Dual-band Time Capsule is, practically, useless, only if...

Hi everyone!
It goes like this: I bought a dual-band 2TB Time Capsule. I configured it and gave "2.4Ghz" as the name for the 2.4Ghz network. Then I went to "More Options" and named "5Ghz" the... 5Ghz network. They show up in the wireless networks list and seem to work fine, but...
Even though I put "5Ghz" above "2.4Ghz" in the preferred networks list ("System Preferences/Network/Advanced") the laptops (one MacBook Pro and one Air) always connect first to the "2.4Ghz" network. Only if I remove it all together for the network list do they connect by default to "5Ghz". And even so, sometimes I find myself on the "2.4Ghz", with no logical explanation, as it is no longer in the "known" network list. The only reason I bought a dual-band Time Capsule was to keep my compatible hardware on the 5Ghz band, for maximum speed, but still to be able to offer a wireless connection to older hardware (like an iPhone).
But it's not working out, does it... It only seems normal to me that 5Ghz compatible hardware connects always to the faster network and I really don't understand why OS X let's faster hardware to connect to a slower wi-fi connection.
So, what can I do to force the Pro and the Air to always connect to the "5Ghz" named... 5Ghz network? Did I miss something when configuring?
And one other thing: if I don't give a separate name to the 5Ghz network and, theoretically, let Time Capsule do all the management, the laptops still don't use the 5Ghz band, which they should. At least in my logic...
Thanks.

Well I did that, but on the Air the first thing it did - after I removed the password from the keychain and the preferred network list - was to connect to the 2.4Ghz network... :)) I connected manually to the 5Ghz network and restarted the system again. This time in the keychain appears the 5Ghz network and it did connect to it by default.
No such issues on the MacBook Pro, but somehow I feel it's a matter of time until they're gonna connect to the g network again...
The management of the dual-band Time Capsule is very weak... We should have had the option to give a different password for the 5Ghz network from the beginning...
Message was edited by: szlaeyer

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New dual-band time capsule but computers only access 2.4ghz channel

Just set up a new dual-band Time Capsule (bought it prior to the latest release though). Everything is working so far - Time Machine, wireless internet - but I noticed that both computers in the apartment (2 Macbook Pros - one running 10.5.6, the other 10.6.1) are only accessing the wireless network on Channel 2 (2.4Ghz). And on the laptop running Snow Leopard, I'm only seeing transmit rates of between 50-100. On the Leopard laptop I see up to 130. Doesn't this suggest that the computers are only using the "b/g" band and not the "n" band? When I option-click on the airport menu icon on the SL laptop it does say PHY mode is 802.11n, but I have no idea what PHY mode means frankly.
I feel as though the laptops should be connecting on a much higher channel and seeing much higher transmit rates (closer to 300?), but I'm not at all well-versed in these wireless realms. Any help would be much appreciated...
thanks
Tom

Welcome to the discussions, Thomas!
+"And on the laptop running Snow Leopard, I'm only seeing transmit rates of between 50-100. On the Leopard laptop I see up to 130. Doesn't this suggest that the computers are only using the "b/g" band and not the "n" band?"+
If you were receiving "g" rates, the number would be 54 or less depending on the distance from the router to the computer, so you are seeing some "n" speeds from the 2.4 GHz network. I believe the default setting for this "guest" band is 802.11n (802.11b/g compatible).
Would suggest that you contact Apple as a number of users have reported that either the main network or guest network is not functioning correctly.
The default setting on the main network is 802.11n at 5 GHz, so if you have a good connection and are relatively close to the router, you should see speeds in the 200-270 range.
Many users assume that 5 GHz is a stronger signal, but the facts are that 5 GHz signals are absorbed by walls and obstructions much more quickly than 2.4 GHz signals, so depending on your home construction, distance from router, etc., the 5 GHz signal may not be strong enough. Your computers will connect to the strongest signal. If that's the 2.4 GHz band, that's where they will connect.

Cannot connect Airport Express N to Dual Band Time Capsule at N speed

Long time reader, first time poster. I am usually pretty good at solving my problems without posting, but I have been attempting to solve this problem for a while without success, so here it goes.
I have a dual band Time Capsule that I want to run at 5Ghz N and 2.4GHz b/g/n (using the OPTION key when selecting "Radio Mode" to select this option). This runs fine on its own. However, I also want to set-up a new Airport Extreme N to run as an extender for the 5Ghz network, and here is where I have problems.
I have already set-up the 5Ghz network to be under a separate SSID. I have also selected to use Wide Channels, Multicast Rate=High, and Transmit Rate=100%. I have also been sure to make sure that I have selected "Allow this network to be extended" in the TC. As of yet, I have not even attempted any WEP/WAP key security, and the SSID is visible.
When I attempt to connect the AEx as a repeater (using the "Extend a wireless network" option on the AEx) the AEx will not see the 5Ghz network name. It will only allow me to select the 2.4Ghz SSID, even though I have a distinct SSID for the 5Ghz.
Note: both my iMac and my AppleTV can see and connect to the 5Ghz network. I am attempting to set-up the AEx right next to the TC before attempting to see how faraway I can move it.
I have additionally tried to set-up the AEx to repeat the 2.4Ghz network. In b/g/n mode it will repeat, however it only ever seems to get the g speeds. If I set-up the TC to only do N networks (ie one SSID as the 5Ghz N Network and one SSID 2.4Ghz networks) the other clients (the iMac and the AppleTV) can see and connect to each, however the AEx won't connect at all.
What am I doing wrong? I feel that I have been very thorough with my approach. Any help would be very welcome.

Welcome to the discussions!
I don't have a solid answer yet to your issue, but would offer a few comments that might help sort things out.
I'm confused by your statement that you are able to extend the 2.4 GHz network, because the dual band TC does not allow the guest network to be extended. Check AirPort Utility - Manual Setup. Click the Wireless tab. I don't have a dual band TC, but I believe if you click the Options button, you will see more info about extending.
While there is a check box next to "Allow this network to be extended" for the main network, there is not a check box for the "Guest" network. It's not there, or least it's not there in the guide that I'm looking at.
I suspect that your computer was picking up the 2.4 GHz network from the TC, not from your Extreme. To verify this, open AirPort Utility again and click on Manual Setup for the TC. On the summary page, note the MAC address for wireless on the TC. Now, do the same thing for the Extreme.
Use your computer now to check things. Hold down the option key and click on the Airport icon at the top of the screen. The MAC address of the device that you are connected to will be displayed.
Have you tried to move the Extreme to a more remote location? You note that you have the two devices, TC and Extreme very close together. As a test, position the Extreme approximately half way between the TC and the area that you want to extend to and see if you can connect with your computer. Check to see if your computer is connecting to the Extreme or the TC by holding down the option key as above.
You have probably already done this, but check on the setup for the Extreme using AirPort Utility - Manual Setup - Wireless tab. There is a check box either on the Wireless page or the Options page to "Allow wireless clients". This must be checked for wireless clients to be able to connect to the the Extreme.
Post back with your findings and we'll try to figure this out.

Dual Band Time Capsule - networking issues

I upgraded from an original Time Capsule that had been running successfully on the 5Ghz band with firmware 7.4.1.
I changed my original TC out and setup everything from scratch so that the DB TC was connected to my cable modem and provided the DHCP leases. Set it to provide N only services on 5Ghz and b/g on 2.4 (I tried the automatic and the manual settings during troubleshooting). Guest networking was turned on and was serving up on the 2.4Ghz channel.
Next I moved my original TC to another room, extended the new DB TC on the 5Ghz network and everything seemed fine.
But then I noticed that whenever I started to run a TM backup (over airport or wireless) that eventually my original TC would seem to go deaf. I could not access the internet through it. However, Airport utility could still see it. On further examination I realized it had lost its IPv4 DHCP address and was only displaying an IPv6 address in the Airport Utility.
After many isolation steps and no success, I decided to move the old TC into the same room as the new DB, connect them via ethernet and turn off the wireless on my old TC altogether to prevent interference. That seemed to work. Until a TM backup was kicked off (btw - all backups right now are to the original TC not the new DB).
Finally, I disconnected the original TC altogether and just let the DB TC run everything (but still I was not backing up to it). Now the new TC by itself seems to stop allowing access to the internet. Internal network is fine. What is really odd, is that rebooting the DB TC sometimes doesn't seem to help. However, reseting the cable modem does (for a little while).
I switched back to my original TC now and everything is working flawlessly again including being able to run TM backups to it and no loss of internet access.
Any ideas? I have already exchanged it once. I have reloaded firmware (7.4.1). I have set up everything from scratch. And still it is really flaky.
Thanks in advance.

5 GHz signals are capable of faster speeds, but you always have to give up something to gain something else. In the case of 5 GHz, in order to gain higher speed, you must give up distance and penetration power with 5 GHz.
Bottom line...5 GHz signals are significantly weaker than 2.4 GHz signals. Your Mac is looking for the strongest, best quality signal, so it connects to the stronger 2.4 GHz band at the upstairs location.
For most of us, 5 GHz is pretty much of a line-of-sight deal. If your Mac has a clear look at the Time Capsule, and it is relatively close to the Time Capsule, it will likely connect to 5 GHz.
Otherwise, if the signal must pass through a few walls, or a ceiling (which is much thicker than a wall) the Mac is very likely going to connect at 2.4 GHz.
If you take the Mac downstairs and give it a clear look at the Time Capsule from 10-15 feet or so, does it connect at 5 GHz?

I just purchased Time Capsule today. I ONLY want to use it as an external drive. I do not need it for Time Machine. I can see the TC in my finder, but when I click on a file or video to drag and drop, I get message that TC can't be modified. Help please

I just purchased Time Capsule today. I ONLY want to use it as an external drive. I do not need it for Time Machine. I need to free up room on my computer. As of now, I can't even load updates. I can see the TC in my finder, but when I click on a file or video to drag and drop, I get message that TC can't be modified. Help please!

I agree with Kappy.. passing files and especially via wireless is slow as slow.
Just need to be sure your TC is the new AC model??
And the OS on the computer is Lion?
Have you completed the setup of the TC via the utility? You do still need to get internet via the TC so it has to be plugged into the main router..
Give us the full picture of the network.
Then we can help you get into it.. whether you should put your files on it is another question.

My time capsule says it has only 75gb free space but when i go through finder to it there is nothing there. trash is empty by the way.

my time capsule says it has only 75gb free space but when i go through finder to it there is nothing there. trash is empty by the way. i had to delete some things of it as it didnt have enough room and i was backing up too much irrelevant stuff. now it wants to do a complete back up - about 300gb but there is only 75 free. WT

Ok first what u have to do is remove the Time Capsule from the time machine software and make sure the computer does not back up to the time machine. Next go into disk Utility and find the time capsule. Once found, reformat the drive. Then start using it. If you cannot find the drive in Disk Utility, then open a finder window and find the drive in the sidebar. Right click it and find a button within the drop down menu that will allow you to reformat the drive. If you are forced to go to finder and you right-click the drive, you may have to explore all the options within the drop down menu to find the reformat option.

Time Capsule by default backup only data files and excludes program files like Photoshop, Lightroom, and MS Office, etc... right? or do I have to exclude manually?

Time Capsule by default backup only data files and excludes program files like Photoshop, Lightroom, and MS Office, etc... right since if crash I can reinstall and not want to take up disk space for applications that I have CD to reinstall? Or do I have to manually exclude these?

Time Machine will back all files except files like caches, trash or temp files, you can select with file you would like to exclude by going into the Time Machine preferences.http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427

How can I delete everything from my Time Capsule? Disk Utility only gives me the choices of First Aid and Restore.

How can I delete everything from my Time Capsule? Disk Utility only gives me the choices of First Aid and Restore.

How can I delete everything from my Time Capsule?
Disk Utility would be used for an internal hard drive on your Mac, or for a drive that was attached directly using USB or FireWire.
The Time Capsule is a network drive. Disk Utility cannot be used for this type of drive.
Open Macintosh HD > Applications > Utiltiies > AirPort Utility
Click Manual Setup
Click the Disks icon
Click the Disks tab below the icon
Click Erase
The "Quick Erase" option will only take a minute or so. This would be fine if you plan to keep the Time Capsule yourself.
If you plan to sell the Time Capsule, you would want to use a more secure erase, like "Zero Out", which will likely take 4-6 hours or so since everything on the drive will be replaced with zeros.

How do I set up my time capsule as an internal only network.

I currently have a time capsule that was attached via ethernet cable to my wireless router (Brighthouse network) and worked fine with Time Machine.
I want to disconect it from the router (no connection via ethernet cable or wireless) and configure it to be a separate network I can connet to and use to access the Time Capsule hard drive. So I want to establish a wirless base station that creates a new internal only network, not connected to the internet, that gives me access to the hard drive using Time Capsule.
I recognize that when I connet to the Timne Capsule in this configuration I would have to select it and would not be conected to the other wireless network at my house or to the internet.
Thanks for the help

Just take the TC and reset to factory..
Setup again with no WAN connection.. but leave the TC in router mode.. it will kick up a bunch of errors about having no WAN connection.. just ignore them all.
Create a wireless network.. try and use an IP address range not used by your main network.. just to help stop confusion.
When you swap between the two it should be able to work fine.

How can I set my time capsule to back-up only once a day?

How can I set my time capsule to only back-up once a day. It appears to be backing up several times a day. Not sure there is a set schedule for the back-ups and they take a great deal of time; over an hour each.

tdenny2 wrote:
Not sure there is a set schedule for the back-ups and they take a great deal of time; over an hour each.
Then something is wrong. Changing the schedule will only deal with the symptom (and give up one of the better features of Time Machine's usually quick and unobtrusive hourly backups).
See if the size of the backups makes sense, considering what you've changed since the previous one. If it seems much too large, that may be the problem. See #D4 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting for some common culprits and ways to see just what's going on.
If the sizes seem reasonable, see #D2 in the same link for things that can cause extra-slow backups.

2TB Time Capsule suddenly full after only a few months?

Hello all,
Apologies in advance if this is a question that's already been answered. I've been searching through threads, but didn't seem to see it.
I have a late 2009 iMac (27 inch, 2.8 GHz i7, 4GB Ram) that had a hard drive affected by the Seagate Recall. About the same time I was alerted to this, the Firewire drive I'd been using for timemachine backups reached it's capacity. I figured it was time to get a bigger backup drive and went out and bought a 2TB Time Capsule. This was on November 5th of 2012.
After making a bootabe clone of hard drive (just as a 2nd backup) I set up my time capsule. I did the first backup via ethernet, and then, per posts that I found on the forum,( I set it up so that it was connected to my existing wireless router via ethernet, and let my iMac back up to it wirelessly over the home network. Once or twice, when I've changed large amounts of data, I've reconnected the iMac to the timecapusle via the ethernet cable and let it backup that way. But overall, the backups have happened over the air. My home user folder is aprox 632 GBs.
I also had tried to set up my macbook (Intel, late 2006) to back up to the same timecapsule, but was having issues and ended up just turning time machine off since I haven't had time to trouble shoot them. That macbook (which only has 60 gig harddrive on it) has at least one full backup on it's part of the Time Capsule, but not many more.
So basically my setup looks like this:
Cable Modem connected to Belkin Wireless Router via Ethernet
2TB TC connected to Belkin Router via Ethernet in Bridge mode.
iMac connecting to TC via the wireless network created by router. (with the exception of a few times)
Today, I was surprised that, only a couple months later, that Time Machine told me that the Time Capsule was full, and that it had deleted older backups to make room. My earliest back up is now Dec 6th 2012.
Previously, my 1 TB firewire drive lasted several years before it started having to delete older backups.
Am I right to think this is out of the ordinary? And if it isn't, can anyone point me in the right direction to try and figure out why this is ocurring. I'm not really sure what the first step in trouble shooting the issue would be.
Thanks so much in advance,
avi

Thanks for the quick respons djcastaldo.
I'm not 100% sure what you mean by a "virtual machine"... but I'm guessthing that means I'm not doing it..
I do have about 64 gigs in my dropbox folder... but the day to day changes to the files in there are fairly small (mostly updates to word processing files as I move between computers). I don't think that would be the issue.
Would the best way to try and find the culrprit file be to just scan through my home folder and look for large files with recent "modified" dates?
Thanks so much,
avi

How to setup Time Capsule for wireless backup only

I have a new Time Capsule that I want to set up for wireless backups of both my Macbook Air (with Time Machine) and a Windows Vista laptop. I have an existing home wireless network with my Att/Uverse tv and internet service. I do not want to disturb that network/internet setup.
How do I set up the time capsule to use it for wireless backup only? When I start the Airport utility setup, the first thing it asks is do I want to 1) set up new network, 2) replace existing router, or 3) join existing network.

Thanks. That got me the green light and a message that everything was set up properly. It started it's first Time Machine backup and everything looked good for a while. But now I have a new problem.
The backup failed twice. The first time it had a message that it could no longer find the time capsule, so I had to reset it and go thru the setup procedures again. Started backup again overnight, and this morning it tells me that it failed again. But this time I still have my green light, and the message is "a network problem may have interfered with the backup.
I don't know what else to do with the setup to get it to work. Right now it has started backing up again on its own, so I'll leave it going one more time. (I should tell you that all of this is occurring on my Mac. I have not even started setting it up on the Vista machine. I want to make sure it works on the Mac first). Any advice from anyone who had the same problems with setup would be appreciated.

I want to use the ethernet connection from my new iMac to my Time Capsule. It seems only the Wifi is seen by either device. Ive connected the Time Capsule to the iMac. How can I get the iMac to use the wired connection

I want to connect my iMac to my Time Capsule using Ethernet. I have them connected via an Ethernet cable, but only WiFi seems to be working. How can I specify the Ethernet connection instead of WiFi? Thanks
Welked

Go to preferences, network and see if ethernet is indicated. Be sure it shows a green dot. Also be sure it is at the top of the list (above WiFi). If not click on the the wheel at the bottom and set service order.

Already have wireless network, need help for set up of time capsule for wired backup only.

Hello all -
I have a time capsule that plugs into wall and used a wireless network to back up computer. It would always mess up internet afterwards so I would unplug the time capsule and reset internet until the next back up. my time capsule now will not link into my computer. It just flashes amber. Spoke with apple and was told to come on here and ask for help for setting up time capsule for a wired backup only and to mention that I have a wireless network.
Hope any of this makes sense.
Thank You!!

Spoke with apple and was told to come on here and ask for help
Really? The paid professionals at Apple told you to post on a forum where users.....just like you....are trying to answer questions? We'll try to help, though.
For starters, please tell us the make and model of the modem/router that you have now that is providing your wireless network.

Time capsule for back-up only. How do you turn off the flashing amber light?

I am using time capsule to back up my work computer. I use internet through an ethernet cable, no wireless (it's my desktop work computer!), so don't need the airport - just back up on time machine.
I figured out (although there is NO information in the time capsule manual) how to set up the time capsule to wirelessly back up my computer, but because I don't have it plugged into the modem, and I haven't set up an airport connection, it blinks amber at me. How do I make it know that it is as set up as I want it to be, so it will be a steady green? Should I edit the airport utility options so that wireless network mode and/or router mode are "OFF"? If I set wireless mode to off, will my computer still "see" the time capsule and back up using time machine?
This might just be finicky on my part, but the flashing light is annoying me!

If you set up the Time Capsule to back up wirelessly, it functions only as a wireless hard drive...with no routing capabilities at all. In other words, the Ethernet ports on the Time Capsule are not enabled, even though you might have an Ethernet cable connected.
Try opening Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > AirPort Utility
Click on the Time Capsule icon, then click directly on the amber dot
AirPort Utility will display a message with information about why the amber dot is flashing. It might be something like a message that a firmware update is available for the Time Capsule.
Should I edit the airport utility options so that wireless network mode and/or router mode are "OFF"?
No, since the Time Capsule will no longer connect wirelessly if you do this.

Dual-band Time Capsule is, practically, useless, only if...

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