Seeking advice regarding networked attached drive

I am considering two options to share our family's EyeTV library, 1080i home videos, photos, and iTunes music over our home network of several Macs. We have one G4 Mac Mini running OS 10.4.8 (the last OS that runs Classic), but only OS 10.6.x / 10.7.x (when avail) systems will use the networked drive. I will NOT put Time Machine on the networked drive using option #1, but I might consider TM on a NAS:
(1) AEBS with an OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro single HD enclosure + 2 or 3 GB HD.
(2) Synology NAS, such as DS411slim or DS410 with four drives in Synology Hybrid RAID. (Synology claims to have full Time Machine compatibility; Synology owners seem to agree.)
I have done lots of reading on both options and I am aware that risks/problems exist with each approach. Option #2 will probably be about twice as expensive as #1, but it will offer much greater capacity and peace-of-mind RAID redundancy. Our home is hard-wired, and I do not plan on using WIFI often.
Future-proofing is about guesswork and hearing what people have to say. I welcome the Forum's recommendations, and any other ideas people have.

MacHound wrote:
Yes, I hear you re: Time Machine. I actually do most of my backing up with SuperDuper because of all the TM issues. But there's something to be said for redundancy, and hourly backups do add redundancy beyond bootable backups.
Regarding the main question of (1) versus (2), do you have any advice?
Backing-up via an Airport Extreme is still "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). Nobody knows what may be coming, but there's no indication it will be.
A third option, which I didn't mention, is to stick to local drives only, then do wake-on-LAN when I need HD contents on another Mac. That's probably the simplest and cheapest solution.
Yes, that's the simplest and most reliable, as in the last paragraph of my previous post. See #22 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum) for setup instructions to back up laptop Macs.

Similar Messages

Seeking advice regarding the purchase of an external hard drive for audio

Hi,
Two questions:
1. I have 2 firewire ports on my iMac. Currently I have an Edirol FA-66 plugged into one of these and the other is free. These ports appear to be identical. Can I plug a firewire 800 hard drive into these or am I limited to firewire 400?
2. Is there any practical difference between a firewire 400 aud a USB 2 hard drive?
Thanks

rainguitar wrote:
I'm assuming, by your response, that there is little point in getting a FW800 drive so I will get a FW400 drive.
That's a toss-up, depending on your future plans and current budget. My iMac is FW400-only, but I just ordered a USB/FW800 external enclosure. A little future-proofing, and the price difference didn't break my budget. OTOH, an essentially identical unit with USB/FW400 costs $30 less, and will have exactly the same performance on a FW400 machine (or on any iMac connected to an FA-66).
USB/FW400 @ $50: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198004
USB/FW800 @ $80: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817198006
That FA-66 might be just what I'm looking for -- not a pro, just a hobbyist, like yourself. Any recommendations on vendors? I've had good luck in the past with MusiciansFriend -- but I haven't shopped for musical electronics in years.
Looby

ITunes hangs when syncing large files to network attached drives, ideas?

I've done a lot of research on my problem and have come up blank so far. This is my setup and situation. I use a macbook pro and iTunes 10, but since I use a small SSD, I do not have much room to keep iTunes media on my disk. So, I use an external USB drive, formatted HFS+ J, accessible over my AirPort Extreme as a networked drive and am trying to keep my media there by setting my iTunes Media folder location to my "/Volumes/<drive name>/iTunes/iTunes Media" under iTunes>Preferences>Advanced. For the most part this works, but there are a few gotchas that are making this setup unusable.
The biggest problem is if I try to sync a large file (for example a 250MB app) with iTunes to my networked storage, the culprit almost always being a large iOS app in Mobile Application folder, iTunes will hang with the spinning color wheel, and in the toolbar shows "Not Responding". This also hangs the Finder. After this situation, I pretty much have to force quit everything and reboot my machine to get the Finder and iTunes back to health.
So, I thought that I would try keeping the iOS apps on my local drive and just move my music out to a network drive. But iTunes doesn't allow any granular configuration of the sort (big FAIL on Apple's part), and I've read up that iTunes does not play nice with symbolic links or else I would keep the iTunes Media location set to my local drive and symlink the Music folder out to my network drive.
So, given that 1) I don't have enough space to keep everything local, 2) trying to keep everything on NAS causes my machine to fail when syncing my iPhone or trying to consolidate my iTunes library because of large file transfers over the network making thing go insane, and 3) iTunes doesn't easily let you manage your library with symlinks, any ideas on what I should do?

i assume you are connecting wirelessly to the AEBS, correct ?
as a test, run an ethernet cable from your Mac to one of the LAN ports of the AEBS (you might want to turn off airport on your machine), then try again.
does the problem persist ?

Question - Need Advice Regarding Second Hard Drive On HP Pavilion dv7t-4100 Notebook PC

Hi,
I currently have a HP Pavilion dv7t-4100 Notebook PC, and my hard drive failed (luckily while still under warranty!). So I contacted HP support and they are in the process of sending me a replacement hard drive, so that I may install it. When I opened the back of the notebook, I realized that a second hard drive could be installed, if desired. I would be interested in doing this! My current primary drive was (and will be again) a Toshiba 1 TB Internal hard drive Serial ATA-300 2.5" 5400 rpm, model MK1059GSM. I understand (from reading a previous post) that for the second hard drive, I will need to purchase a "2nd HDD Caddy & Cable for HP dv7-4000, dv7-5000, dv7t SE" (the purchase link the tech in the other post referred to was http://www.newmodeus.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=345); and now I need to decide on the size (and other stats) of the hard drive that I will buy to install and used as the secondary drive. The HP customer service rep I spoke with on the phone about my primary drive replacement said that it is usually recommended to not go any higher (in capacity) than the primary drive, for the second drive, to ensure a more "stable" system (but I am not sure about the level of"technical" knowledge he has about the inner workings of the notebooks). However, from my upgrading experiences with desktop PCs, I was usually able to go as high in capacity as I could/desired; as long as the physical size of the drive was the same, and it was compatible with my system. And I usually did choose to go with a larger capacity second drive, as this was where most of my data and media files were stored (with the primary being used for mostly operating system and system files). This is my first time "upgrading" a Notebook, so I wanted to check with the techs here on the board- would it be a problem for me to go with a secondary drive larger than my primary drive's 1TB capacity? Also, are there any other factors to consider and keep in mind when selecting a second hard drive? Any advice and replies will be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for your help with this! -Brian

You should be able to go as high as 2TB.
I also own a,(Older), DV7 notebook which has dual drive capability.
I bought my caddy from the place recommended and got everything needed including screws !
I matched the capacity in mine with an exact same hard drive and have never had a problem.
Minor battery life noticable but that was it.
Your system BIOS is what will hold you back from say a 3TB drive.
You can go to HP site and check the specs on your model and find out for 100 % sure.
HP Support & Drivers | United States
I would recommend doing what I did and match the drive exactly.
Good day !

Regarding network adapter driver

i'd formatted my laptop (hp-2000 notebook pc) and i am unable to find device drivers like bluetooth,network adapters etc. Please tell me from where i can get the correct drivers that can run on my system without any difficulty

Hi:
What is the full model number of your HP 2000?
There are hundreds of variations of HP 2000 notebooks and we can't help much without knowing that info.

Seeking advice regarding Time Dimension - Correction and Customization

Dear all:
Situation
1. We have a measure called HTD, Half Year to Date, which aggregates 6 months worth of data. However, I just realized that the previous consultants set HTD at LEVEL = "Week". It works fine but I feel that this naming convention is confusing, and would like to rename HTD's LEVEL.
2. We have 4 more additional periods after period 12 for adjustment purpose. What is the good practice to have a year with 16 periods?
Data
Current LEVEL for Half Year to Date is named "Week". I would like to rename this to something like "HalfYr"
200x.01 - 12 are regular periods
200x.13 - 16 are additional periods
Question
1. If I go to SQL's back end and rename my LEVEL, and then update my Time dimension, is this going to pose a problem to my historical data?
2. I would like to include additional 4 more periods to sync with BW, but at the same time not confuse my BPC users in running reports at month of December. In other words, how do I integrate the 16 period time dimension design into the concept of "1 yr = 12 months (periods)"?

Tim:
Sorry for the late reply.
We are running BPC 5.1 SP3 and SQL 2003
Yes, MONTH, QUARTER, YEAR are used for LEVEL property, and the only irrelevance is HALF YEAR which has WEEK in LEVEL property.
I think perhaps a separate data source makes sense... Have you handled any case like this before and how did you manage the "additional" periods?
Thank you! Have a great day!
Sincerely,
Brian

Poor Performance using Videos on Networked Attached Drive (NAS)

Finally I got tired of trying to keep all 5 of our home computers syncronized together. The NAS box solves many of the problems.
Two issues have arrived. First the playback of my videos from the NAS seems to robbed my CPU performance. Song files perform just fine. Anyone have this issue? My NAS and all my PCs use Fast Ethernet.
Second how do continue to buy songs and videos from one PC while keeping the iTunes libraires updated on the other four? Does iTunes have an option to "scan" for new music added to your target folder? This seems to be a brain dead need.

I have the same request. I have a NAS arriving in the mail Tuesday and want to share the iTunes library with one other PC.
Would purchasing a macmini and hooking it up to the NAS work? I would then have the Macmini point to the NAS and share the library. This seems in theory it should work.

Network storage drive...where can I learn about these?

I have so many questions, and frankly, the answers I've seen looking (briefly, admittedly) around these threads scare me. Gee, Wally, what ever happened to Apple as the computer you didn't have to know computer programming to use?
Now, before you all get your panties in a bunch telling me that I'm responsible for knowing how to use my hardware, I know...and I do want to know.
So what I want to know now is how can I learn about the various types of "shares", and what they mean for hooking up a network drive for backup, etc.
I have a WD 1TB drive which I believe uses "SMB", whatever that is. It's got two folders on it currently, "Public" which I can access, and "WD Backup", which I can't. I also can't seem to use it as a Time Machine drive, which is what I want to do with it. And, or course, I can't re-format it, which I'd love to do as my wife hates the folder designations on it, and would like to have one folder called "iMac Backup" on it.
Answers which don't involve Terminal will get extra points, but I've dealt with Terminal before, so take your best shot. And ask for clarification if you need it. Thanks.

Unfortunately, networking and file-sharing aren't quite so simple in part because there's decades of history and dozens of companies involved in getting it into the current state. If you want dead-simple, you can get an Apple Time Capsule or AirPort with an external drive and be done with it. However, if you really want the most from network storage, you'll probably want to read up...
WD make a number of drive, some network-attached, some not. We'll assume that you have one of their basic consumer network-attached drives.
"SMB" stands for "Server Message Block" protocol and it was the local area network file-sharing protocol developed for Windows for Workgroups circa 1992 (it was later renamed CIFS - Common Internet File System - by Microsoft in 1996 because of the rising popularity of the Internet, despite the difficulty in getting it to work in anything but a small local network). SMB/CIFS is still widely used today for Microsoft Windows networks, though much of the equipment that serves those files are built on Linux or FreeBSD and not Windows.
Access to shares on an SMB server (such as your hard disk) is controlled through a configuration utility provided with the drive or via a web application built into the device (that you access through your browser). Consult your manual. Generally speaking, however, SMB servers offer different ways of identifying whether or not you can access a share: 1) based on the computer connecting (in which case, everyone is considered the same user), or 2) based on a username/password combo. Generally a server will only operate in one mode. Shared directories can also allow or deny "guest" access (access without a password). All of this should be configurable through the drive utility or web application which you access with your web browser. Generally, an SMB server can only operate in one mode.
It sounds like the Public directory is configured to allow guest access, and I'm guessing that "WD Backup" is a share that's password-protected and intended to be used with Western-Digital's own software of the same name. You should be able to add and create new directories as necessary through the provided utility or the web interface.
You are correct, you cannot use Time Machine with an SMB file-sharing service. Time Machine will require AFP (Apple Filing Protocol) or NFS (Network File System) support. Western-Digital only has 3 network drives that support AFP and Time Machine: My Book Live, MyBook World, and WD ShareSpace. OS X also has some basic requirements about the performance and capabilities of network storage in order to use it with Time Machine, so you really want to look for drives that state up front that you can use Time Machine with them (for example, WD World Edition: http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/updates/docs/en/appletimemachine.pdf )
I'm not sure why you can't reformat the drive. This is supported on all WD products (though, if you've moved a bunch of data to it already, perhaps it would be a hassle).
You can do backups of your Mac over SMB, but it's complicated by the fact that SMB is quite old and isn't capable of storing information about the file permissions, ownership, etc. It will be reliable for data files, but not for applications, etc. There's a work-around, of course. You can create a disk image on the SMB share using Disk Utility (make sure you create an HFS+ image) and backup to that. If you go that route, I would suggest either Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper to perform your backups. They are true backup tools, not versioning tools like Time Machine.

Lightroom loses files on a Network Attached Storage (NAS) drive

I am using Lightroom 5.7 on a PC in Windows 7 64-bit.
A couple of weeks ago I installed a Network Attached Storage (NAS) system as I was running out of internal hard disk space. I set up a logical drive on the NAS for Photos. In Lightroom, I dragged the photo files over onto the new drive. The catalogue and backup files remained on the internal hard drive.
My photos are arranged chronologically, in directories (years) and subdirectories (days, named using the format "2014_12_31").
Since moving the files to the NAS, Lightroom has been giving me error messages when in the Develop module that it cannot find files. The previews view fine in the Library module, and the files are still there when I look for them in Windows Explorer. The errors do not occur within entire directories (years) subdirectories (days) - only some files within individual subdirectories are affected. And, only files from 2015 seem to have the problem. And, when I drag the directories back to my internal hard drive (again, within Lightroom), the errors disappear and everything works fine.

Yes, right clicking on the problem folders and showing in explorer does show the connection is to the correct folder location.
A couple more points that may be worth mentioning:
When I was having this problem earlier this week, the missing photos seemed to be spread randomly within different folders and subfolders (folders are year, with subfolders for each day I have photos). I followed the advice in the document you referenced yesterday, and went back through each main folder (there are about a dozen of them, one for each year plus a few miscellaneous folders) and used the "update folder location" function. This worked well I thought - except I realized later on that one year (2014) still had the photos missing - but this time, it seems to be all photos within that year folder, not just a few random ones. There is no "?" on the folder, or "!" on the individual photos, they show fine in preview, but clicking on the develop module every photo has the message "cannot find file". When I right click on the folder, or individual files to follow the location of the file in explorer, the location is correct - and as far as I can tell the locations and structure is consistent with the folders for all the other years which Lightroom has no problem finding. That is, I can see nothing "unusual" about the folder for 2014 in the way it sits within my filing structure.
And here's the kicker - last night I made a copy of the entire 2014 folder that was on the NAS external drive (where Lightroom can't seem to locate the files) back on to my internal drive (this took a couple of hours). This morning, I forced Lightroom to lose the link to the folder on the network drive by simply changing the name of the folder from within windows explorer, and then the "?" and "!" warnings popped up in Lightroom indicating it could not find the folder and files. I then used "update folder location" to point Lightroom at the copies that were now on the internal drive, and the problem disappeared (all files were located).
Finally, I then broke the link to the folder on the internal drive by changing the name of the folder on the internal drive from within explorer, renamed the folder on the NAS drive back to "2014", then opened up Lightroom again (and of course it indicated the files were missing) and used the update feature again to point Lightroom back to the folder on the NAS. And, again, the missing files errors pop up for every photo within that folder - but no "?" or "!" warnings are shown (recall these are an exact copy of the files that it had no trouble finding on the internal drive).
I tried playing various games with Lightroom last night, forcing it to break linkages by renaming folders, etc, and every time when I use the update file location feature it has no trouble reconnecting, whether the folders are on my internal drive or the NAS. So, this functionality seems to be working within Lightroom and I know how to use and abuse it. BUT, it steadfastly refuses to reconnect with the 2014 folder when it's on the NAS, but has no trouble reconnecting when pointed to an exact copy of the same folder on my internal drive.
I'm kind of at my wits end here. There seems to be some sort of bug in Lightroom that makes it lose it's wits when connecting to photos on a NAS drive. Or, I'm doing something really wrong that isn't obvious......

How can I use Time Machine with my existing network attached storage drives

I am a new mac user switching over from windows and have an extensive amount of existing equipment including 2 network attached storage devices (Buffalo Technologies). I would like to use these with Time Machine, but can not figure out how to do it. When I enter time machine setup it does not show these drives while the Finder does.

As of right now we are all SOL unless you own a Time Capsule. At the very least I wish apple would offer some kind of trade-up if they are not going to release a software update.
It really doesn't make any sense why we can't do this with a standard AEBS. Any fix should just be a matter of software, and while technically apple covered its butt with that little "subject to change" disclaimer on the leopard preview page, pulling it at the last minute and expecting those who believed their advertisement to buy another device that does the exact same thing for more money is just wrong. Give us a break apple, tell us your at least working on a fix, its the right thing to do.

Using a ethernet external Maxtor Hard Drive (Network Attached Storage)

Does anyone know if I can use a NAS (Network Attached Storage - in this case a 1 Tb Maxtor external drive with ethernet connection) and have my iMac G5 and Macbook backup to this drive on the same ethernet segment using Time Machine ? (both computers and the Hard drive will be connected through a router).
cheers
Steve

This used to be a suggestion often given in this forum when TM was new - but you rarely see it now. I've read posts for users who found the suggestion worked, but in time they would report that the methods eventually failed. I don't know whether anyone has had long term success.
One problem with using a NAS, you may not be able to do a full restore using the install disk when the TM backup is on a NAS. I use a Mac Mini as a file server and its external disks are used as TM destination drives for other macs in the house. This works and is supported by Apple since the server runs Leopard (the only way to provide a backup over a LAN, not including the new Apple Time Capsule). However, when doing a full restore, I have to detach the drive that is on the Mini and attach it to the source mac. Having done full restores several times, I was unable to access the LAN based mac to get to the TM backup. It has to be directly attached. So, if your NAS can't be attached or if it's not the right format (and NAS devices are rarely formatted HFS+), you won't be able to full restore, which is an important consideration.

I want to use my airport time capsule as a network attached storage solution, is this possible or do I need to connect a separate hard drive?

I want to use my airport time capsule as a network attached storage solution, is this possible or do I need to connect it to a separate hard drive?

The Time Capsule is by default a network hard drive, but it has no "brains" of it's own. So, it cannot function as a stand alone media server if that is what you are asking.
If you are also using the Time Capsule hard drive for Time Machine backups of your Mac(s), then there may be struggle for available space on the drive since it is not possible to partition the Time Capsule drive in a traditional manner.
If space is getting tight on the Time Capsule, it might be a good idea to connect a drive to the USB port on the Time Capsule and use that drive for your network storage needs.

Finder Locks Up When Using AEBS Attached Drives & Network Backup

This might be more of a general discussion as well as specific to my situation:
I have a new Airport Extreme Base Station with two drives attached via USB powered hub. #1 is an OWC 1TB drive and #2 is a Seagate Momentus 500GB drive. Both are HFS+, and I have never had any issues when attached locally.
I am attempting to back up using CCC and/or SuperDuper to the Seagate with a sparse bundle. Both programs hang up when trying to locate the drive. I am able to Force Quit once, but if I run the programs again the Finder locks up and I can't recover it even using Terminal.
I'm not sure what the problem might be. The network mounted drives are always visible; these lock ups seem to only occur when trying to backup. I've read Finder can be tempermental with networking.
I suppose, for troubleshooting, I should attach one drive directly and go from there?

This might be more of a general discussion as well as specific to my situation:
I have a new Airport Extreme Base Station with two drives attached via USB powered hub. #1 is an OWC 1TB drive and #2 is a Seagate Momentus 500GB drive. Both are HFS+, and I have never had any issues when attached locally.
I am attempting to back up using CCC and/or SuperDuper to the Seagate with a sparse bundle. Both programs hang up when trying to locate the drive. I am able to Force Quit once, but if I run the programs again the Finder locks up and I can't recover it even using Terminal.
I'm not sure what the problem might be. The network mounted drives are always visible; these lock ups seem to only occur when trying to backup. I've read Finder can be tempermental with networking.
I suppose, for troubleshooting, I should attach one drive directly and go from there?

I want a new and more powerful (non-Apple) wireless router but I still want to use my existing Time Capsule to continue with my Time Machine backups and I still need the Time Capsule's Network Attached Storage (NAS) features and capabilities

THE SHORTER STORY
My goal is to successfully use my existing Time Capsule (TC) with a new and more powerful wireless router. I need a new and more powerful wireless router in order to reach a distant Denon a/v receiver that is physically located in a master bedroom some 50 feet away from my modem. I need to provide this Denon a/v receiver with an Internet connection so that it can obtain its firmware updates and I need to connect this Denon a/v receiver to my network in order to use its AirPlay feature. I believe l still need the TC's Network Attached Storage (NAS) features because I am not sure if the new wireless router will provide me with the NAS like features / capabilities I need to share files between my two Apple laptops with OS X 10.8.2. And I know that I absolutely need my TC's seamless integration with Apple's Time Machine (TM) application in order to continue to make effortless backups of my two Apple laptops. To my knowledge nothing works with TM like Apple's TC. I also need the hard disk storage space built into the TC.
I cannot use a long wired Ethernet cable connection in this apartment and I cannot use power-line adapters. I have read that wireless range extenders and repeaters are difficult to successfully set-up and that they will reduce data speeds, especially so when incorrectly set-up. I cannot relocate my modem and/or primary base station wireless router.
In short, I want to use my TC with my new and more powerful wireless router. I need to stop using the TC to connect to the modem. However, I still need the TC for seamless TM backups. I also need to use the TC's built in hard drive for storage. And I may still need the TC's NAS capabilities to share files wirelessly between laptops because I am assuming the new wireless router will not provide NAS capabilities for OS X 10.8.2 (products like this/non-Apple products rarely seem to work with OS X 10.8.2/Macs to provide NAS features and capabilities). Finally, I want to continue to use my Apple laptop and AirPlay to wirelessly access and play my iTunes music collection stored on the TC's hard drive. I also want to continue to use my Apple laptop, AirPlay and Apple TV to wirelessly watch movies and TV shows stored on the additional external hard drive connected to the TC via USB. Can someone please advise on how to set-up my new Asus wireless router with my existing TC in such a way to accomplish all of this?
What is the best configuration or set-up to accomplish my above goals?
Thank you in advance for your assistance!!!
THE FULL STORY
I live in an apartment building where my existing Time Capsule (TC) is located in my living room and serves many purposes. Specially, my TC is at least all of the following:
(1) Wi-Fi router connected to Comcast Internet service via Motorola SB6121 cable modem - currently the TC is the Wi-Fi base station that connects to the modem and has the gateway address to the Internet. The TC now provides the DHCP service for the Wi-Fi network.
(2) Wireless router providing Internet and Wi-Fi network access to several Wi-Fi clients - two Apple laptop computers, an iPod touch, an iPad and an iPhone all connect wirelessly to the Internet via the TC.
(3) Wired Ethernet router providing Internet and Wi-Fi network access to three different devices - a Panasonic TV, LG Blu-Ray player and an Apple TV each use one of the three LAN ports on the back of the TC to gain access to the Internet.
(4) Primary base station in my attempt to extend my wireless network to a distant (located far away) Denon a/v receiver requiring a wired Ethernet connection - In addition to the TC, which is my primary base station, I am also using a second extended Wi-Fi base station (a Netgear branded product) to wirelessly extend my WiFi network to a Denon receiver located in the master bedroom and requiring a wired Ethernet connection. I cannot use a wired Ethernet connection to continuously travel from the living room to the master bedroom. The distance is too great as I cannot effectively hide the Ethernet cable in this apartment.
(5) Time Machine (TM) backup facilitator - I use my TC to wirelessly back-up two Apple laptops using Apple's Time Machine (TM) application. However, I ran out of storage space on my TC and therefore added external storage to it. Specifically, I added an external hard drive to my TC via the USB port on the back of the TC. I now use this added external hard drive connected to the TC via USB as the destination storage drive for my TM back-ups. I have partitioned the added external hard drive, and each of the several partitions all have enough storage space (e.g., each of the two partitions used by TM are sized at three times the hard drive space of each laptop, etc.). Everything works flawlessly.
(6) Network Attached Storage (NAS) - In addition to using the TC's Network Attached Storage (NAS) capabilities to wirelessly back-up two Apple laptops via TM, I also store other additional files on both (A) the hard drive built into the TC and (B) the additional external hard drive connected to the TC via USB (there are additional separate partitions on this drive for these other additional and non-TM backup files).
I use the TC's NAS feature with my Apple laptop and AirPlay to wirelessly access and play my iTunes music collection stored on the TC's hard drive. I also use my Apple laptop, AirPlay and Apple TV to wirelessly watch movies and TV shows stored on the additional external hard drive connected to the TC via USB. Again, everything works wirelessly and flawlessly. (Note: the Apple TV is connected to the network via Ethernet and a LAN port on the back of the TC).
The issue I am having is when I try to listen to music via Apple's AirPlay in the master bedroom. This master bedroom is located at a distance of two rooms away from the TC's current location in the living room, which is a distance of about 50 feet. This apartment has a long rectangular floor plan where each room is connected to the next in a straight line. In order to use AirPlay in the master bedroom I am using a second extended Wi-Fi base station (a Netgear branded product) to wirelessly extend my WiFi network to a Denon receiver located in the master bedroom and requiring a wired Ethernet connection. This additional base station connects wirelessly to the WiFi network provided by my TC and then gives my Denon receiver the wired Ethernet connection it needs to use AirPlay. I have tried moving my iTunes music directly onto my laptop's hard drive, and then I used AirPlay on this same laptop to connect to the Denon receiver. I always get a successful connection and the song plays, but the problem is that the connection inevitably drops.
I live in an apartment building and all of the many wireless routers in this building create a great deal of WiFi interference on both the 2.4 GHz and 5GHz bands. I have tried connecting the Netgear product to each the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands, but neither band can successfully maintain a wireless connection between the TC and the Netgear product. I also attempted to maintain a wireless connection to an iPod touch using the 2.4 GHz band and AirPlay on this iPod touch to play music on the Denon receiver. Again, I was able to establish a connection and successfully play music, but after a few minutes the connection dropped and the music stopped playing. I therefore have concluded that I have a poor wireless connection in the master bedroom. I can establish a connection, but it is intermittent with frequent drops. I have verified this with both laptops by working in the master bedroom for an entire day on both laptops. The Internet connection in this master bedroom proved to drop out frequently - about once an hour with the laptops. The wireless connection and the frequency of its dropout are far worse with the iPod touch and an iPhone.
I cannot relocate the TC. Also, this is an apartment and I therefore cannot extend the range of my network with Ethernet cable (I cannot drill through walls/ceilings, etc.). It is an old building with antiquated wiring and power-line adapters are not likely to function properly, nor can I spare the direct power outlet required with a power-line adapter. I simply need every outlet I can get and cannot afford to block any direct outlet.
My solution is to use a more powerful wireless router. I found the ASUS RT-AC66U Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router which will likely provide a better connection to my wireless Internet in the master bedroom than the TC. The 802.11ac band of this Asus wireless router is totally useless to me, but based on what I have read I believe this router will provide a stronger connection at greater distances then my TC. And I will be ready for 802.11ac when it becomes more widely available.
However, I still need to maintain the TC's ability to work seamlessly with TM to backup my two laptops. Also, I doubt the new Asus router will provide OS X 10.8.2 with NAS like features and capabilities. Therefore, I still would like to use the TC's NAS capabilities to share files on my network wirelessly assuming the Asus wireless router fails to provide this feature. I need a new and more powerful wireless router, but I need to maintain the TC's NAS features and seamless integration with TM. Finally, I want to continue to use my Apple laptop and AirPlay to wirelessly access and play my iTunes music collection stored on the TC's hard drive. I also want to continue to use my Apple laptop, AirPlay and Apple TV to wirelessly watch movies and TV shows stored on the additional external hard drive connected to the TC via USB. Can someone advise on how to set-up my existing TC with this new Asus wireless router in such a way to accomplish all of this?
Modem
Motorola SB6121 SURFboard DOCSIS 3.0 Cable Modem
Existing Wireless Router and Primary Wi-Fi Base Station - Apple Time Capsule
Apple Time Capsule MC343LL/A 1TB Sim DualBand (purchased June 2010, likely the Winter 2009 Model)
Desired New Wireless Router and Primary Wi-Fi Base Station - Non-Apple Asus
ASUS RT-AC66U Dual-Band Wireless-AC1750 Gigabit Router
Extended Wi-Fi Base Station - Provides an Ethernet Connection to a Denon A/V Receiver Two Rooms Away from the Modem
Netgear Universal Dual Band Wireless Internet Adapter for TV & Blu-Ray (WNCE3001)
Addition External Hard Drive Attached to the Existing Apple Time Capsule via USB
WD My Book Studio 4TB Mac External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0
Existing Laptops on the Wireless Network Requiring Time Machine Backups
MacBook Air (11-inch, Mid 2012) OS X 10.8.2
MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2010) OS X 10.8.2
Other Existing Apple Products (Clients) on the Wireless Network
iPod Touch (second generation) is model A1288.
iPad (1st generation)
Apple TV (3rd generation) - Quantity two (2)

Thanks Bob Timmons.
In regards to a Plan B, I hear ya brother. I am already on what feels like Plan Z. Getting WiFi to a far off room in an apartment building crowded with WiFi routers is a major pain.
I am basing my thoughts on the potential of a new and more powerful router reaching the far off master bedroom based on positive reviews on cnet.com, pcmag.com and pcworld.com. All 3 of these web sites have reviewed the Asus RT-AC66U 802.11AC wireless router as well as its virtual twin cousin 802.11n router. What impressed me is that all 3 sites rated this router #1 overall in terms of both range and speed (in both the 802.11n and 802.11AC flavors). They tested the router in real world scenarios where the router needed to compete with a lot of other wireless routers. One of the sites even buried this Asus router in a media room with thick walls and inside a media cabinet. This Asus router should be able to serve my 2.4 GHz band wireless clients (iPod Touch and iPhone 4) with a 2.4GHz Wireless-N band offering some 50 feet of dependable range and a 60 Mbps throughput at that range. I am hoping that works, but it's borderline for my master bedroom. My 5 GHz wireless clients (laptops) will enjoy a 5GHz Wireless-N band offering 150 feet of range and a 200 Mbps throughput at that range. I have no idea what most of that stuff means, but I did also read that Asus could reach 300 feet and I got really excited. My mileage may vary of course and I'm sure I'm making some mistakes in my interpretation of their data. However, my Winter 2009 Time Capsule was rated by cnet.com to deliver real world performance of less than that, and 802.11AC may or may not be useful to me someday. But when this Asus arrives and provides anything other than an excellent and consistent wireless signal without drops in the master bedroom it's going right back!
Your solution sounds great, but I have some questions. I'm using OS X 10.8.2 and Airport Utility (version 6.1 610.31) and on its third tab labeled "Wireless" the top option enables you to set "Network Mode" to either:
Create a wireless network
Extend a wireless network
Off
Given your advice to "Turn off the wireless on the TC," should I set Network Mode to Off? Sorry, I'm clueless in regards to how to turn off the wireless on the TC any other way. Can you provide specific steps on how to turn off the wireless on the TC? If what I wrote is correct then what should the rest of this Wireless tab look like, or perhaps it is irrelevant when wireless is off?
Next, what do you mean by "Configure the TC in Bridge Mode?" Under Airports Utility's fourth tab labeled "Network" the top option "Router Mode" allows for either:
DHCP and Nat
DHCP Only
Off (Bridge Mode)
Is your advice to Configure the TC in Bridge Mode as simple as setting Router Mode to Off (Bridge Mode)? If yes, then what should the rest of this "Network" tab look like? Anything else involved in configuring the TC in Bridge Mode or is it really as simple as setting the Router Mode to "Off (Bridge Mode)"?
How about the other tabs in Airport Utility, can they all stay as is assuming I use the same network name and password for the new Asus wireless router? Or do I need to make any other changes to the TC via Airport Utility?
Finally, in regards to your Plan B suggestion. I agree. But do you have a Plan B for me? I would greatly appreciate any alternative you could provide. Specifically, if you needed a TC's Internet connection to reach a far off corner of your home how would you do it? In the master bedroom I need both a wired Ethernet connection for the Denon a/v receiver and wireless Internet connection for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Power-Line Adapters - High Cost, Blocks at Least One Wall Outlet and Does Not Solve the Wireless Need
I actually like exactly one power-line adapter, which is the D-Link DHP-540 PowerLine AV 500 4-Port Gigabit Switch. This D-Link power-line adapter plugs into your wall outlet with a normal sized plug (regular standard power cord much like any other electronic device) instead of all of the other recommended power-line adapters that not only use at least one wall outlet but also often block the second outlet. You cannot use a power strip with a power-line adapter which is very impractical for me. And everything about my home is strange and upside down. The wiring here is a disaster and I don't have faith in its ability to carry Internet access from the living room to the master bedroom. And this D-Link power-line adapter costs $90 each and I need at least two to make the connection to the Denon A/V receiver. So, $180 on this solution and I still don't have a dependable drop free wireless connection in the master bedroom. The Denon might get its Ethernet Internet connection from the power-line adapter, but if I want to use an iPhone 4 or iPod Touch to stream AirPlay music to the Denon wirelessly (Pandora/iTunes, etc.) from the master bedroom the wireless connection will not be stable in there and I've already spent $190 on just the two power-line adapters needed.
Extenders / Repeaters / Wirelessly Extending the Wireless Network
I have also read great things about the Amped Wireless High Power Wireless-N 600mW Gigabit Dual Band Range Extender (Repeater) SR20000G and the My Net Wi-Fi Range Extender. The former is very powerful and the latter is easier to install. Both cost about $150 ish so similar to a new Asus router. However, everything I read about Range Extenders points to them not being very effective for a far off corner of your house wherein it's apparently hard to place the range extender in the sweet spot where it both gets a strong enough signal to actually effectively extend the wireless signal and otherwise does not reduce network throughput speeds to unacceptable speeds.
Creating a Roaming Network By Hard Wiring with Ethernet Cable - Wife Would Say, "**** No!"
Even Apple seems to warn against wirelessly extending your network (see: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4145#) and otherwise strongly recommends a roaming network where Ethernet cable is used to connect two wireless base stations. However, I am in an apartment where stringing together two wireless base stations with Ethernet cable would have an extremely low wife acceptance factor (WAF). I cannot (both contractually and from a skill prospective) hide Ethernet wire in the walls or ceiling. And having visible Ethernet cable running from room-to-room would be unacceptable, especially to the wife.
So what is left? Do you have a Plan B for me? Thanks in advance for your help!

Seeking advice for backing up Xserve G5 w/ RAID PCI card

Hello all!
I'm a newbie to Macs and server admin, and I have inherited the job of setting up a server at work for file storage. I'll do my best to give a concise description of our set-up - I'm looking for some advice on the last few odds and ends... mainly how we can backup the system.
We bought an Xserve G5 with an option RAID PCI card. We have 3 500GB drives in the Xserve, configured to RAID 5 (giving us effectively 1TB of storage space). We will be using the server for data storage. About 20 computers will access the server over a network; we are using an assortment of Macs and PCS.
I am seeking advice on backup systems for the server. In the event that the RAID5 fails, we don't want to lose our data. We just need a snapshot of the server; we don't need to archive data or to take the HD offsite. Our old server just used Retrospect to run incremental backups every night (with a complete clean backup once a month). Our current thought is to attach large external hard drive to our admin computer (not the server directly) and run nightly backups as before.
The major points I have are:
-Any thoughts on reliable 1 TB external drives?
-Any recommendations on software that can backup from a RAID over a network? I found info for Retrospect Server 6.0 - it seems to do what we want, but is rather pricey.
Thanks in advance for any advice! I really appreciate it!
Xserve G5 Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Greetings-
We all started out as newbies at one time or another-no worries. That is why we are here.
I personally use the Lacie branded drives. They are sturdy and reliable. My only thoughts here are to have at least three external drives-one for today's backup, one for a backup stored securely nearby, and one to be securely stored off-site. Rotate the drives daily so that your worst-case scenario will be a catastrophe that requires you to use a three-day old backup, depending upon how old your off-site backup is. Not ideal but better than the alternative. External drives are cheap enough these days to allow you to do this at a reasonable cost. Plus it is easy enough to throw one in a briefcase and tote it home for safety (just don't lose it!)
I would stay away from Retrospect. If you search these forums you will find several instances of folks having some serious issues with the program. I use a program called Carbon Copy Cloner that does the job nicely for my basement server. There are ways to do the backups via the command line interface as well but I am not so familiar with those commands. You may have to dig a little deeper to find something that works for you.
One of the other advantages of the FW external drive is that you can share it with other users, so perhaps you can set things up to have your network backups to go to that drive. Tis a thought.
Luck-
-DaddyPaycheck

Seeking advice regarding networked attached drive

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