Apple Time Capsule

2009-03-30T20:11:00.001+08:00

The Apple Time Capsule is one of very few Wireless N routers with built-in storage, making it a rare and simple all-in-one router-and-backup option for your home. Unfortunately, it's also painfully expensive. The Time Capsule costs AU$479 for the 500GB version and AU$779 for the 1TB version, and suffers from some key shortcomings, like the lack of many NAS and networking features, a non-user-serviceable hard drive, slow network-attached storage (NAS) throughput, no iTunes or media server support, and no web interface management.

Out of the box, the Apple Time Capsule could pass as the Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station's big brother. They share a look, but the Time Capsule is about 30 per cent larger. Functionality-wise, the Time Capsule is basically an AirPort Extreme Base Station with a hard drive built in.

(Because the two devices share the same set-up, administration process, networking and storage features, functionality, and system requirements, consider this review an enhanced version of our earlier AirPort Extreme Base Station review.)

For a wireless router, the Apple Time Capsule is bulky, but relatively compact compared with competing NAS servers. It has a clean, square design and is classically Apple in white. There are no external antennas, buttons or switches, aside from the tiny reset hole on the back of the device. Stick a pin in this hole and the router will reset to its default manufacturer settings. Also on the back are three gigabit Ethernet ports — which is one fewer than most competing routers offer — for use with wired clients, and a USB port. The USB port can be used to host another external hard drive or a printer.

On the front, the device has only one status light that changes colour according to the working condition of the device. The light flashes amber to indicate a problem or stays solid green to show that everything is in good, working condition.

Like the Base Station, the Apple Time Capsule doesn't offer a web interface, which means you'll need to install the included AirPort Utility software to set it up. The software comes in both Mac and Windows versions. The Windows version installs a number of services, such as Apple's networking service Bonjour and the Airport Base Station Agent, which runs whenever your computer boots up. Installing any new software may adversely affect your computer's performance (we didn't test for system degradation), but without Bonjour, Windows won't be able to connect to the device. The Airport Base Station Agent helps by automatically detecting shared folders from the Time Capsule.

Generally, they prefer devices that you can access and manage via a web interface, letting you get the job done conveniently from virtually any computer that's connected to the device over the network. Apple is the only networking vendor that doesn't offer this type of interface. Some vendors, such as Linksys, also offer a desktop software application (available for both PC and Mac) to help those who aren't comfortable using the browser for the task.

To its credit, the Airport Utility does make setting up the Time Capsule easy for novices. Its wizard mode walks you through the configuring process step by step. To customise the router beyond the recommended settings, the utility offers a manual mode that includes access to more advanced functions.

The Apple Time Capsule requires a restart to apply any changes made to its settings — a nuisance, because doing so interrupts the connections of all users and makes setting up take longer than we're accustomed to having to wait. Other high-end routers can apply most minor changes without restarting.

Nonetheless, there were no gaffes when setting up the Time Capsule, and I was able to get mine up and running within 10 minutes or so.

Like the AirPort Extreme Base Station, the Time Capsule supports a maximum of only 50 clients at a time, according to Apple's documentation. I didn't test this claim, but if true, that is a lot fewer than the 200 clients that other vendors claim their routers support.

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Apple Time Capsule