Want to Start Backing-Up and Would Like a Wireless Connection

Question

I will try to explain my question as simple as I can, but my tech knowledge is not the best, so please bare with me. As I said in the heading I would like to start backing up my MBP (something I never have done) and I would like to use a 3.5-4 year-old Airport Extreme I have had for 4 years but never really used it much. I have a new MBP so I would like to understand what some of the basic terms mean first.
In the dock I have an icon called Time Machine. I saw a device that looked like my Airport Extreme at the Apple Store, but I think the guy said it was called an Apple Capsule. He also said the Apple Capsule can do great back-ups and also "get you up and running on a wireless internet connection." Although I did not check out the costs of all the stuff I would need, I wanted to get an experts guidance on what is what and what I would need to use the program I already have called Time Machine. The Airport Extreme I have is square has several ethernet port ports in the back a WAN port and a light in the front that can turn various colors depending on the status of the Wireless connection.
I am not sure if the Airport Extreme I have is still OK to use, safe enough, all of that stuff since technology changes so much in a short amount of time. So I was also looking at the LaCie Rugged Hard Disk Triple also 500 GB capacity option and if my 3.5 or 4 year-old Airport Extreme will work just fine use that and the LaCie.
I am alos trying to understand the difference between the icon on my dock called Time Machine, the Time Capsule, and what I would need counting what my MBP came with (The Time Machine for sure).
I think I got all the basic questions out for starters, and please let me know if you need any additional info if you need any additional info.
I should add when I first connected up the Airport Extreme when I finally got the nerve to call Applecare for help hooking up the Airport Extreme approx 3.5-4 years ago. the lady who was in Canada was very good but the process seemed quite complicated and that could have been because that was the first real complicated set-up I had done using my new MBP at that time. It seemed a lot of the complications came with all the passwords, security questions I had to remember, long numbers, etc. But since I knew nothing about Macs at that time it probably had a lot do do with that.
I am open for constructive criticisms and help but if you have a need to knock someone down please go elsewhere. I tried my hardest to explain what I need help with and when I decided to come to my favorite place for help, I came hoping I would not get a bunch of put-downs like has happened in the past.
thanks in advance for your help.

Answer 1

One2Two wrote:
I appreciate your help. I understand now that Time Machine is software. What I do not understand is it software to be used with Time Capsule? Another device?
Apple intends Time Machine to be used to write its backup files to (a) a directly-connected (as via USB or FireWire) external or secondary internal disk or (b) the disk in a Time Capsule. All other configurations are officially unsupported.
I have not purchased the LaCie device yet. it seemed cool.
As a Time Machine target drive I imagine that the LaCie drive is fine for a directly-connected drive (option "a" above), but is not recommended for use when connected to a WiFi base station.
at the time I wrote this post, I had no idea that the Time Capsule was an Airport Extreme too
Apple doesn't call it that, but except for the disk drive it's functionally equivalent.
I appreciate your feedback on how to avoid some of the smart *** and mean comments I frequently get. I do not agree with most of what you wrote because although I post a post or Question(s), but I do not ask any specific person to answer or help me.
True, but that's not my point. When you post a question on a forum such as this, you do so with the hope that someone will reply with useful advice. To do that someone has to read your post to determine what advice to give you. So anyone who has any thought of helping you has to first read your post, which involves a certain commitment of time.
Frequently I do not get any answers or replies. it is their decision to try and help me or not. If they do not like the way the question(s) is worded or expressed in writing, they do not have to even attempt to answer it. That is what I never understood. The negative criticism would come with their first reply, but I did not even ask any specific person to help me.
It's hard to comment without seeing your post and the reply, but perhaps those people were just trying to help you (clumsily, perhaps) learn how to write better-behaved posts.
I do agree with putting too much info. in a post. I do try to keep it clear and concise, but that is very hard for me. So I appreciate your comment about that, because I do think I do have a tendency to write too much at times. I think it is great that there are people who like or want to do this, for whatever reason.