And today in our laboratory we have another model of a “fruit” producer - Apple Time Capsule. Despite the fact that its main feature can be considered the presence of a built-in hard drive, in reality, the Apple Time Capsule cannot be considered a classic network storage device, since the “time capsule” is also capable of performing all the functions of a wireless router, like the AirPort Extreme.

Delivery set and appearance

The packaging of the device is even larger than that of Mac mini of the previous generation, - 23 × 23 × 10 centimeters. Therefore, despite the dimensions being similar to the younger representative of Apple desktop PCs, the box more reliably protects the Time Capsule during transportation.

Judging by the front side of the packaging, Time Capsule is positioned as HDD With wireless interface 802.11n. On the one hand, this is, of course, true, but from the point of view of the device’s capabilities, the characteristics are clearly not complete. In Russian there is only a small sticker that already correctly describes specifications models. The package includes a drive, power cable, installation manual (in Russian) and a warranty card. There are no programs or network cables provided.

In appearance, the device is very similar to the AirPort Extreme, but noticeably larger in size. Another difference is the mirrored company logo on the top cover. The body is white glossy plastic. Its dimensions are 19.7 × 19.7 × 3.7 cm, according to the projection - the same as the latest Mac mini, however, the radius of the “rounding” of the corners is smaller than that of a computer. On the front side there is a multifunctional indicator, along the contour there is a ventilation slot, and on the back there are all connectors. Here you can find the power cable input (the power supply is built into the device), a USB 2.0 port, four gigabit network ports (one WAN and three LAN) with indicators, a hidden reset button, and a Kensington lock.

Despite the outer casing made of plastic, the device is quite heavy, weighing more than one and a half kilograms. At the bottom of the drive there is a rubber gasket that securely holds the model on any surface.

Design and hardware characteristics

The device is very similar to AirPort Extreme in its hardware. The hard drive is hidden inside the plastic case. Western Digital WD30EZRS with a capacity of 3 TB (in the model under review, there are also modifications for 2 TB). It is connected via the SATA interface, has a 64 MB buffer and belongs to the “green” series with reduced power consumption (according to the manufacturer - up to 6 W). The rest is almost the same as the router: Marvell 6281 processor, 256 MB (AirPort has half as much) random access memory and 16 MB of flash, Marvell 88E6350R switch, BCM94331 dual-band wireless controller on the PCI Express 1x bus. Network and USB controllers are built into the main processor.

Due to the presence of a hard drive, the body of the device has grown noticeably, so they decided to place the power supply inside. We also note the cooling system - a large specially shaped aluminum radiator for large chips and a small fan for the hard drive. It is quite difficult to understand exactly how air flows pass. However, it is clearly not necessary to close the ventilation grilles present on the body. The fan operation algorithm completely turns it off if the disk temperature is within 50 degrees (a separate remote sensor is used for checking, and not built into the hard drive). Further, the operating speed increases with increasing temperature, but even in this case the noise level is relatively low.

The device was tested with firmware version 7.5.2.

Assembly and configuration

In this case, the user has nothing to assemble - just connect the power cable and, optionally, a network cable. Setting up Time Capsule is done using special program, which is available in versions for Mac OS X (built into the OS) and Windows (must be downloaded from the Apple website). In the first case, a Russian version of the interface is also provided.

By providing access to the built-in hard drive, Time Capsule can operate as a router, expanding an existing wireless network, access point, wireless client. IN the latter case you can place the Apple Time Capsule anywhere without being tied to network cables, which is quite interesting. Although, of course, you need to understand that the speed of working with the disk will be significantly lower than via wire.

The device completely replicates the capabilities of the recently reviewed AirPort Extreme for working with networks, so we won’t dwell on this in detail here. Interested readers can refer to previous material. We will describe only a few differences in the setup program interface related to the presence of a built-in hard drive.

Access to shared folders is provided via SMB/CIFS and AFP protocols. Of course, there is support for a proprietary program Reserve copy Time Machine. Network interfaces The devices are presented with a gigabit port and dual-band 802.11n with operating speeds of up to 300 Mbit/s (2T2R).

For the built-in hard drive, the system checks the SMART status and allows you to additionally perform two operations - deleting data and backing up to external drive. Erasing information can be useful if you plan to give the drive to another user. Moreover, in addition to the quick option of cleaning the directory, there are three options guaranteed against recovery, including 35-fold overwriting of data. Of course, this operation, especially on a 3 TB hard drive, will require significant time to complete. Archiving data can be useful in terms of increasing the reliability of document storage. The copy speed to an HFS+ USB drive in our case was about 20 MB/s. Archiving starts only in manual mode; while it is running, reconfiguring/rebooting the device is impossible. All contents of the internal hard drive are copied, including shared folders users. A small problem is that after this operation you will only be able to access the backup from the computer, but not through the Time Capsule itself, since the data is copied to the root of the external volume.

Let us remind you that the network access settings allow you to select one of the access control options - by a general password for the device/disk or by user name and individual password (a user database will need to be created in the drive itself). Using the second option with external hard drives results in a new directory (“Shared”) being automatically created on the volume for public access and individual folders for each user. In this case, you will not have access to files previously placed on the disk (unless you move them to one of the new folders). User rights are assigned from the usual “read and write” or “read only” list. It is possible to set guest rights and provide access to disks from the WAN port.

To safely remove USB drives or turn off a device, it is advisable to first disconnect all users from network resources through the setup program by clicking the appropriate button.

As you can see, the device's storage capabilities correspond to standard network drives and are quite sufficient for ordinary home users or small workgroups, but they lag significantly behind most "real" network drives.

External devices

USB port can be used to connect external drives and printers that will be accessible over the network. It is possible to use a USB hub to increase the number of simultaneously operating devices. The drives support FAT32 and HFS file systems and multiple partitions. Access rights to resources are configured in the same way as a built-in disk - each user can only have the right to access all volumes at once.

Multifunction devices only work in print mode. Communication with printers is traditionally one-way.

Additional features and enhancements

Of the additional options for working with the drive, we note only support for the Mobile Me service, which allows you to gain remote access to documents. However, it should be noted that the service itself is currently in a state of transformation and registration of new users is impossible. At the moment, the device is completely closed from modifications; there are no installation options in it additional programs or utilities. Unusually, it doesn't include any of the media services that Apple loves so much.

Router performance

Since the model in question has physically different antennas from the AirPort Extreme, it was interesting to see how this affected the speed of operation in wireless access point mode. We did not use the full set of adapters for testing, but compared only the two most productive ones.

It's hard to pick a clear winner, but in most Mac configurations it was the Time Capsule that performed better. With the second participant, not everything is so simple - the numbers for the 2.4 GHz frequency have grown, but for the 5 GHz frequency they have decreased.

The speed of operation in wired router mode is practically no different from its predecessor, as can be seen from the second graph.

NAS performance

We measured performance in two programs - the traditional Intel NASPT and the Disk Speed ​​Test utility from Blackmagic Desktop Video. The second of them is interesting because it is available in versions for Windows and Mac OS, which will allow us to test the work in a profile use case. The NASPT test, which we have been using for a long time, could not pass all the tests, “stumbling” on a couple of templates with a large number of files. It is difficult to say how this will affect the actual user experience, but the sign is not very good. On the other hand, it is still synthetic. The graph shows the results of measuring the speed of working with the built-in disk and an external one with two file system options - HFS+ and FAT32.

By modern standards the numbers are not very high. Even the lowest NAS models today show noticeably higher numbers. It seems that this model is not very suitable for Windows PC users.

Disk Speed ​​Test can be downloaded for free from the website of the video capture equipment manufacturer. The program is used to quickly determine the capabilities of a disk system, which is very important in the tasks of recording and playing unpacked video. The operation to measure speed is sequential reading and writing of a 5 GB file. Unfortunately, the results are not very stable, so for certainty we took the numbers from the fifth run of the test. Operation under Mac OS X was tested on a 2010 Mac mini with a wired network connection. Moreover, both available options for connecting a network resource were considered - using the proprietary AFP protocol and inherited from Windows - SMB/CIFS.

It can be seen that the proprietary AFP protocol for accessing files over the network is noticeably faster than SMB. The latter shows almost the same results for different operating systems on the client and, most likely, its speed is limited precisely by its implementation in Time Capsule.

If you try to evaluate the results as a whole, then, of course, today the figures of about 30 MB/s are definitely small, even when compared with budget network drives. Working with AFP under Mac OS X is slightly better, but even here recording at a speed of 40 MB/s will require more than three and a half hours to save a full 500 GB disk, which is quite a lot. Using the Time Machine backup program somewhat corrects the situation, since not all data is copied, but only the changed ones.

With a high-performance NAS from one of the market leaders at hand, we tested its speed with a Mac using Disk Speed ​​Test. The results showed that for the AFP protocol, writing is performed at a speed of about 64 MB/s, and reading can be slightly faster than 80 MB/s. So it turns out that for Mac users, the branded device in question is not so far behind the alternative options.

conclusions

Like the AirPort Extreme, the device reviewed today includes a modern wireless router that can operate simultaneously in two bands of the 802.11n standard. At the same time, the Wi-Fi speed of the Time Capsule itself is very high and, with good adapters on the client side, reaches up to 100 Mbit/s at 2.4 GHz and 125-200 Mbit/s at 5 GHz. Support for guest wireless networks also looks interesting. If we talk about the possibilities of providing Internet access, then this model may not be suitable for a domestic user - it only supports direct connection and PPPoE, which may not be enough. The routing speed in direct connection mode is very high and is at the level best models home level.

The Time Capsule has a large-capacity internal hard drive (2 or 3 TB), which allows you to use the device as a simple network drive for storing network user data. Speed ​​of work via SMB protocol and with Windows clients not very high and does not exceed 30 MB/s. At the same time, if you have a Mac, you can use the proprietary network access protocol for this OS and get higher numbers.

The presence of a USB port allows you to expand the disk capacity with external hard drives, but you must be prepared to use the HFS file system for them, which Windows users may be difficult to implement.

There are no additional services typical of modern network drives in this model.

Don't forget that the Time Capsule is very well made and matches the style of other Apple products. This device can be recommended for users of Apple products who require a fast access point and/or a high-capacity external network drive for storing archives and backup copies. If you are using a Windows PC, then perhaps it will be more interesting using AirPort Extreme in combination with an external USB drive. At least in terms of speed you won't lose anything.

Time Capsule - powerful tool backup for Mac. Thanks to him you can never lose important information from a computer.

Apple was one of the first to use the new processor from Intel, and was the first in the industry to announce the use of a second generation. And one of the first to switch to the new 802.11 protocol. New processor, actually, was developed for the UltraBook Coalition led by Intel... Than MacBook Air Intel interfered, I don't know. This was hardly a purely aesthetic rejection, since the UltraBook concept, which dozens of companies tried to implement, was a copy of the MacBook Air description, with the only difference: the Air ran under Windows control, various Unixes and OS X, and not a single UltraBook running OS X, at least officially and without problems, worked.

The mouse got stuck or apple keyboard? Stopped using or replaced your outdated AirPort router with a modern router? Now these little things will not collect dust on the table. You won’t even have to leave the house to sell them without any advertisements or bargaining. And most importantly, the money will be given to you directly in your hands, on the spot.

On Tuesday morning, October 20, 2009, the online store was closed to visitors. “We are temporarily closed, we’ll be back a little later, sorry,” it was written something like this. I only remember the gist. Polite but adamant, in Apple style... Only the store opened later than usual. And there were changes in it for three large press conferences, or for one – but a very large one. The updates were significant, and at each of them, with the appropriate presentation of the material, it was possible to promote Apple well.

iMac on Intel Core 2 Duo Penryn was announced on Monday 28 April 2008. The sign, as one would expect, once again confirmed the wisdom of the ancients: the new iMac model was a fantastic success. And Apple increasingly ignored tradition. When a company has 4 products (Mac, iPod, iPhone and ), there is no time for nonsense. However, so far there were 3 of them. Apple TV could not “start”. Time Capsule (according to unverified data) sold better. Comparable. Five days before the announcement of the new iMacs, the company reported results for the next quarter, the second quarter of the 2008 “fiscal” year, or first calendar year. Gifts have been bought, holidays have passed, money has been spent... Sales are falling, and there is a lull.

For some reason, devices like the Time Capsule are attracting much less public interest than Apple's new smartphones, tablets and computers. However, the American company also updates them quite regularly, keeping the technologies used in them up to date. This has been the case for the last few years, while AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule received exclusively routine updates that concerned the internals, but did not in any way affect their appearance. Everything changed this summer, when Apple carried out a major redesign of its routers, at the same time slightly changing their names. Now the company's product range includes three AirPort devices with a new and absolutely identical design. This AirPort Extreme and two models AirPort Time Capsule, differing in the capacity of the built-in hard drive. In this review, we will take a look at the younger 2 TB AirPort Time Capsule model.

Appearance

The packaging of the new AirPort Time Capsule immediately catches your eye with its size. Especially if you remember the low, flat “capsules” of previous years. The height of the box is almost 25 centimeters, and it weighs more than one and a half kilograms. After removing the cover, which is the main part of the package, you can see the AirPort Time Capsule itself. It turns out that the device in the box is raised by a good third of the internal space using an improvised stand that hides the power cable and traditional information booklets underneath. Here, in fact, is the entire package.

The AirPort Time Capsule of 2013 began to occupy a much smaller area, but it seriously stretched upward. The height of the “capsule” is 168 millimeters, the length and width are equal and amount to 98 millimeters. The router weighs a lot - 1.48 kg. The hard drive plays an important role in this. As you have already noticed and understood from the dimensions, the device now has the shape of a tower. This solution has both pros and cons. If previously the Time Capsule was almost as tall as regular routers and was calmly placed in any narrow place - as long as it was out of sight, now such a trick will not work. The new AirPort Time Capsule begs for an open space and doesn't have any provisions for mounting, say, on a wall.

All the side edges of the device are made of milky-white glossy plastic, which perfectly retains fingerprints and is difficult to clean. I would even say that this is exactly the same plastic that is used in all chargers Apple. And it scratches just as easily from the slightest contact with another flat surface. However, most of the time your Time Capsule will probably be in its normal position, sitting on its rubberized stand. There is also an Apple logo, and the “capsule” itself is slightly raised, exposing ventilation holes to remove heat from the hard drive. The top of the device is made of white matte plastic with a black Apple logo in the middle.

Overall, like all Apple devices, the AirPort Time Capsule looks cool. An ignorant person may not even realize that this is a powerful and high-tech router. Unless, of course, he looks behind the back of our tower. There are 3 gigabit LAN ports, USB 2.0, a WAN port and a connector for connecting the power cable. To the right of the network cable socket there is a hole for resetting the device if problems arise with it. On the back side of the front panel there is a single light indicator that lights up orange or green depending on the current state of the device.

Setup and characteristics

It's time to plug in the cable and bring your AirPort Time Capsule productivity tower to life. An orange indicator blinks on the front of the device, indicating the need for user intervention. If you are a happy owner of a Mac, then your computer already has AirPort Utility. For iOS devices similar application is in App Store, but owners of computers running Windows will have to download the AirPort Utility from the Apple website. Through this program the primary and all further customization AirPort Time Capsule. There are no dull web interfaces here.

Although Time Capsule supports all current types of Internet connections and contains a comprehensive number of settings for regular and wireless networks, all this is at the level of ordinary users. You won't get any specialized features from Apple routers. This is a device for the home and the widest audience. One of the interesting features is the creation of a guest network so that other people's devices can use Internet access, but do not have access to the device's hard drive. At Apple help ID you can access the contents of the capsule over the Internet, but this will require a static IP address.

The initial setup of the AirPort Time Capsule is indecently simple, and all manufacturers of such devices should strive for this. In my case, I only needed to tell the provider the Mac address of the new router and Internet access appeared. If you want or lack special knowledge, you don’t even have to look into the jungle of “capsule” settings - everything usually starts working after the first wizard for setting up the device is completed.

AirPort Time Capsule supports completely new standard Wi-Fi 802.11 ac. The updated MacBook Air also supports it and will likely support all future Apple devices. In theory, the new standard allows you to achieve speeds of 1.3 Gb/s. In reality, the results turned out to be somewhat different, but more on that later. Like previous “capsules”, the new one supports simultaneous Wi-Fi work at frequencies of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. If desired, the latter frequency can be allocated to a separate wireless network. Do not forget that several antennas are hidden in the router case.

Time Capsule is different from AirPort Extreme presence of hard disk. In the model under consideration, its volume is 2 TB. It is not very noisy and attracts attention only in complete silence. However, you have to pay for this with its low productivity, but in quality file storage its capabilities are beyond criticism. There are no problems accessing it from Windows, but other home devices will most likely remain out of use, since the Time Capsule works using the SMB protocol.

Performance testing

The new AirPort Time Capsule, as noted above, boasts a powerful Wi-Fi receiver that has multiple antennas and works simultaneously in two frequency ranges. However, as a performance test, I would like to propose not just another “synthetic” that reflects the ideal state of affairs, but a test close to real conditions.

As part of the test, an archive of exactly 2 GB in size was transferred from the computer to the “capsule” and back. In each case, the test was performed three times and then the average was calculated. In some cases, unexplained dips in device performance occurred during single attempts. In this case, the test began again.

In the first two tests, a file was transferred from a Windows 8 computer to an AirPort Time Capsule via cable. As a result, the speed indicators were limited by the capabilities of the hard drive built into the device. Both tests took just over a minute on average, and speeds ranged from 27.7 to 28.8 MB/s.

Then the 2013 MacBook Air came into play, supporting 802.11ac Wi-Fi. Three groups of tests were carried out for it, differing in distance: 1 m, 7 m and 15 m + a wall 0.4 m thick. In each group, 4 tests were carried out: 2 in 5 GHz mode and 2 in 2.4 GHz mode. Thus, the test file was sent both from the “capsule” to the Mac and in the opposite direction.

The results were quite expected. The 5 GHz mode demonstrated high speeds, in some places superior to Ethernet at a distance of up to 7 meters inclusive. When an obstacle appeared in the signal path and the distance doubled, the data transmission speed dropped on average by half.

As for the 2.4 GHz mode, it also showed approximately the same performance at a distance of up to 7 meters. Then there was a drop in speed indicators, but not as significant as in the first case. At the same time, the 5 GHz mode still turned out to be faster. But there's one here important point, which you should pay attention to. The operation of two devices at a distance of 15 meters in 5 GHz mode was not the most stable. A couple of times the signal was interrupted and the data transfer had to be started all over again, the Internet fell off.

For greater clarity, the test results are summarized in the following table:

As a small conclusion to this subsection, I would like to note that the 5 GHz mode shows itself most effectively at short and medium distances within an apartment. Therefore, using this operating mode as a separate wireless network does not seem appropriate. The MacBook Air itself often switched to a faster operating mode if the signal quality allowed it. In general, the AirPort Time Capsule is capable of providing access to a wireless network at a more than acceptable level within an apartment or a small house. Don't expect miracles and incredible signal strength from the device.

conclusions

Apple sells the AirPort Time Capsule for $299 and $399 for the 2TB and 3TB models, respectively. Given the capabilities of the device, this price is still a little high. However, if you pay attention to the design, then in this regard the “capsule” does not have many competitors, if any. At the same time, the plastic from which the device is made scratches too easily for a device in this price category. Perhaps this fact upset me most while studying Time Capsule. Although, on the other hand, it is unlikely that anyone will constantly drag the router from place to place.

Apple sometimes makes very strange devices that allow users to use them not only for their intended purpose, but also as they please. Moreover, when there is such a powerful community in which there are many inventors. For example, a set-top box for the Apple TV, it would seem, well, what can you do with it, after all, it can do a lot! But no, there were enthusiasts who turned the device into a kind of video recorder that supports many common video formats. There were kind people who revealed to the world the secret of replacing a hard drive without much harm. And, of course, this is not all that enthusiasts have done with this accessory. Today I want to tell you about one more thing similar device called Apple Time Capsule. The name is closely related to one of the functions of Mac OS, Time Machine, - backing up system data for later restoration both on your own and on a new laptop or computer.

Appearance

The device is delivered in a small box, opening it, we find the Time Capsule itself, a power cable, disks with software for Mac OS and Windows. Because to Russia this accessory While it is not officially available due to problems with certification of the IEEE 802.11n standard (as far as I understand, precisely because of this), the power cable needs an adapter for our sockets. You can connect the Time Capsule without fear of burning it, it supports voltage from 140 to 240 V. The device itself is a relatively small box, branded milky-white plastic, a light indicator on the front panel and not a single button. Except that there’s a hole with a hidden Reset button, it’s located on the back, and at first I thought with a grin that I wouldn’t have to use it. As it turned out, I was mistaken. On the back there are ports scattered:

• One Gigabit Ethernet WAN port for ADSL or cable modem connection
• Three Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports for connecting computers or network devices
• USB port for connecting a USB printer or external USB hard drive

The dimensions of the device are 197x197x36.6 mm, Time Capsule weighs from one and a half kilograms, depending on the modification. On this moment Devices with a hard drive capacity of one or two terabytes are relevant; the latter option was tested. In an article about the company’s recent announcement, I pointed out one fact that was not particularly pleasant for me personally - the “capsules” were also updated and became more productive. It so happened that I bought the copy I took for testing a few hours later, because it was necessary to update it “on time.” On the other hand, it's still a good thing.

Two words about the hard drive: as it is written on the Apple website, a Serial ATA server-grade hard drive, 7200 rpm, is used.

Settings

Perhaps I’ll talk about how I set up Time Capsule for my own use, and below we’ll talk a little about other possibilities. So, the reason for changing the access point is simple for me personally. I've been using the Zyxel P-330 for two years now. Or rather, it wasn’t even that he used it, but rather fought. The family has a lot of devices with Wi-Fi, and when I sat down to play PS3 in the evening, the console simply gave a connection error. Of course, if there is also my wife’s laptop, my laptop, iPhone, and some other device on the network that has been forgotten. But connected. What did Zyxel do? Required a reboot. And so every day. I believe that with one or two devices this thing can work quite well. But as soon as something else appeared, 330, waving his pen, politely sent this “something” to distant lands. Thoughts about a replacement arose a long time ago, but never got around to it. And when I took the Time Capsule for testing, I didn’t think about buying it - it’s a very expensive router, no matter what you say and no matter what arguments you come up with. Even despite the very large hard drive, even despite all the other goodies. I thought like this: I’ll test it, if I like it, I’ll look at AirPort Express. Well, or to a regular AirPort.

It all turned out wrong. To begin, I inserted the Ethernet cable into the device, into the WAN port. I’ve been using Akado for many years now, it’s a shame that it can’t get to my house digital television. But everything is fine with the Internet. I had all the settings written down, so all I had to do was install a small program from the included disk, it’s called “AirPort Utility.” It’s interesting that you didn’t even have to choose the installation and program language; everything was in Russian right away. Yes, for setup I used MBP 17 with installed system Snow Leopard. So, all the pieces of the puzzle are put together, the indicator on the Time Capsule blinks yellow, the program detects this device and offers to configure it. Okay, let's do it! The process is not complicated; if you have at least once configured the access point via the web interface, then there will be no problems here either. But not in my case. The problem appeared after completing the settings. All this time, the indicator on the device regularly blinked yellow, showing that the settings were being recorded. But here on final stage when the Time Capsule was supposed to reboot, nothing happened. Moreover, it was not detected by any computer. I had to take a pen and use the Reset button. Hmm, that didn't help. After reading the instructions, I found out interesting fact: If simply pressing and holding the button for a few seconds does not help, you need to unplug the cable from the outlet, press and hold the Reset button, and connect the Time Capsule to the network again. This method helped. I entered the settings again, very carefully, and again the same problem. At the final stage, the device did not reboot.

I won’t torture you, I spent an hour trying to find out the reason, and it turned out to be banal. I set up the Time Capsule using what's called the "quick" setting, when I should have chosen the setting manually. When I entered all the data in this window, the Time Capsule rebooted properly and began distributing the Internet to the entire area.

I don’t want to blame the creators of the software for Time Capsule in any way, since for some reason the problem that arose was typical only for me; no one on the forums had encountered this.

What can you do in the settings? You can configure AirPort, everything is traditional here. In the “Wireless” section you can select a radio mode: 802.11 a/n - 802.11 b/g or 802.11 a - 802.11 b/g. The “Guest Network” section is designed to create a kind of special little world for visitors to your home or office - they will be able to connect to the network, but they will not “see” the private network and Time Capsule. And, accordingly, they will not receive access to her disk. The Internet settings are standard, this is where you had to enter the provider data. Some official information:

• Time Capsule is certified for Wi-Fi draft 802.11n specification version 2.0 (firmware version 7.3.1)
• Interoperability with Mac, Windows PC and more Wi-Fi devices, certified for Wi-Fi standards 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g and the draft 802.11n specification version 2.0.
• NAT, DHCP, PPPoE, VPN passthrough (IPSec, PPTP and L2TP), DNS Proxy, SNMP, IPv6 (6-in-4 and manual setting tunnels).

There are also separate sections for setting up printers, disks (connected via USB), in the Advanced section you can view statistics, configure port forwarding, specify your MobileMe data for the “Access to my” function. Mac computer", configure IPv6.

So, after all the settings, another device appears in the Finder, the Time Capsule. On the vastness of your hard drive, you can save many necessary and useful files and access them at any time. For example, the first thing I decided to do was save a mighty bunch of different videos in the Time Capsule memory - watched TV series, good films that had already been watched a hundred times, recordings of concerts, and so on. Simply put, something that you would hate to delete, but you also don’t want it to take up space on your laptop’s disk. To begin with, I chose four films, standard “avishkas”, the average size is 1.5 GB. A VIDEO folder was created in the Time Capsule and the files were fed to the “capsule”. Well, the speed is not bad, four videos in twenty minutes is not bad.

Separately, it must be said about the Internet, about stable and smooth operation with all home devices. For me, this is a kind of psychological “turning point” when you have breakfast in the morning, turn on Wi-Fi on your phone and don’t know whether it will connect to the network or not... Sometimes this makes me very angry. This is not the case with the Time Capsule; it has been at home for a couple of weeks now, during which time there have been no reboots or connection problems. I personally am satisfied with the operating range; in a three-room apartment the signal is reliable everywhere, both on the loggia and in the kitchen.

Time Machine

In theory, the main purpose of the Time Capsule is to use the hard drive for backup. Everything is simple here: select Time Machine, enable this function, specify the hard drive - respectively, Time Capsule. After this, the backup occurs automatically. This process does not greatly affect the speed of work on the network, but it can take a fair amount of time. And, frankly, it’s a pity for space on such a good network drive, I think if I “move” to another laptop, I’ll connect external hard disk via USB and I’ll get a copy much faster. True, in my case, when using the Time Capsule, the process is very slow.

What else?

Well, now let's talk about what you can do with the Time Capsule. The scheme of working with the device that I described is very simple; in fact, for me it is just an access point and a network drive for storing and playing various files. Yes, yes, right from the Time Capsule you can watch videos perfectly, without problems, without delays or “brakes”. But if you have other types on your Time Capsule and want more, then you need to come here, to the Ru_mac community. We look for the tag and find a real treasury of knowledge. For example:

“Hello! The following problem has arisen: I have a netbook with Windows 7. The Internet through the Capsule works with a bang, but the capsule screw refuses to be seen... There is also no capsule in the network environment, although the Workgroup group is everywhere. If you connect a network drive in Windows, it thinks for a very long time, then it falls off like check the network address... It works fine with a MacBook with a capsule screw, and Windows 7 sees the shared folders of a MacBook normally, but it simply refuses to see the capsule... Maybe someone has come across this with this problem? or maybe if you have any guesses what can be done other than throwing out the netbook with Windows 7"

The solution turned out to be simple: “The whole trick is that in Windows 7, by default in the sharing settings, you should only work with devices that support 128-bit encryption... if you disable this garbage, then everything works with a bang.”

I won’t occupy your attention, if you are interested in Time Capsule and non-standard scenarios for its use, then follow the link in the Ru_mac community. There are topics about connecting additional devices to the Time Capsule, and about use with different providers, and about backup features, and a lot of general information. Including comparisons with competitors, advice on purchasing and repairs.

conclusions

I’ll do without any “buts” this device It costs quite a bit, but if you buy it in the USA, you’ll need to prepare it for about five hundred dollars. In Russia, this figure turns into twenty thousand rubles or even more. The Time Capsule, like some other Apple gadgets, is not covered by a worldwide warranty; if it breaks, you'll have to find an enthusiast willing to help with the repair. So it’s expensive and not very relevant for Russia yet. Moreover, you can buy another router for less money.

For myself, I made a choice for a simple reason: for a MacOS user, working with a network drive is a real pleasure, plus I like the Time Capsule as an access point. It operates almost silently, although it does heat up during data transfer. Therefore, the “capsule” has taken root and found its place at home; I don’t want to scour around in search of a substitute now. Perhaps later I will connect a printer and one of the external hard drives, We'll see. In any case, Apple has come up with a rather interesting thing, albeit an expensive one.

Apple Time Capsule 2Tb ME177 is a product that we will analyze in detail today. It is remarkable at least because it has a built-in battery. Good quality(and also of great length) the cord is another advantage.

Although this is all that the manufacturer put in the box. It’s not worth talking about different pieces of paper. There is no patch cord. Apparently, it is assumed that the buyer has a MacBook or another simpler Apple device. In iOS gadgets you will find special software to configure the router.

Read on for more details about the Apple Time Capsule 2Tb ME177. Our review will help you make the right decision whether to buy a Time capsule for your iOS device or not.

Time Capsule 2Tb looks like a large piece of white shiny plastic. The shape is closer to a parallelepiped. If you look from above, it is a square with slightly rounded edges.

On the body you will find the company’s symbols in the form of a gnawed apple. Or rather, even two - at the top and on the opposite side. Moreover, the bottom of the element is covered with a film for protection.

The bottom is dark, but this is not visible, since it barely protrudes down. The body rises slightly above the surface, providing air flow to several holes below.

Features of operation

Before buying any equipment accessory, the user thinks about how it works and whether it needs customization. Apple Airport Time Capsule 2Tb ME177ru A is equipped with active cooling technology. But in fact, it was not she, but the hard drive that turned out to be the noisiest element. I'm glad it can be replaced. This can be done during “promotion”.

But here lies one difficulty. Apple has not yet come up with any methods for softly disconnecting the capsule. In the settings, it is only permissible to disconnect active users by force. However, whether the disk stops working during the operation is not clear. It’s unlikely that anyone will want to simply unplug the power cord, but regular power failures can negatively affect the life of the drive.

Ports

On the back of the panel there are the following connectors:

• power socket;
• WAN – element;
• USB 2.0;
• LAN – 3 ports.

All of them are gigabit. Hidden near the power socket is a tiny element for resetting settings in forced mode. In front there is the same small element of the router status. If it lights up green, then everything is fine. If orange, there are problems with the settings or the device itself. The display is not annoying in any way.

So there will be no problems installing the capsule to your iOS device.

Dimensions

The dimensions of the capsule are 9.8 x 9.8 x 16.8 cm. The weight is as much as 1.5 kg. The latter, of course, is not encouraging. When unpacking. Logically, it is enough to take back cover and pull the element up. The bottom stand from the routers will slowly come out during this process. The main thing is not to damage anything.

Otherwise, there are no complaints about either the “appearance” of the router or the packaging. All just great! Design is, of course, important. But it alone is not enough to call the product quality. Therefore, let’s talk about the “filling” next.

Functionality and performance

Let us immediately note that the capsule is not very well adapted to the realities of domestic network provision. It is also not very well configured for Windows operating systems. All parameters are set not through the web interface, but using special software - AirPort Utility. By the way, for Windows it has not been updated for several years. There is no localization for our country, as well as manuals. Most likely, it was intended that everything should function right out of the box. And that developers are well aware of the needs of consumers.

The position is transparent, but flawed for Russian reality. Another advantage of the software is the ability to diagnose certain problems and indicate ways to solve them. However, the list of difficulties that the utility copes with is very limited. A the simplest way problem resolution. when it is unimportant, it is simply not to notice it. The easiest way to do this is to turn off notifications about its presence. This can be done, among other things, through an indicator, the hue of which will change from orange to green.

During the initial connection, the capsule settings wizard will launch. Upon completion, he will once again check for difficulties and suggest solutions if any. Next, a number of router settings will become available – let’s go over them:

• brief information about the state of the device;
• settings of the network name, router, password characters, activation of data exchange with the NTP server, DDNS support is present, but there is no list of supported elements;
• Wi-Fi and selection of operating mode, channels, types of encryption, region.

Separately, you can activate a 5 GHz access point, as well as the use of wide channels. The signal strength can also be adjusted. Support for access control by MAC addresses is implemented through RADIUS servers or manually according to a specified schedule.

There is also an option to create a guest network. It can be made accessible and private.

Additional options of interest are: creating a backup for settings with copy protection using password symbols, returning to the original settings, sending logs to remote servers and their local viewing, monitoring innovations for operating systems on the machine. There is also an unusual wizard for adding wireless guests via WPS. Here you can limit the connection period to days. But in a variation for Windows we're talking about about any clients, and on Mac - all the attention is paid to printers. But the differences don't stop there. In the Mac version, you can enable IGMP Snooping, but adjusting Wi-Fi strength and enabling wide channels are not available. But on a Mac you can activate the option remote access, but this does not require the presence of AirPort at all. In general, the version for Windows has more extensive settings. There is also a utility for iOS - devices.

Conclusion

As a regular access point, the product reviewed in this review is very worthy, even taking into account its regional limitations. Using the option home router, you will buy minimum required functions. But this is usually enough for the average user.

And, of course, everyone is concerned about such a factor as cost. A product with a 2 GB disk costs just over 12,000 rubles. For such simple functionality it’s not cheap at all. But on the other hand, it is difficult to find a similar combination of a router and network storage with the same disk. Moreover, for a similar price.

In a situation with a 3 GB model, you can go wild, but a simple AirPort Extreme costing 8,000 - 9,000 rubles looks a little strange compared to other products.

However, if you have a lot of Apple devices and your provider is not tied to a VPN, the capsule will fit perfectly into the existing structure.