Home > Consumer Reviews > Apple Time Capsule MB276LL/A (AirPort Extreme Plus 500 GB Storage)

I expect that if you have just one Mac connected to the Internet then this is a fine product. However, if you already have a mature network setup with multiple devices connected and you do not wish to disturb your environment then it seems unnecessarily difficult to connect this device to your network. The Time Capsule configuration seems to be obsessed with setting up a wireless network. I've had my capsule for 24 hours and so far only one of the two Macs I'm backing up to it have backed up successfully. I have had to reboot my wireless access point several times since I put the infernal Time Capsule on my network. While over time I might migrate network functions to Time Capsule (wireless network provision, printer sharing) I really do not want to have to completely re-configure my entire network just to use Time Machine. At the moment I am 50/50 over whether or not to return this box to the store.

Good:
- quiet!!!
- single box for both router and hard drive, compact
- nice design
- works nicely with Leopard TimeMachine, providing automatic backup

Bad:
- any non-trivial setup make take a while (I had trouble while upgrading to Leopard which refused to see TimeCapsule, while it was working ok with Tiger; my Win notebook never saw it even after Bonjour installation)
- heats up even when hard disk is idle
- any configuration change (like turning on/off wireless network) resets device with service interruption (so my iMac doesn't have Internet for half a minute)

Most wanted improvement is to add physical switch on the box, that can turn wireless network on/off without interrupting ethernet connectivity - that would be good for occasional wireless network users that have wired connection for main computer and need wireless network only a fraction of their time.

I've always viewed backing up data as necessary, but a big pain in the neck--especially with a laptop. Prior to Time Machine, backing up my drive necessitated physically connecting my computer to a backup drive, turning off power management and leaving the computer to copy everything overnight. With this device, the biggest pain was the first backup--subsequent to that, I don't need to fiddle with even thinking about backing up--the computer does it for me! Once again, Apple reinvents a better wheel.

Time capsule is a great idea -- always-on backup, networking, all in a beautiful box. I've had nothing but problems. Took me a while to realize my anti-virus software was slowing the first backup to a crawl, and then dropping the connection. There are problems with OSX 10.5.2 and the Time Capsule's wifi -- the Mac is alway searching for a good connection, and it's not very fast. I have been unable to get the mac to recognize the printer on the TC, and the PC on the network can't either. About half the time, the hourly backup fails.


Good idea, but I'll go back to a hard disk that I'll try to remember to plug in for backup, and maybe try this again in a year or so when the bugs are worked out.

I have had Time Capsule for only 2 days. It took about 10 minutes to set up as a stand-alone router and networked drive. I also tried it alongside my old linksys as a mac-only 802.11n router/drive. Both worked great. I had no problem installing the software on my windows laptops; wifi and everything else works as advertised. The real beauty is Time Machine - for your first back up, turn off your AirPort card and attach an rj-45 cable for the fastest back-ups, after that it backs up your Leopard laptop every hour wirelessly, almost no speed degradation when the back-up happens. Wonderful product, highly recommend. Just to clarify for some reviewers it is $[...] for the 500GB and $[...] for 1TB.