ctrl.altered.mind

When my wireless router started faltering with alarming regularity in the past month, I realized the little device had probably reached the end of its life cycle. The Netgear router has been pretty much running 24/7 over the past two years, and while routers typically last much longer than that, everyones mileage varies.

Therefore, instead of shopping around for an alternative el-cheapo router that would get the job of letting all of my wireless-capable devices talk over the internet done, I decided to take this opportunity to upgrade all the way up - to an Apple Time Capsule.

If you’re familiar with Apple hardware, you will realize that the Time Capsule breaks no new ground - it is simply an 802.11n Airport Extreme base station with a built-in hard drive, which is also its biggest plus point. Having switched from a desktop to using just a notebook computer, a new Macbook Pro, I quickly found the need to have a wireless network hard drive solution quite imperative. It is tedious having a backup drive that constantly needs to be plugged in, to be of any benefit. The Time Capsule steps in with network-attached storage (with choices of 500GB and 1TB), and also integrates seamlessly with the one-click Time Machine backup feature built into Mac OS X Leopard. Additionally, the Time Capsule can also connect (and extend wireless capabilities) to a USB printer or external hard drive. I picked up a 500GB Time Capsule, because the storage capacity should meet my needs for now. There are also web tutorials that prove it is quite simple to upgrade the internal hard drive yourself.

I was a little concerned about rushing out and buying a Time Capsule, simply because initial reviews of the hardware have not been excellent on the Apple website. People have voiced concerns about Time Machine backups taking exceptionally long durations to complete, impact on wireless browsing performance while backups are running (forcing them to turn this off while actively using their computers), and other issues such as unusually high heat generation and wireless device incompatibilities. Having read through all these reviews, I was prepared to purchase the Time Capsule in test-drive mode, ready to return it within the 14-day period if any such issues would raise their ugly heads. Thankfully, I am extremely happy with my Time Capsule.

I have not run into any speed or wireless bandwidth issues while running Time Machine backups or generally accessing the wireless drive (I did use an ethernet connection to perform the first backup, as most would recommend). The router functions excellently, plays well with all my devices, and efficiently utilizes my high-speed connection. I have not experienced overheating issues either, although a higher heat profile is not very unusual for a NAS/router appliance.

The Time Capsule also interfaces very well with my Playstation 3. This was a very important requirement for me, as the PS3 is used heavily as my media center and not just a gaming console. Speaking of games, the console has not seen any connection issues (that I had started experiencing on my earlier router) while playing online first-person shooter games. Additionally, media streaming from my computer to the TV via the PS3 has been excellent (I use MediaLink ($20/free demo) and Mediatomb (free, open-source) for wireless streaming from Mac OS X to the PS3). One thing to note, is that the PS3 does not recognize a NAS - it only supports the DLNA protocol, and would require a computer that is running a media server application in order to access media files. The Time Capsule does not support direct Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP), so if any of your devices require this protocol the Time Capsule is not an option for you.

The Time Capsule only requires a couple of screens of configuring the first time it is used - this is done via the Mac OS X Airport Utility. Once this is done, the router is ready to serve Mac, Linux and Windows machines. The Time Capsule hard drive is also directly accessible by Windows machines, which see it appear as an encrypted, password-protected drive on the network. There is an Airport Admin Utility available for Windows that should allow configuring the Time Capsule using a Windows machine, although I have not attempted this (yet).

As it supports the 802.11n standard, the Time Capsule also allows me to fully utilize the wireless-N capabilities of my notebook. While this does not mean much for casual browsing, it does allow better local networking and is future-proof as far as wireless standards are concerned (at least for a good while).

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 5th, 2008 at 9:06 pm and is filed under Apple, Digital Lifestyles, Gadgets, Gaming.