Apple TV, Airport Extreme and Disk Sharing

Can I put all my photos, music, vidoes, etc. on a USB drive connected to my airport extreme and NOT need a Mac on to play music, etc?
In other words, will the Apple TV see the shared USB drive and pull from there?

Whether or not the movies are streamed or stored
locally on the atv, you will still have long menu's.
Not necessarily. iTunes allows you to limit what is stored locally on the Apple TV (for instance by syncing only so many recent or unwatched items, or just specific ones, selected from the category tabs). This is relatively easy to manage with the iTunes GUI, since even for long lists you have tabs, scroll bars, & clickable boxes, giving you much quicker access to list items compared to Apple TV's sequential menus.
Moreover, as the Apple TV drive fills up, it gives preferential treatment to content in a predictable hierarchy, which together with iTunes management of what is synced can keep stored item lists short & fresh. iTunes based management also allows for an effective form of parental control (by allowing only syncing with selected items from a selected iTunes library) & for different locally stored content for different Apple TV's. When you want (or want to allow) full iTunes library access, you can set up an Apple TV for streaming from selected computers.
Regarding USB-connected auxiliary storage in general, it isn't clear how it could be managed -- remember, there is no Finder (& probably not enough RAM to support it) in Apple TV, plus no GUI to support drag & drop or the other file system amenities we are accustomed to in OS X. It may be doable, but probably not in a manner appealing to non-geek type users.

Similar Messages

Cone Airport Extreme and disk sharing

I have the older Extreme base station and want to set up a shared disk. I have it set up to share a printer just fine. I added a usb hub to the station and attached the printer and hard drive.
The airport utility does not have a disk sharing section. Is this possible with this model?

An AirPort Extreme base station without 802.11n capability and any AirPort Express will ignore any USB drive connected to it. Sharing the drive from it isn't possible.
(50843)

How to configure Airport Extreme AFP disk sharing to host multiple users' home-directories (Lion, using autofs)

I have this working, but only by completely bypassing access control, using guest access with read+write permissions.
Do I need to buy Lion Server, to do this. All my past unix/linux experience says Lion Server should _not_ be necessary.
This seems like a simple & obvious setup objective, but it is proving to be harder than I would imagine.
Setup:
multiple users, sharing two mac mini's running OSX Lion
connected to an Airport Extreme (4th gen) with a USB disk shared (either via disk password, AEBS password, or using AEBS user's passwords).
After much experimentation and web research, I finally have managed to get the mini's to auto mount the Airport Extreme's AFP shared USB disk. Well almost... It only works if, on the Airport, I set the guest access permissions to read+write and select the "Secure Shared Disks" method to "With disk password" or "with Airport Extreme password". In other words, it only works if I essentially bypass/disable access control by using the guest authentication mechanism to the AFP shared disk.
On the Lion side of this, I am automounting the users directories via "autofs". The config files for this are
/etc/auto_master:
# Automounter master map
+auto_master            # Use directory service
/net                    -hosts          -nobrowse,hidefromfinder,nosuid
/home                   auto_home       -nobrowse,hidefromfinder
/Network/Servers        -fstab
/-                      -static
/-                      auto_afp
/etc/auto_afp:
# Automounter AFP master map
# https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3336384?start=0&tstart=0
/afp/users -fstype=afp afp://;AUTH=No%20User%[email protected]/Users/
Then, after rebooting and verifying read+write access to the /afp/users directories, I change each user's home directory: In System Preferences > System > Users & Groups, I right-click over the users to access the Advanced Options, changing the Home directory field to point at the AFP-mounted /afp/users/Users/* home directories.
I experimented with alternate UAM specifications, as well as both OSX and AESB users & passwords. Using guest access is the only thing that has worked.
Any pointers would be appreciated...

Based on lots more experimentation which confirms the information in a parallel discussion (cf. Automount share as non ROOT or SYSTEM user! https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3221944), I have concluded that the Lion 10.7.2 implementation of AutoFS mechanism is broken. I submitted a bug report via apple.com/feedback.
Work arounds..?
Earlier I wondered if installing Lion OSX Server was necessary. The more I contemplate this, the more I am convinced it _should_not_ be necessary. The client-server architecture is clear: my mac's are the file-server client's and the Airport Extreme is supposed to act as the file server. The only thing instaling Lion Server would do (besides enriching Apple.com) is enable me to configure one of the mac's as the file server. This would require it to be "always on" (thus enriching my electric utility as wel). Okay, an additional benefit would be configuring software RAID disks attached to the Lion server, but Time Machine has worked fine for me in the past, backing up to disks mounted on the Airport Extreme.
One solution is to create a disk partition for each user and instruct each user to connect / authenticate to the Airport Extreme AFP share at login. The multiplicity of partitions is necessary since the first user to mount the AFP share, takes ownership of it, blocking other users from accessing that disk partition. A user can "steal" ownership by reconnecting, but this will leave the other user's applications & open files dangling.
This disfunctional situation really *****. Before instaling Lion, I put a 64 GB SSD (solid state disk) in each of our mac's. I did this expecting to easily configure the /Users/* data on external networked storage. I'm having a dejavu "Bill Gates"-ware moment; problems like this were why I abandoned Windoz.
I will make a few more experiments using the depreciated /etc/fstab mechanism. Maybe that will bypass the broken-ness of AutoFS...? Alternately, I guess I could also try to run Kerberos authentication to bypass whatever is broken in AutoFS, but that would require a running a Kerberos daemon somewhere. Possibly I could configure a Kerberos service to run on both my mac's (without installing Apple's Lion Server)...?
Stay tuned...

Airport Extreme USB Disk Sharing using MobileMe - Connection Failed...

After several hours of troubleshooting i've hit a brick wall.
I have just bought a brand new Airport Extreme Base Station (Dual Band etc) and it is all set up and working lovely.
I have now come to share my USB Disk using my MobileMe account. Add my mobile account to the configuration page, all ok still.
Connect to a completely different network (second home), where my Airport Extreme (William Moore's Airport Extreme) is present in the finder under Shared. However, when I proceed to connect to it, i am firstly presented with connecting.... and after it has failed the first time, each subsequent attempt immediately fails.
At first i could not access the configuration page remotely for the Extreme either - but after bypassing the firewall on my router i can now remotely connect to my extreme every time - but still the same above issue with connecting to the USB disk.
The router at my second home is currently a belkin router - although i have an airport express coming soon which i hope will resolve the problem and point to my current router setup - but this cannot be a long term solution as the express is to be used elsewhere.
However, i fail to see how my router is stopping the disk connection when i am able to receive the extreme's configuration. NAT is enabled on my router, as is upnp.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I am an IT Technician myself, and this is driving me crazy!

Thanks for those links - i'll look at the powering down tomorrow as the Airport isn't at the property i'm at at the minute.
However, I can safely say the airport is configured just as in the first link. Like i said, I can remotely access the airport so can verify that from here.
The article regarding the formatting of the disk is also interesting. I have tried three disks, each with the same end result (not being able to remotely connect) but all have been slightly different formatting.
1) 500gb HFS+ formatted, single partition, my timemachine disk
2) 500gb - 450gb HFS+ partition - 50gb FAT32 partition - interestingly, although according to that article two partitions aren't supported - both mounted perfectly when I was connected to my airport locally
3) 8gb FAT32 formatted USB Stick - same thing - fine locally, cannot connect remotely.
Come to think of it - i did read somewhere that the usb port isn't (hot-swappable) so maybe the complete power off and on may solve the problem - but i fail to see how this is different technically to a restart through the software - and doubt very much it will fix the issue - but i will definitely give it a go tomorrow.
Any other idea's or people in the same situation would be greatly appreciated.
Cheers

Airport Extreme USB Disk Sharing over Internet Without MobileMe

Hello
I just wanted to say I read this article http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/769126-airport-extreme-connecting-remotely-wit hout-mobileme/
and wanted to do what the title said.
So, I am able to share the disks fine over the LAN with both Mac and Windows PCs.
My Question is:
-some people have said that to map the disk over network, you need the AirPort utility installed onto the computer. Is this true?
-I am unable to access the disk over the internet.
I am wondering if I should configure the "Disks" then File Sharing section of Airport Utility or whether I should turn to the Advanced> Port Mapping section.
For the File Sharing Section:
1.     What is the username needed when trying to connect to the disk?
2.     Do I need to enable share disk over WAN and also the checkbox to enable the Bonjour service?
3.     What do I need to fill out for WINS server?
4.     Can I just mount the drive using the WAN IP?
Port Mapping:
1.     What exactly is personal file sharing? Do I need to use this to share my hard drive? And is it only compatible with Mac?
2.     Should I use the IP address 10.0.0.1 (default IP of router) as the place where I want to map to?
Thank you and sorry for this long post.

You do not need the AirPort Utility installed on your computer in order to access a shared drive from either a remote location or on the local network. This utility's primary purpose is for administering the base station.
You will need to both enable File Sharing and configure the AirPort for Port Mapping. It is pretty much described step-by-step in the article you referenced in the beginning of your post.
Ok, so let's go over the basic steps to see if anything was missed.
Start the AirPort Utility > Select the AEBSn, and then, note the IP address shown.
Select Manual Setup.
Verify that Connection Sharing = Share a public IP address is selected on the Internet > Internet Connection tab.
Select Disks, and then, select File Sharing.
Verify that both the "Enable file sharing" and "Share disks over WAN" options are enabled.
Verify that Secure Shared Disks = With a disk password. (Recommended)
Verify that AirPort Disks Guest Access = Not allowed. (Recommended)
Select Advanced, and then, select the Port Mapping tab.
Click the plus sign to add a new port mapping.
For Service, select the "Personal File Sharing" option. (Note: This option would only allow Mac clients to access the AirPort Disks. If you want both Macs and PCs to connect, you would need to leave this field at its default value and enter the appropriate SMB ports to the mix of ports to be opened.)
In the Public UDP Port(s) and Public TCP Port(s) boxes, type in a 4-digit port number (e.g., 8888) that you choose. In the Private IP Address box, type the internal IP address of your AEBSn that you wrote down in step 1. In the Private UDP Port(s) and Private TCP Port(s) boxes, type 548. Click Continue.
In the Description box, type a descriptive name like "AirPort Disk File Sharing," and then, click Done.
Click on Update.
To connect to the shared AirPort Disk from a remote location using a Mac:
From the Finder > Go > Connect to Server.
Enter the DynDNS-provided Domain Name or Pubic (WAN-side) IP address of the AEBSn, followed by a colon and the Public port number that you choose in step 11 of the previous procedure. For example: afp://www.mydyndnsdomain.com:8888 or afp://123.456.789.123:8888
Click Connect.
You should be prompted for your user name and password. The user name can be anything you like; the password should be the Disk password for the AEBSn that you created in step 6 previously.
Click Connect.

Regarding the product time capsule...is the modem the same as airport extreme and is the disk drive always running? I'm worried about it lasting for at least five years.

Regarding the product Time Capsule... is the modem the same as the Airport extreme and is the disk drive always running??? I'm worried about it lasting at least five years.

John,
I'd pay good money to bet it wouldn't last 5 years... I don't rate the in built power supply and as for "server grade hard disk" - Hmmmm..... The failure rate of all HD's on the market after 3 year is 60%.
Regards,
Shawn

How can I best make use of all my devices ? Mac mini, Apple TV, AirPort Extreme, airport express, ipad 2 (all purchased in 2011) and an old imac with OS X. I use my iPhones personal hotspot for all Internet.

How can I best make use of all my devices ? Mac mini, Apple TV, AirPort Extreme, airport express, ipad 2 (all purchased in 2011) and an old imac with OS X. I use my iPhones personal hotspot for all Internet.

Maybe you are looking to re-purpose this equipment versus getting rid of it if so, the best thing to do is search the internet for tutorials. And I say this because it's what I would do, there are a lot of tutorials online. Hope you can find good use for them. Worse case scenario if you can't find something right now, package them very nicely and when you come across something unbox and enjoy. I've re-purposed a mac color classic and LOVE IT!!

Macbook Air/Pro difficult to connect to Airport Extreme and external disk

For some unclear reason my MacBook Pro and Air both have difficulty connecting to the Airport Extreme external disk after waking up from sleep. I can't even see the AE in the Airport utility. If I toggle wifi on/off several times it shows up and works. What is odd is that I can always connect with my PC and on the Bootcamp partition of the Macbook Air in Windows 8.1. I'm using OS 10.10, the most recent update and have a latest model AE running updated firmware. Any ideas?

Probably Yosemite issues. I have issues seeing Airports as well. Like you toggling the wifi fixes it. Hopefully 10.10.2 will solve the problem.

Airport extreme and HDD and windows 7 file sharing, Airport extreme and HDD and windows 7 file sharing

Hi there I simply could not launch files sharing at home using airport extreme.

The disk must be formatted HFS+ ie the standard Mac format or it has to be FAT32.. people mention FAT16 but lets face it.. no one is going to go back that far.
NTFS is not readable.. Strongly recommend using HFS+ so format the disk on a Mac .. once plugged into the AE you can access it from windows over network.

Using Airport Utility, OS X Yosemite sometimes does not find my airport extreme and my iphone 6 with 8.1 does find it. Is anyone else experience this glitch? Also I couldn't log on to Apple Support... Thanks

Using Airport Utility, OS X Yosemite sometimes does not find my airport extreme and my iphone 6 with 8.1 does find it. Is anyone else experience this glitch? Also I couldn't log on to Apple Support... Thanks

*Feedback*
"Use the form below to send us your comments. We read all feedback carefully, but please note that we cannot respond to the comments you submit."
http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html
We can complain about Apple's business decisions, but these discussions are user to user talk about possible solutions.
Here are the places to report bugs:
Get an account at
http://developer.apple.com/ then submit a bug report to http://bugreporter.apple.com/
Once on the bugreporter page,
   -- click on New icon
   -- See if you need to attach a log file or log files, clicking on Show instructions for gathering logs. Scroll down to find the area or application that matches the problem.
   -- etc.

Airport extreme and express & apple TV

I have an airport extreme and express & apple TV. I'd like to do the following:
1) Extend the network via the express
2) Enable the express to stream music to the stereo from the apple TV
I am sure someone has figured this out but I can't find the answer...
Thank you

Firstly, the easiest bit (although I don't believe you need to do this):
I would try "downgrading" the Extreme station's network type to only b/g (excluding n entirely), but I don't see that option in the radio settings anymore
You will get additional settings if you hold down the option key while browsing the radio settings drop down menu.
Moving on: Unfortunately a dropped connections seems to be a problem with umpteen causes and not only is it difficult to troubleshoot with someone in a forum it can also be made even more difficult because many problems are associated with network settings on a router that the person who is trying to help is unfamiliar with.
However you seem to be convinced your problems arise when your express is running which may narrow things down a little if correct, if not it may actually lead us away from the answer to your issue.
Is it the kind of security I'm running? Should I try WEP or... none at all?
I use WPA and have no problems (password = 8 Characters)
Should I attach it a different way? Perhaps manually set it to "participate in a WDS network" or "extend a wireless network?
I have my expresses set to participate in a WDS network, but that's because I use them for other things other than itunes, I would have thought 'join a network' would be fine.
You could check that all your devices are using independent IP addresses and all are using the same subnet. You could also check that no two devices have the same mac address, I've been told a million times this can't happen, but I've seen it. You may be wise to check these things before and after your devices have been 'kicked off the network", you may even want to write them down to see if any are changing.

Using a current Time Capsule with Airport Extreme and Airport Express Older generation

I am looking to achieve a fast local network that allows streaming of music and video. I have bought a Time Capsule to replace the Telstra router (Thomson Router) by linking it using ethernet cable and then set up a network that also uses and older airport extreme and express router (g standard).
It would appear that the local network speed is slow - how can I assess the connection speed in the local network - both wireless and for ethernet? I believe that there is a speed indication on my two older macs running OSX 10.5 but not in OSX 10.6. Is there a tool to assess the local network speed?
The current set up works less well than previously only using the Thomson router, so the initial results are very disappointing. Not even streaming music seems to work and it stutters to halt.
I had expected that the dual band functionality would allow fast local connections where needed. What do I need to change?
Thanks you.
Tom

Hi Bob,
The two old airports (extreme and express) are connected wirelessly to the time capsule base station with the following use:
- round extreme base station supports a printer only - remote WDS indicated in set up
- airport express supports remote speakers - set up does not indicate WDS status
I noticed in another note to provide a second network name to 5GHz network and connect the modern computers, ipad (seems to be able to connect) and apple tv to the 5 GHz network, leaving the other on the separate network. Also the two computers, apart from the laptops are connected via ethernet to use the GB ethernet, but I am not sure whether that speed is achieved or whether a firewire connection between the two would be better. use examples are:
1. Wirelessly I am trying to use three speakers - computer, apple tv and express - to have to listen to the same music in three rooms.
2. Over ethernet, I am using the the powermac as a file server to mac mini, but would like to be bale to access photo libraries (both Iphoto and Aperture) ideally over the network. It works well with starting the powermac in target disk mode but seems slow over what should be a very fast ethernet network.
The connection with the service providers router and time capsule is bridged - seems to be the only way of providing internet access - however, it also seems to allow for shared devices to be visible across the two time capsule and the Thomson network.
Obviously, this will need some more experimentation but any input would be appreciated.
Thank you and regards,
Tom
PS> Timezone wise I am currently living in Australia - must change my profile one day.....

Help With Airport Extreme and External Hard Drive

I just purchased the Airport Extreme and I couldn't have been happier. I have attached my western digital external hard drive, but I have run into a slight problem/dilemma which I'm hoping someone who is apple savvy can help me out.
I live in a house with a couple of other guys and so I put all of my movies and media onto the hard drive so we can stream it throughout the house, but how do I make sure that someone won't accidently delete the files (The copies on the hard drive are the only ones I have)? I have tried to right click "get info" and change the sharing & permissions properties on the folders that I don't want deleted, but it doesn't save the changes or even allow me to select another option other than Read & Write. I formated the hard drive with the disk utility before I connected it to the AirPort so I know that it has nothing to do with the format of the drive. I also tried to create different user accounts for each roomate so that they could view the files (Read Only) but I get an error message explaining that if I continue, the contents of the hard drive will not be accessible. I'm sure its something simple but I'm obviously missing it.
Thanks!

Airport Utility under Disks/File Sharing has guest access rights.

Airport Extreme / USB Disk - please help!

I have an Airport Extreme which is connected to my PC running Vista, and provides wireless access to my iMac.
Recently bought a new 2TB external hard drive. Partitioned it 3 ways - one partition was set up as HFS+ to back up my Mac using Time Machine, the other two partitions were set up as FAT32 to back up the PC and provide additional storage that would be accessible to both.
After formatting, connected to the Airport extreme, and was able to see all 3 partitions of the drive listed. Set it up to enable file sharing secured with accounts. Was able to get the Mac to connect to the drive and run Time Machine flawlessly over wireless. However, whenever I access the other disks through the PC, it is intolerably slow, with most attempts to move files onto the disk failing or timing out. Not sure what might be wrong - tried turning off Windows Firewall, but that doesn't help. Tried all different disk security settings too. Really want to be able to use this disk on both the PC and the MAC without having to disconnect from my network and hook it up directly. can anyone offer some advice or suggestions as to how I can get Windows to play nice with the disk connected to Airport?

FundRopher wrote:
one partition was set up as HFS+ to back up my Mac using Time Machine
I hate to have to tell you this, but backing-up that way is "iffy" and +*not supported by Apple.+* See [Using Time Machine with an Airport Extreme Air Disk|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Airport.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).
This forum, and the Time Machine forums, have many, many posts about it working for some number of days, weeks, or even months, then the backups suddenly turn up corrupted, often beyond repair.

Basic problem with connecting to disk via Airport Extreme - No Disks Found

I've a Lacie BigDisk (500GB) which connects fine via USB or firewire directly to my Macs (HFS). When I plug it into the AirPort Extreme, the Airport Utility shows the disk as connected, and I've ticked File Sharing, with "Secure Shared Disks" set to "With base station password".
The AirPort Disk Utility is set to Automatically Discover AirPort disks and to Show AirPort Disks in the menu bar. It sees the Airport Extreme, and the action is set to "Connect with Password".
When I close the AirPort Disk Utility I can see the disk icon in the top menu bar, and clicking on this provides a menu with (greyed out) "No Disks Found", and the option to "Open Airport Disk Utility..."
Any ideas - it's driving me mad!
Thanks
Andrew

I am having the same problem with a Lacie 320 GB HD as well with my AEBS. I can't get it to stay recognized in Leopard. I have gotten it to work but only for 10 minutes then I have to unplug and start over. I know that it works fine in Tiger but I am having troubles with my drive "disappearing" with Leopard. From what I can tell others have had this problem but I am not finding a solution. Some have said going back to 7.1.1 works however my AEBS is 2 months old and the oldest firmware it has in the airport utility is 7.2. I have also found old versions on the apple website most look for an intel chipset which I do not have I am running a powerbook G4, also my friend on a new MacbookPro couldn't get them to work at all. Air disk is an amazing concept when am I going to be able to use it?

Apple TV, Airport Extreme and Disk Sharing

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