Airport Extreme with attached NAS drive

I have Airport Extreme connected by ethernet to my sky broadband router. Am thinking of attaching a NAS drive to AE in order to move itunes library from my MacBook (to free up space). Has anyone done this and any recommendations for which drive to use.

Yes, most NAS's come without a HD.
And yes, you connect the NAS to your Airport Extreme by an ethernet cable. I don't have my iTunes library on the NAS, but I'm pretty sure new music will be put directly on the NAS. Having to move it every time you buy something new is very clumsy and not Apple-like
You can either connect your TV to the Airport Extreme by an ethernet cable, but that may be a difficult option if these are in separate rooms.
You can also connect your TV to your Airport Express. I assume your home theatre is connected to the jack connecter on the Express. Then you can connect your TV with a ethernet cable to the Airport Express. At home, I have my TV connected this way to the Express and can easily stream movies from my QNAP to my TV. In your situation with the iTunes library on the NAS, you can also stream video from iTunes to your TV.
Please make sure that:
1) your TV has an ethernet connector
2) your TV supports media servers (DLNA or UPnP) if you want to stream directly from your NAS (if you are going to stream video from iTunes, this isn't important)

Similar Messages

Airport Extreme with 6 TB Drive vs. Drobo vs. NAS?

I am looking for system design advice in preparation for a new Mac Pro set up.
Long story short- I am a semi-professional photographer. I shoot 1 - 2 TB a year (Nikon D800 and various other bodies). I currently have a 24" iMac (2007) and a MacBook Pro (2008) that are WELL past their prime. I have at least 8 TB of external drives with all of my previous years of Aperture libraries connected to my iMac which is my primary machine.
My question-
I am looking to have my previous Aperture libraries accessible to all of my machines and have a central storage solution.
I am looking opinions on placing a new Airport Extreme with a 6 TB external drive connected to it with my previous libraries (which do not change) on it and have it Time Machine backup my current photo library and system nightly. I do not require fast access to my previous libraries or fast backups.
I have off site backups of all my libraries and I backup my current stuff monthly offsite.
My new MacPro set-up will likely have a 4-6 TB G Tech drive attached to it for fast access for video projects etc.
I want all my photos accessibl, a current onsite backup… and I want it all automated- no input at all… and I don’t want a big huge mess of RAID drives and worries of multiples drives all over the place.
What would most of you suggest?
Drobo? NAS? … any help is appreciated.
Thanx

Thank you for the replies.
My predicament can’t be unique. I need a large chunk of connected, stable and slow storage that seldom gets used but is safe and sound… and I need a safe automatic backup of my current projects (but never am I so stressed that every nanosecond of data is replicated on the moon at the speed of light…).
I have witnessed massive Drobo failures and oddly been thankful that I had a mess of several external drives on my desk.
The other challenge is that my new system will be installed in a location that has no easy way of connecting to the wired network in my house…
Should I go with an Airport Extreme to increase the wifi speed a bit in the house and an attached Drobo 5D to the new machine?

AirPort Extreme with USB hard drive

Hi...I have an AirPort Extreme with a Maxtor OneTouch 250MB hard drive attached (via USB port). I have two computers which access the internet and the hard drive through the AirPort.
The first computer is a 1.8 GHz PowerPC G5 (with 3GB of SDRAM). The second is a 2 GHz Intel Core2 Duo IMac (with 4GB of SDRAM).
Both computers have full signal strength via AirPort and both computers have no connection/speed issues with the internet. It's when trying to copy to/from the USB disk that there are problems. The older Mac, the G5, has no problems at all. Great copy speeds in both directions, I can even work off of files on the USB disk without a problem.
The iMac, though, has a problem writing to/from the external hard disk. It connects without a problem, but after that, things come to a standstill.
For example, I can copy a 25MB file from the AirDisk to the G5 in about 15 seconds. If I try to copy the same file to the iMac, it takes as long as 5 minutes. I've tried every setting I can in AirPort Utility, including trying each of the channels individually, and nothing helps. I've disconnected the G5 from the network and that didn't make a difference, either.
Other info...the AirPort firmware is updated to version 7.3.2 and both Macs are updated to System 10.5.4.
If anybody has any advice, I will be eternally grateful.

I have a very similar problem. I have a 2.8 GHz iMac with 2GB RAM and am using OS X v10.5.4, and an Airport Extreme (v7.3.2), both updated to latest firmware. I have a 500 GB TrekStor external HD connected to the AEBS via USB. The TrekStor HD was pre-formatted in FAT32 and is visible on my iMac's desktop and in Finder but I cannot transfer files to it or see files on it. When I drag and drop a file on the TrekStor, it sometimes seems to go well but then the file is not visible via Finder, and sometimes I get an "insufficient privileges" message. I repair permissions on the iMac's internal HD without any change. I am logged in as the admin. All assistance is much appreciated!

Airport extreme with USB hard drive permissions problem may be parallels

I cannot access my external hard drive because of some permission problem. I know because I can see this through the disk repair utility. I've attached my external hard drive to my airport extreme. It originally came up well and worked fine. Then it lost connection and now doesn't recognize my password. To confuse matters worse I have parallels installed. This might be where the password problem is as the mac wants to access as a guest and the parallels (windows MX) as my account name. It's all pretty complicated to explain. What I want to do now is just to forget the airport plan and reach my hard drive but it won't boot up even with airport off and a direct firewire connection. It does show up in disk repair utility but with permissions. How can I get to these permissions and drop them. What if they're windows permissions somehow? How can I get started.
Thanks

I have a very similar problem. I have a 2.8 GHz iMac with 2GB RAM and am using OS X v10.5.4, and an Airport Extreme (v7.3.2), both updated to latest firmware. I have a 500 GB TrekStor external HD connected to the AEBS via USB. The TrekStor HD was pre-formatted in FAT32 and is visible on my iMac's desktop and in Finder but I cannot transfer files to it or see files on it. When I drag and drop a file on the TrekStor, it sometimes seems to go well but then the file is not visible via Finder, and sometimes I get an "insufficient privileges" message. I repair permissions on the iMac's internal HD without any change. I am logged in as the admin. All assistance is much appreciated!

Sharing Airport Extreme with attached HD over WAN to Windows

So I've never gotten this to work. I have three external HD's attached to my airport extreme, the extreme is set to share over WAN, and any Mac can connect with zero problem using AFP. However, I've never had a Windows computer connect successfully using Samba. I have connected over LAN on windows just fine (not with Samba, of course, just with the built in windows systems) but I've never had anyone using Samba be able to connect from over the web.
Has anyone else had this work? Any guidance to offer? A friend of mine said the Samba port (445) was closed on my IP - because this is being shared via the Extreme, I can't very well set port forwarding to deal with this issue, so I'm clueless. Help!

Your drive is most likely formatted with NTFS, which the Mac and the Airport will both read, but not write to.
The drive needs to be Mac formatted.
See this link:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305038

Airport Extreme with External Hard Drive on Windows 7

I just purchased an Airport Extreme in order to connect my collection of old hard drives so I can share the files with my Windows computer and Apple TV.
My main problem is accessing a single hard drive (exFAT, one partition -- couldn't format into FAT32) from my Windows 7 laptop. The Airport connects wirelessly to my Fios router with no problem.
Using the Airport Utility > Disks I can see the hard drive (although it only shows its physical name "SAMSUNG HM302JI" not the name I gave it when I formatted it, "Storage300GB"), however it doesn't show any files on the drive (and there are a few test files of all types: jpg, xlsx, a sub-folder, etc.). I can't see the drive via My Computer nor can I map the drive using the IP address (192.168.1.13). When I tried adding a USB hub (for adding the other hard drives once I get this one working) I see the same problem, just the name of the device but no folders.
Norton 360 can see the device, but Windows cannot. I've tried turning off Norton, but that hasn't helped.
I have searched the web and support communities high and low, and I have yet to find any help.
Any help would be appreciated!!

My main problem is accessing a single hard drive (exFAT, one partition -- couldn't format into FAT32) from my Windows 7 laptop. The Airport connects wirelessly to my Fios router with no problem.
The real main problem is that the USB port on the AirPort Extreme will not support exFAT or NTFS.
It will support HFS+ and FAT16/32.
Please see this Apple support document to confirm:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2426

How best to interface an airport extreme with a NAS?

I would like to do the following:
1) Access my NAS over my Wi-Fi network using my Airport Express running on the 5 GHz channel, locally, to access files. For back-up I have been connecting the NAS directly to the MBP with an Ethernet cable to get better throughput. How much worse would this be wirelessly. In other words, would incremental back-ups be doable over Wi-Fi, or would this be pitifully slow?
2) Access my NAS remotely over my Wi-Fi network using Airport Express. The NAS has its own IP address, a ReadyNAS NV+.
If #2 is not possible, how would I do this using an Apple Extreme Base Station?
Finally, I am using a new MBP running 10.9.1 and notice that the Airport Utility is really dumbed-down compared with the utility that I was using on 10.6.8, which is sad. So, how can I see the router's performance as I was able to see previously ex. clients, real-time graph of transmission speed per device on network, and signal strengthH
Thank you.

Thanks Tesserax!
for your support..
I changed it the way you told me..
it is very simple... and sounds very logic..
But after I did changed it in the correct IP address of the server
and I changed the IP address of the Internet Router (this was a must concerning the AP utility)
1> the internet was slown down..
2> the server was not reconisable by the iMac.. he gives the server a PC status ?!?!
3> the connection was poor and was not found in the AP network
very strange so I changed it to the old version
is there really no option?
perhaps with the DHCP? or with the Internet router?
FYI
I have:
1: Internet/ connected with a HUAWEI router, recieved from my internet provider
2: connect the Huawei router with the AP Extreme Router
3: connect the AP Extreme router with the Server NAS
4: AP Extreme router is the basis.. and from there I do have an Apple Airport Network

Airport Extreme with external hard drive or Timecapsule for back up

Well the subject pretty much states the question. I'm of the mindset that an all in one, though convenient/less parts, if it fails it takes my data/wireless with it. If I have an external drive (ie. WD 1TB MyBook), I can fill it, then upgrade only the drive if I want to leaving the base station. My only issue is then wireless printing, and the lack of another USB port (don't really want to put a portable hub in my router). So would I have to get an Airport Express station too? I have no experience with putting up multiple stations, or Airport for that matter (Windows convert). So, all help/input appreciated

Well the subject pretty much states the question. I'm of the mindset that an all in one, though convenient/less parts, if it fails it takes my data/wireless with it. If I have an external drive (ie. WD 1TB MyBook), I can fill it, then upgrade only the drive if I want to leaving the base station. My only issue is then wireless printing, and the lack of another USB port (don't really want to put a portable hub in my router). So would I have to get an Airport Express station too? I have no experience with putting up multiple stations, or Airport for that matter (Windows convert). So, all help/input appreciated

Which to buy? Time capsule or Airport Extreme with USB drive(s)?

I'm getting either a TC or an Airport Extreme with an external drive.
Archive:
I noticed that TC can archive to an external drive. It seems this can be handy for creating off-site backups. Can I do this with a drive on Airport Extreme (with a powered hub and another drive)? Or do I need to move the drive to a Mac and copy there? Or should I use a network backup instead in either case? I guess this is my main question: Can archive work with Airport Extreme?
Mounting:
Is mounting the Airport Extreme for WiFi range any easier than the TC?
Drive failure:
Is the TC drive likely to fail over the next couple years? And the other way, if the TC breaks, is the drive something I can use elsewhere? I'm a little concerned about having all my eggs in one basket.
Other:
Anything I should be aware of in making this decision?

+Are there any constraints in the orientation of TC that the AirPort Extreme does not have?+
No, not really as long as you give either device plenty of airspace as they both tend to run warm to very warm. I thought mounting the AirPort Extreme might improve the signal strength a bit, but it made no measurable difference for me.
+Is the TC significantly heavier?+
The Extreme is under 2 pounds, the TC comes in a bit over 3 pounds.
+Is mounting on a pegboard bad for the HD?+
I think you may be asking if you can mount it vertically. That's not a problem and the Apple store even sells wall mounts for either device.
+Yikes. I got bad info. I read the "unsupported" constraint was dropped a couple versions ago. I thought all the comments on this were referring to the older versions of AirPort Extreme.+
Here's the Apple document. Nothing changed with Snow Leopard and I saw a specific Snow Leopard document about this...just can't find it at the moment. I'm sure other forum regulars will confirm as well if they see this post.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2038
+Is there a list of file servers that Time Machine is compatible with?+
Sorry, I don't have first hand knowledge on that and my policy is to only offer advice on things that I've done myself. That question might be worth a separate post since few people will see this question buried where it is.
Message was edited by: Bob Timmons

Can Time Capsule backup an Airport Extreme's attached USB hard drive?

Can Time Capsule backup an Airport Extreme's attached USB hard drive (without currently being attached to a MAC OSX LION system)?

No, sorry.. there is no way for the TC to see the files.. and even if you plug the hard disk into the TC there is no mechanism in the TC to drag the files to itself.. The TC is absolutely a dumb network attached drive.. everything you want to do must be done from a computer.

External Hard Drive on Airport Extreme with a PC

I am trying to setup my Seagate FreeAgent external hard drive through my AirPort Extreme with my PC laptop. The AirPort Utility recognizes the disk, and I have enabled file sharing, but I cannot see the drive on either of my PC laptops that are connected to the network. How do I make the drive visable?

With an AirPort Extreme, the PCs will "see" the HFS+ formatted drive on the network as a FAT32 volume, so there is no need to reformat the drive as FAT32, but the normal limitations of FAT32, like maximum file size of 4 GB, slow transfers, etc. will still apply.

I have an airport extreme with a USB printer attached (non-airprint). Can i print from my ipad?

I have an airport extreme with a USB printer attached, it is a non airprint printer.
I can print via my network from my desktop but I want to know if i can print from my ipad 2 and ipad 1

Printing from an iPad or iPhone
To print directly from an iPad you need an AirPrint - enabled printer on the same wireless network as the iPad. All AirPrint printers are wireless but not all wireless printers are AirPrint-enabled.
If you do not have an AirPrint printer, a number of workarounds exist that enable the use of any printer you normally use, even older ones that may predate AirPrint by decades. Search for the following products:
handyPrint (Mac only, donation-supported)
Printopia (Mac only, $19.95 with free trial)
These are utilities you install on the Mac you normally use for printing, enabling it to act as an AirPrint print server. The Mac must be "on" but may be asleep for them to work. The iPad needs nothing else, no iOS apps need to be installed and no configuration is necessary. If your computer can print, so can the iPad, using one of these utilities on your Mac.
Equivalent utilities may exist for PCs but I have no experience with them - I suggest https://www.collobos.com
You can also buy this standalone hardware print server, bypassing the need for a computer altogether:
http://www.lantronix.com/it-management/xprintserver/xprintserver.html
Otherwise you will need to buy an AirPrint printer or multifunction device.

How do I connect airport extreme to seagate hard drive using windows

How do I connect airport extreme to seagate hard drive using windows?

First the AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS) cannot share out an external HDD attached to its USB port unless it is formatted in either HFS+ or FAT16/32. It will not work if the HDD is formatted in either NTFS or ExFAT.
If the HDD is formatted properly, when you access the AEBS with the AirPort Utility, does the HDD show up properly on the Disks tab of the utility?
If it does, then you would access the HDD as any other network share, using the following format: //servername/sharename. In the case of the AirPort Disk (a HDD attached to the USB port of either an Extreme or Time Capsule), the "servername" would be the Extreme's Base Station Name, and the "sharename" would be the volumename of the HDD.

Airport Extreme with Gigabit Ethernet - Does it have jumbo frame support?

Please, can I get definite answer to this question? I do not need speculations as I read some reviews already. Can we have Apple finally put complete specification of the product rather than "popular one" with attachement of protocol numbers?
I just need simple answer possibly from Apple engineering team to the following questions:
1. Does current Airport Extreme have support for jumbo frames (everything above 1500bytes per frame)? (if one does not know what that is them perhaps understanding acronym "MTU" can help a bit)
2. If there is support then what is the maximum supported size of jumbo frame? (Some products do not go above 6k and I read some statistics that traffic somwhere is usually 66% at about 4k jumbo frames and above that there is not much...)
3. If there is no support then does Apple plan on update for this (firmware or hardware) in the future?
Please, do not tell me that someoene ran something with jumbo frame and it worked as I tried yesterday LaCie Ethernet drive with supposedly setup (I set it myself) of jumbo frame 4k and on soft reboot of the drive it worked when connected to Airp[ort Extreme, but after hard reboot the disk is not visible anymore. I will recover the disk, but I need to understand if I have chance of using jumbo frames that tremendously improve performance with large files (e.g. try movies stored for AppleTV on network drive) when using Airport Extreme with its gigabit Ethernet... or that is just Gigabit Ethernet for product marketing purposes only.
I just need reliable answer by product specification that should be on paper at Apple, but it is not so I hope that one of guys here has access to some engineering team.
Thank you,
Maciek Samsel

The spec. on the chip used by Apple support your conclusion.
BCM5395 Features
Complies with IEEE802.3, IEEE802.3u, IEEE802.3ab standards
5 10/100/1000Mbps Auto-Sense RJ45 ports supporting Auto-MDI/MDIX
All ports Support Full/Half Duplex transfer mode for 10/100Mbps and Full Duplex transfer mode for 1000Mbps
Port-based and MAC-based VLAN
IEEE 802.1Q-based VLAN with 4K entries
Port-based rate control
Port mirroring
Compact field processor (CFP)
512 rules
Filtering, classifications, remarking, and priority actions.
Priority modification on egress
DOS Attack Prevention
Loop detection for unmanaged configurations with Broadcom’s patented LoopDTech™ technology
CableChecker™ with unmanaged mode support
Double tagging
IEEE 802.3x programmable per-port flow control and back pressure, with IEEE 802.1x support for secure user authentication
4K entry MAC address table with automatic learning and aging
128-KB packet buffer
128 multicast group support
Jumbo Frame support up to 9728 byte

AirPort Extreme with 3T time capsule file security question

Right now I am using a MacMini with an external HD as a file server. I'm thinking g of using the new AirPort Extreme with 3T time capsule to do the same tho g (while also extended my wifi reach).
With the Mac mini I have fine control over who gets to see and do what to which folders and files. It seems that with the AirPort Extreme thee is no notion of permissions or access control -- if you can get on the wireless you can access the files. That is extremely insecure.
Is my understanding correct? Is there no way to secure files hosted on an AirPort Extreme so only certain users can access them??
- john

Are there any instructions for how to format and set HFS+ user permissions on the AP Extreme's HDD?
For the formatting part, you will need to temporarily connect the drive to your Mac, and then, use the Disk Utility (a part of the OS X operating system) to partition and format the drive. You should find this utility in the \Applications\Utilities folder. For HFS+, choose "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" for the Format option.
For assigning user permissions using accounts, you will need to use the AirPort Utility.
Run the AirPort Utility
Select the Extreme, and then, click on Edit.
Select the Disks tab.
Select the HDD in the Partitions window.
Choose "With accounts" as the Secure Shared Disks option.
Click on the "+" button to add user accounts.
For each account desired, enter the Account Name, Password, and File Sharing Access type.
Click Save.
Click Update to write the new configuration information to the base station and wait for the station to restart.

Airport Extreme with attached NAS drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for