Apple time-capsule as NAS?
Jan 16, 2008 at 5:19 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 36
melomaniac

melomaniac

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does anyone see apple's time capsule (announced yesterday) as a potential NAS? since it offers 500GB or 1TB, it might serve pretty well in that function, whether you use a squeezebox, or some other streaming device. opinions?
 
Jan 16, 2008 at 5:21 PM Post #2 of 36
I don't see the point, honestly. If it held more than one drive, then I may be interested. Otherwise; no.

Though I will point out that I dont have leopard, (but have been planning a mac purchase at some point).
It seems like its main goal is to do automatic backup, but theres plenty of external hard drive software that already does that.
 
Jan 16, 2008 at 5:26 PM Post #3 of 36
Of course you can use it as a NAS. That's kinda the whole point. It's actually *very* reasonably priced as a NAS (the 500GB version anyway), even ignoring that it also comes with an 802.11N router and gigabit Ethernet switch, basically for free. And you can add another drive or two later via the USB port on the back if you need more storage.

It works with Windows too BTW.
 
Jan 16, 2008 at 6:55 PM Post #4 of 36
IT IS a NAS, with the built-in backup software.

Technically, it's no big deal, u can build your own NAS and have a 10-slot enclosure for ez expansion. BUT Apple probly made the TM very ez to use. As anybody spent anytime in this business knows, backup is one of those tedious thing ppl put off, forget blah-blah, so if Apple made it painless and automatic, perhaps it's a good thing.

The key is how Intelligent the backup software is. Backup up the whole sheband is typically not desired and it takes too long. Ideally the software has built-in intelligence to know what are the oftenly desirable items to backup: i.e. Contacts, Calendar items, configurations blah-blah, and your designated "Data" drive/folder. Also, EVERYBODY (name your third party co) can backup but not many can retrieval an item with ease, and QUICK. When u want to restore an item, is this process quick and painless?

Sum of u get one and tell us how intelligent and ez this thing is.
smily_headphones1.gif
 
Jan 16, 2008 at 7:43 PM Post #6 of 36
From what I understand it is a NAS!
So I don't understand the question.
 
Jan 16, 2008 at 7:48 PM Post #8 of 36
Quote:

Originally Posted by Wodgy /img/forum/go_quote.gif
It works with Windows too BTW.


That is good to know. The i/o sets it apart in some ways from other designs, in terms of bang for the buck.

If you do attach more external drives to it later on, could this unit control regulate the backups/sharing for that in the same manner?
 
Jan 16, 2008 at 7:59 PM Post #9 of 36
Quote:

Originally Posted by SR-71Panorama /img/forum/go_quote.gif
That is good to know. The i/o sets it apart in some ways from other designs, in terms of bang for the buck.

If you do attach more external drives to it later on, could this unit control regulate the backups/sharing for that in the same manner?


The unit itself doesn't control backups. It's just basically a network disk that happens to be a valid target for Time Machine backups (on Leopard). You can use whatever your favorite backup tool is on Windows. If you plug in another disk, it'll just appear as another network disk on your network. From the webpage, there appear to be some additional administration controls on the unit (e.g. restricting certain disks by time of day, probably for parental reasons). If you want to do something really sophisticated, like run a ZFS pool over multiple disks, you'll probably need a server.
 
Jan 16, 2008 at 8:12 PM Post #10 of 36
Quote:

Originally Posted by Wodgy /img/forum/go_quote.gif
It works with Windows too BTW.


Wow! hold it right there.

If the Windows software works as good as iTunes/Win, fergitaboutit!
 
Jan 16, 2008 at 8:37 PM Post #14 of 36
Quote:

Originally Posted by lisnalee /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Being able to backup over wireless is a nice touch, but the price in the uk just doesnt justify this little luxury.


Real geeks don't need this thing.

I've been backing up wirelessly since 2003. All I do is to schedule a script to copy key files/folders to my server, in the middle of the night! It wakes up, poke the server to wake it up as needed, does its thing, goes back to sleep. Nuthing to it.
smily_headphones1.gif


BUT am STILL waiting for iPod wireless sync. Comeon Jobs, get on with it!
smily_headphones1.gif


Oh, and while you are at it, next product should have one of those wireless power thing (CES) built-in. Really. Chop-chop!
 
Jan 16, 2008 at 8:40 PM Post #15 of 36
Quote:

Originally Posted by jsmithepa /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Also, EVERYBODY (name your third party co) can backup but not many can retrieval an item with ease, and QUICK. When u want to restore an item, is this process quick and painless?

Sum of u get one and tell us how intelligent and ez this thing is.
smily_headphones1.gif



I don't have a Time Capsule yet, but I can relate how Time Machine has already saved my (digital) life:

In December I drowned my Mac Book in Diet Pepsi and ruined the hard drive, logic board, etc. All I had to do was take my Time Machine backup drive (an OWC Mercury Elite Pro eSATA/FW400/FW800/USB2.0 enclosure with a WD Caviar SE drive) to my brother's computer and restore it to a separate partition. Simple as pie.

And because (luckily) I had just had the Mac Book plugged in the morning of the accident, it was updated only 1 hr before the disaster. The Time Capsule would only make it better with a notebook because then I wouldn't have to remember to plug the darned thing before going out into the dangerous, soda-infested world!

(I used to do the more geeky rsync thing with occasional manual backups using Carbon Copy Cloner, but both of those instances wouldn't have necessarily saved the data I just worked on that same morning because the scheduling wasn't as frequent as TM.)

--Chris
 
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