOO which I did not request. The old detailed tool bar for Firefox has disappeared. All that now shows for Firefox is the area to enter website urls and an area to enter topic for a Google Search.
Many times I have to exit Firefox and re-enter it later to access the internet.
Please advice what I need to do to get back to the speed I had with the older version of Firefox.
Thank You,
Dennis

I have question about hooking up an external hdd to a time capsule and still have my printer hooked up as well. Anyone got any tips for me, how to do it and what brand of harddrive that will work best for me 1 or 2 TB

i have question about hooking up an external hdd to a time capsule and still have my printer hooked up as well. Anyone got any tips for me, how to do it and what brand of harddrive that will work best for me 1 or 2 TB

You just need a powered hub.. if you already use one then fine.
Plug in just about any external hard disk will work fine. Format has to be readable by the TC.. ie fat32.. or much better HFS+.. plug it into a Mac to prepare the drive.
Pick whatever size suits.. nowadays 2TB are most economical.
WD, Seagate have goobled up all the minor players.. so pick one.
Whatever suits your budget and asthetics.
NOTE.. The USB on the TC is fine for printers.. IMHO it is the wrong way to go with USB disks.. use the internal disk of the TC.. USB is less than half the native speed plugged into a Mac.. TC to USB is slow.. far slower than internal drive.. or using external drive as external.

I have a 1st generation time capsule and an extreme b/g. Is the extreme slowing the network down

I have a 1st generation time capsule and an appe extreme b/g. Is the extreme slowing the network down? Should I dump it an get the new n version?

yes it is likely to be slowing down the network because you are using 802.11b/g
from what i recall with b/g a slow client can slow down the entire network to that clients speed.
this was the major improvement with 802.11n and Mimo. each client can be connected to the access point without affecting your speed to the rest of the network
its reccomended to get all new "N" equipment if you have the budget for it. some of those old airports and time capsules can still be worth something on amazon marketplace so you might be able to sell them
if you want to create / join / extend a netwowrk your going to probably need all "n" based equipment.
buy the new 4th generation time capsule or the new 5th generation airport they have better stronger radios
in the mean time configure your base station router to a high multicast rate, so it will prevent devices connecting to it at 1-2 mbps speeds and slowing down your network
if you have an apple care covered mac remember the airport / time capsule rule. all airports and time capsules purchased 2 years before you bought your mac to the 3 years of apple care covers them. if you do not have apple care then the standard warranty applies

Question on Time Capsule and external USB HDD

Hello everyone,
I have a 500GB Time Capsule that is working wonderfully. I recently have been downloading a number of large .iso image files that are taking up a lot of space on my internal drive on my Macbook Pro. I do not back these files up on the Time Capsule as it is getting full and i want it to backup other more important things.
I do however wish to backup these files. My current desk is rather full and really will not allow me to purchase a large 3.5" HDD and plug it in USB.
Is it possible to plug an external drive into the back of the Time Capsule and have it be used as a wireless disk as well?
I would prefer to have that drive not be part of the Time Capsule disks, i just want to be able to access it wireless over my network.
I would be grateful if anyone can help me out. If this solution will not work, is there some sort of NAS disk solution i can get to work with my TC?
Thanks

All you need is an external USB HDD. It needs to be formatted HFS+ (Mac OS Extended - Journaled), if you plan on a future Time Machine Disk on this drive, or FAT/FAT32. You could get a NAS, but you don't need to if you already have TC. Can I assume the USB port is free or do you have a USB printer hooked up to it?

Time Capsule And Snow Leopard - Problems Accessing Files / Folders

Hi all,
I am having a problem accessing the time capsule drive and my networked Macs drop boxes etc from the finder. They were working fine, possibly before 10.6.1 and are very intermittent at the moment. If I goto 'go' then 'network', it shows all connected devices fine however accessing them seems to be sketchy. For example, from my Mac Pro upstairs, I can see the time capsule and macbook fine, I can connect to them fine, even screen share with no problems, however when I try to access the drop box, or anything at folder level, I get a spinning type icon in the lower right of the finder by the new zoom bar that just keeps spinning and nothing happens. I have this problem accessing the 'data' folder on my time capsule from both the Mac Pro and the MacBook unless I access it from the drive it mounts on the desktop, I get straight in that way! It's quite infuriating really. Anyone else having this problem? Just to update, I have both Macs connected to the time capsule for time machine and backups are working fine. It would seem that you do eventually get into the folder you try to access, but takes forever for some reason.
Cheers.
Message was edited by: Judda

I couldn't access files on a drive attached to my TC recently, and I fixed the problem by repairing permissions on my main hard drive (the one in my computer.) This option is in Disk Utility. Not sure if that will work for you but it's worth a shot, it doesn't hurt anything! A lot of people recommend repairing permissions every time you update your operating system.

Mail has 16k messages, and performance is very slow, with loading times taking up to 5 seconds every time I open Mail. How can I increase performance?

Mail has 16k messages, and performance is very slow, with loading times taking up to 5 seconds every time I open Mail.
How can I increase performance?
I'm running a MacBook Air 4GB 1.7GHz 10.7.2.
Graham

One possible solution would be to organise your inbox into folders.
Its never relly good on any system to have one folder that has everything in it.
Try going to you web gui for that mail account and organise your folders and move mails from your inbox into corresponding folders for better organisation.
Several folders containing the same amount of one folder will usually load a little quicker as the folder may not be accessed to download its content unless veiwed.
So having 10 folders with organised content, and you inbox as an area thats to hold only new emails would work much much quicker with imap.
Most imap servers will only update the contents of a folder when its veiwed.

Time Capsule and Thunderbolt HDD very slow access via wifi enabled MacBook Air

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