Time Capsule as NAS connected to Mini Server

Question

Hi all
I apologize for the length of the question, but I wanted to be detailed and thorough in order to hopefully pinpoint my troubles.
I've done some searching of the forums and while I've found some helpful tips, they don't seem to match my scenario exactly, or I'm doing something horribly wrong (which is the likely scenario as I'm new/educating myself through this process).
Quick background on my prior network configuration:
2TB Time Capsule (TC) was our one and only router and wireless backup for a house of roughly 5 computers. Super simple and everything worked as expected.
Just this last week I completed a bucket list item and bought a Mac Mini to act as a home server/media center. Yay! In addition to this, I also purchased a new router that affords me a little more control over my network.
So here's a brief summary of how things are set up now:
New router set up in office as my single, wireless access point. Mac Mini (2014 with Server installed) in my entertainment center connected wirelessly (not ideal, I know). The TC has had it's wireless functions disabled, and is connected to the Mac Mini via Ethernet.
What I'm trying to accomplish is setting up my old TC to continue as my centralized backups for all the computers in my home, but it's no longer set up as my router. It's simply connected via Ethernet to the Mac Mini, which I control via ARD and Finder Screen Sharing. As far as I can tell I've properly set up File Sharing for the TC drive, but as it stands, the only computer in my home that can see the drive is the Mac Mini; my other devices cannot see the TC drive/share.
In essence, I'm simply trying to turn my old TC into a simple NAS that hangs off my Mac Mini Server, but there is something that is keeping it from appearing appropriately on my network to my other devices.
Does anyone have any thoughts/clues/tips as to where I may be going wrong with all this? I'm happy to provide any additional details to help troubleshoot.
In terms of my level of knowledge, I know my way around computers pretty dang well (I've worked in software QA for a number of years). However, networking has forever been my weak point, and I've never really bothered to tackle educating myself until this week. So forgive some of the network ignorance, but please don't feel as if you need to dumb things down for me. Thanks!

Answer 1

TC is really the wrong device. It is now and forevermore a network drive.
Even if you attempt to share it from the Mini OS, your computer does not OWN it.. Therefore what you would really need to do is to route packets from wireless to ethernet. And leave the TC to share itself.. as it of course is designed to do..
This kind of routing is possible.. but I highly recommend against it.
You will overload your slow wireless connection to the network and for little use.
The TC is in the wrong place. It should be plugged into the main router by ethernet in bridge. And made available therefore to the network.
What you should plug into the Mini is a USB3 drive.. over which the Mini OWNS and controls.. and is therefore truly able to share with the network.. although I still don't recommend you do that.  At least not for TM backups.
How to use TM over a network.
http://code.stephenmorley.org/articles/time-machine-on-a-network-drive/
Maybe a bit out of date but he is smart guy.
I also have to say I have not ever setup OS X server which is able to do central TM backups..
There is some excellent info tutorial for OSX server on youtube.. just look them up.
BUT.. I would never do it when you only have a wireless link.. sorry but that is just going to lead to slow slow double hop wireless over your whole network.
ie a wireless device.. has to send packets to the router.. and the router then sends the packets to the mini.. since wireless is one channel, half duplex.. it will cause wireless transfers to go at half speed .. at best.. and with multiple connections .. it will crawl.. as the inefficiency of this goes up in leaps and bounds as more clients are trying to reach the server.
So I would avoid it completely. TC has to be in the right place.. plugged into your main router. And no computer is more than one hop away from the connection. (ethernet is multiple channel full duplex and fast so it can be considered instantaneous in a wireless network).