Apple Time Capsule - Wireless Router and Network Drive in Single Device. AirPort Time Capsule Setup: Apple backup storage What is Airport Time Capsule

Devices like Time Capsule for some reason cause much smaller public interest than new smartphones, tablets and Apple computers. However, the American company also updates them quite regularly, maintaining the relevance of the technologies used in them. So it was the last few years while Airport Extreme. And Time Capsule received exclusively on duty updates regarding the internals, but not reflecting on their appearance. Everything changed this summer, when Apple spent a large-scale redesign of his routers, at the same time changing their names. Now in the range of companies at once, three AirPort devices with a new and absolutely identical design. it Airport Extreme. and two models Airport Time Capsule., differing in the volume of the built-in hard disk. In this review we will get acquainted with the younger AIRPORT Time Capsule model for 2 TB.

Appearance

The packaging of the new Airport Time Capsule immediately rushes into the eyes with its sizes. Especially if you remember low flat "capsules" of previous years. The height of the box is without a small 25 centimeters, and it weighs more than one and a half kilograms. After removing the lid, which is the main part of the package, you can contemplate the AirPort Time Capsule itself. It turns out that the device in the box is raised on the good third of the internal space with the help of an improvised stand hiding a power cable and traditional information booklets. Here, in fact, the entire package.

Airport Time Capsule 2013 began to take a much smaller square, but it was seriously stretched up. The height of the "capsules" is 168 millimeters, length and width are equal and amount to 98 millimeters. Weighs the router a lot - 1.48 kg. Hard disk plays this not the last role. As you have already noticed and understand from the dimensions, the device now has the shape of the tower. This solution has both pros and cons. If earlier, Time Capsule was almost height with ordinary routers and quietly put in any bottleneck - if only from the eye, it would not pass like a similar trick. The new Airport Time Capsule is asked to open space and has no fixtures for fastening, say, on the wall.

All side faces of the device are made of milk-white glossy plastic, which perfectly retains fingerprints and is poorly cleaned. I would even say that this is exactly the same plastic that is used in all chargers Apple. And it also scratches easily from the slightest contacts with the other flat surface. However, most of the time your Time Capsule will probably be in a normal position, standing on a rubberized stand. There is also an Apple logo, and the "capsule" itself is slightly raised, blinding the ventilation holes for the heat removal from the hard disk. The upper part of the device is made of white matte plastic with black apple logo in the middle.

In general, like all apple devices, AirPort Time Capsule looks cool. The unfair person may not guess that in front of him is a powerful and high-tech router. If, of course, does not look behind the back of our tower. Here are 3 gigabit port Lan., USB 2.0, WAN port and connector for connecting the power cable. To the right of the network cable jack there is a hole for resetting the device if problems arise with it. From the reverse side on the front panel there is one single light indicator, which is lit orange or green depending on the current state of the device.

Setting and characteristics

It's time to connect the cable into the outlet and revive the productive Tower of Airport Time Capsule. On the front of the device blinks an orange indicator, indicating the need for user intervention. If you are the happy owner of Mac, then on your computer is already present Utility Airport.. For iOS devices, there is a similar application in App Store.But the owners of computers running Windows will have to download the Airport utility from Apple. Through this program and the primary and all further configuration of AirPort Time Capsule is made. There are no dull web interfaces here.

Although Time Capsule supports all topical connection types to the Internet, contains an exhaustive number of settings for ordinary and wireless networks, but all this is at the level of ordinary users. Some specialized features from Apple routers you will not achieve. This is a device for the house and the widest audience. From interesting features, you can mark the creation of a guest network so that other people's devices can use Internet access, but did not have access to the hard disk of the device. For aid Apple. The ID can access the contents of the "capsules" via the Internet, but this will require a static IP address.

The primary configuration of AirPort Time Capsule is easy to indecent and all manufacturers of such devices should strive. In my case, it was only necessary to inform the provider MAC address of the new router and the Internet access appeared. If you wish or the absence of special knowledge in the Debrist of the "Capsules" settings, you can not even look - everything usually starts to work after completing the work of the first wizard for setting up the device.

AirPort Time Capsule supports perfectly new standard Wi-Fi 802.11 AC. It is also supported by updated MacBook Air. And will surely support all subsequent Apple devices. In theory, the new standard allows you to reach a speed of 1.3 GB / s. In fact, the results were somewhat different, but this later. Like previous "capsules", new supports simultaneous wi-Fi work At frequencies of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz. If desired last frequency You can allocate in a separate wireless network. Do not forget that there are several antennas at once in the router housing.

Time Capsule differs from the AirPort Extreme by the presence of a hard disk. In the model under consideration, its volume is 2 TB. He is not very noisy and draws attention to only in complete silence. However, it has to pay for its low performance, but it does not cause complaints as a file repository. There are no problems with access to it from Windows, but other home devices will most likely stay not at cases, since Time Capsule works on the SMB protocol.

Testing productivity

The new Airport Time Capsule, as already noted above, boasts a Wi-Fi productive receiver with several antennas and operating simultaneously in two frequency bands. However, as a test of performance, I would like to offer not the next "synthetics", reflecting the ideal position of things, and the test approximate to real conditions.

As part of the test, the archive of exactly 2 GB was transmitted from the computer to the "capsule" and back. In each case, the test was carried out three times, and then the average value was calculated. In some cases, unexplained failures occurred in the performance of the device during single attempts. In this case, the test started first.

In the first two tests, the file was transmitted from a computer running Windows 8 on the AirPort Time Capsule on the cable. As a result, the high-speed indicators "left" in the possibilities of built-in hard device disk. On both tests on average, it took a little more than a minute, and the speed was from 27.7 to 28.8 MB / s.

Then the MacBook Air 2013, which supports Wi-Fi 802.11ac joined MacBook Air. For him, three groups of tests were conducted, distinguished by distance: 1 m, 7 m and 15 m + wall thickness 0.4 m. In each group, 4 tests were carried out: 2 in 5 GHz mode and 2 in 2.4 GHz mode. Thus, the test file went both from the "capsules" on the poppy and in the opposite direction.

The results turned out quite expected. The 5 GHz mode demonstrated high speed, places superior to Ethernet at a distance of 7 meters inclusive. When an obstacle arose on the signal path and the distance had doubled, then the data transfer rate fell on average twice.

As for the 2.4 GHz regime, it also showed approximately the same performance at a distance of 7 meters. Then the drop in high-speed indicators occurred, but not so much as in the first case. At the same time, the regime of 5 GHz still turned out to be faster. But there is one important momentto pay attention to. The operation of two devices at a distance of 15 meters in 5 GHz was not the most stable. A couple of times the signal was interrupted and the data transfer had to start first, the Internet fell off.

For greater visibility, the test results are reduced to the following table:

As a small conclusion to this subsection, I would like to note that the most efficient mode of 5 GHz shows itself on short and middle distances within the apartment. Therefore, the use of this mode of operation as a separate wireless network Not seemingly appropriate. MacBook Air and often switched to a more speed mode if it allowed the quality of the signal. In general, Airport Time Capsule is able to provide access to a wireless network on a more suitable level within an apartment or not very large home. Do not wait from the device of wonders and incredible signal power.

conclusions

Apple sells AirPort Time Capsule at a price of $ 299 and $ 399 per models for 2 TB and 3 TB, respectively. As part of the possibilities of the device, this price is still a little overpriced. However, if you pay attention to the design, then in this regard, the "capsule" is not so many competitors if they are at all. In this case, the plastic from which the device is performed is scratched too easy for the device of this price category. Perhaps this fact disappeared me most while studying Time Capsule. Although, on the other hand, it is unlikely that someone will constantly hide a router from place to place.

At Apple, sometimes make very strange devices that allow users to use them not only for their intended purpose, but also as a soul is pleased. Especially when there is such a powerful community in which there are many inventors. For example, the Apple TV compiler seems to be, well, it can be done with it, it may be so much! But no, there were enthusiasts that turned the device into a kind of video recorder that supports many common video formats. Good people who opened the world replacing the hard disk to the world without much harm were found. And, of course, this is not all that enthusiasts did with this accessory. Today I want to tell you about another similar device called Apple Time. Capsule. The name is closely related to one of the Mac OS functions, Time Machine, - backup data of the system for subsequent recovery both on your own and on a new laptop, computer.

Appearance

A device is supplied in a small box, opening it, we find the actual Time Capsule, a power cable, disks with software for Mac OS and Windows. Since in Russia this accessory Until officially comes due to problems with the IEEE 802.11n certification certification (as far as I understand, it is because of this), the power cable needs an adapter under our sockets. You can connect Time Capsule, without fear to burn it, it supports the voltage from 140 to 240 V. The device itself is a relatively small box, a branded milk-white plastic, the light indicator on the front panel and a single button. Is that a hole with a hidden RESET button, it is behind, and at first I thought with a grin that I would not have to use it. As it turned out, I was mistaken. On the back are the deposit ports:

One Gigabit Ethernet WAN port for connecting ADSL or Cable Modem
Three Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports for connecting computers or network devices
USB port for connecting a USB printer or an external USB rigid disk

The sizes of the device are 197x197x36.6 mm, weighs Time Capsule from one and a half kilograms, depending on the modification. At the moment, devices are relevant with a hard disk volume into one or two terabytes, on testing was just the last option. In the article about the recent announcement of the company, I pointed out one not particularly pleasant for me personally - "capsules" were also updated and became more productive. So it came out that I had bought an instance for the test after a few hours, because it was necessary to update it in time. On the other hand, the good thing is still.

Two words about a hard drive: As written on the Apple website, the server-level server serial ATA, 7200 rpm is used.

Setting

Perhaps I will tell you how to configure Time Capsule for your own use, let's talk about other possibilities below. So, the reason for changing the access point for me personally is simple. For years, two used ZyXEL P-330. Rather, not even that I used it, but rather fought. In the family a bunch of devices with Wi-Fi, and when I drove in the PS3 in the evening, the prefix simply gave out a connection error. Of course, if the network is still a laptop wife, my laptop, iPhone yes plus some kind of device remaining forgotten. But connected. What did Zyxel do? Required reboot. And so every day. I believe that with one or two devices, this thing can work quite normally. But as soon as something else appeared, the 330th, waving the handle, politely sent it the most "something" in distant edges. Thoughts about the replacement arose for a very long time, but everyone did not reach hands. And when he took Time Capsule to the test, I didn't think about buying - it hurts a dear router, which is not talking and what arguments do not come up with. Even despite the hard disk of a very large volume, even despite all the other "goodies". I thought so: I will test if you like, I will look at the AirPort Express. Well, or on the usual Airport.

It turned out everything is wrong. For a start, I inserted an Ethernet cable to the device into the WAN port. Over the year I use Akado, it's a sorry that I will not get to my house digital television. But on the Internet everything is in order. My settings were all recorded, so it remained only to set a small program from the disk from the kit, it is called "Airport utility". Interestingly, the installation language and program did not even have to choose, everything was immediately in Russian. Yes, I used MBP 17 with installed system Snow Leopard. So, all parts of the puzzle are collected together, at Time Capsule, the indicator blinks yellow, the program detects this device and offers to set up. Well, let's do it! The process does not represent anything difficult if you have at least set the access point through the web interface, then there will be no problems here. But not in my case. The problem appeared at the end of entering the settings. All this time, the indicator on the device regularly darreled yellow, demonstrating the recording of the settings. But at the final stage, when Time Capsule had to reboot, nothing happened. Moreover, she did not find any computer. I had to take the handle and use the RESET button. Hmm, did not help. After reading the instruction, I found out interesting fact: If the simple pressing and holding the button does not help for a few seconds, you need to pull out the cable out of the outlet, click and hold the RESET button, connect the Time Capsule again to the network. This method helped. Entered the settings again, very carefully, and again the same problem. At the final stage, the device has not rebooted.

I will not torment you, I killed an hour to clarify the reason, and it turned out to be banal. I set up the Time Capsule using the so-called "fast" setup, whereas it was necessary to select manually setting. When entered all the data in this window, Time Capsule regularly rebooted and began to hand out the entire internet district.

I do not want to blame the creators of the software for Time Capsule, since for some reason the problem has been characterized only for me, no one has come across the forums.

What can be done in the settings? You can configure Airport, everything is traditional. In the "Wireless" section, there is a possibility of selecting a radio mode, it is 802.11 A / N - 802.11 b / g or 802.11 A - 802.11 b / g. The section "Guestbook" is designed to create a kind of special Mirka for visitors to your home or office - to the network they will be able to connect, but the private network and Time Capsule "see" will not. And access to its disk, respectively, will not receive. Internet settings are standard, here and it was necessary to drive the data provider. Some official information:

Time Capsule Certified for Wi-Fi Project Specification 802.11n version 2.0 (Firmware version 7.3.1)
Interaction with MAC computers, Windows PC and other Wi-Fi devices certified for Wi-Fi 802.11a, 802.11b standards, 802.11g and 802.11n specification project version 2.0.
NAT, DHCP, PPPOE, Transit VPN (IPsec, PPTP and L2TP), DNS Proxy, SNMP, IPv6 (6-B-4 Tunnels manual setting Tunnels).

There are also separate sections to configure printers, disks (connected via USB), in additionally you can see the statistics, configure port forwarding, specify your MobileMe data to work "Access to my way computer MAC.", Configure IPv6.

So, after all settings in Finder, another device appears, Time Capsule. On the expanders of the hard disk you can save a lot of necessary and useful files And at any time turn to them. For example, the first thing I decided to keep the mighty handful of various video in the Time Capsule memory - viewed series, good, but already covered for a hundred times films, records of concerts, and so on. Simply put, what is sorry to remove, but I do not want it to take place on a laptop disk. For a start, I chose four films, standard "Aviches", the average size is 1.5 GB. In Time Capsule, the Video folder was created and the files were filled with a "capsule". Well, the speed is not bad, four videos in twenty minutes is not bad.

Separately, I must say about the Internet, about stable and smooth work with all home devices. For me, this is a kind of psychological "fracture", when in the morning you have breakfast, you turn on Wi-Fi on the phone and do not know, it will connect to the network or not ... Sometimes it is very angry. With Time Capsule, this is not, at home it is already a couple of weeks, during this time any reboot or connection problems. The range of work personally suits me, in a three-room apartment is confident everywhere, and on the loggia, and in the kitchen.

Time Machine

In theory, the main purpose of Time Capsule is using hard disk for reserve copy. Everything is simple here: Select Time Machine, turn on this function, specify the hard disk - respectively, Time Capsule. After that, the backup occurs automatically. At the speed of work on the network, this process does not significantly affect, but it may be fairly time. And, frankly, sorry for the place on such a good network disk, I think if I "move" to another laptop, then connect an external USB hard disk and get a copy much faster. True-true, in my case, when using Time Capsule, the process is very slow.

What else?

But now let's talk about what you can do with Time Capsule. The scheme described by me is very simple, in fact, for me it is only an access point and a network drive for storing and playing various files. Yes, yes, right with Time Capsule perfectly watched video, no problem, without delay or "brakes". But if you have other species on Time Capsule and want more, then you need here here, in the community RU_MAC. We are looking for a tag and find a real treasury of knowledge. For example:

"Hello! There was such a problem: there is a netbook with Windows 7. The Internet through the capsule works with a bang, but the capsule screw refuses to see ... there is no capsule in the network environment, although there is a workgroup group everywhere. If you do in Windows to connect a network drive, it thinks for a very long time, then it is hung off the type check the network address ... With a capsule metalcase, it works fine, and the shared folders of the MacBook WINDOVS7 sees normally, but the capsule just refuses to see ... Maybe someone faced with such a problem? Or maybe if you have assumptions that you can do, except to throw a netbook with windows7 "

The decision was simple: "The whole chip is that in Windows 7, by default in the settings general access It is worth working only with devices supporting 128 bit encryption ... if this garbage disabling, then everything works with a bang. "

I will not borrow your attention if you are interested in Time Capsule and non-standard scenarios of its use, then you are the road on the link in the RU_MAC community. There are topics and about connecting to Time Capsule additional devices, and about use with different providers, and pro features of backup, and a lot of general information. Including comparison with competitors, purchase tips, repair.

conclusions

I'll do without any "but", this device is worth the order if you take in the US, you need to cook about five hundred dollars. In Russia, this figure turns into twenty thousand rubles or even more. At Time Capsule, as on some other Apple things, the warranty is not covered worldwide, in case of breakdown, you will have to look for an enthusiast, ready to help with repair. So expensive and for Russia is not too relevant for Russia. Moreover, you can buy another router for less money.

For myself, I made a choice for a simple reason: for the user MacOS work with a network disc - solid pleasure, plus I like Time Capsule as an access point role. It works almost silently, however, during data transfer heats up. Therefore, the "capsule" passed on and found its place at home, I don't want to cry back in search of a substitute. Maybe later I connect the printer to it and one of the external hard disks, we'll see. In any case, Apple has a rather curious thing, albeit expensive.

Reflections on how easy and securely maintain important data, for sure, once visited every owner of electronic technology. Of course, the masters of modern service centers sometimes create real miracles and to learn information from completely "killed" devices. However, we all understand that one day to extract photos, important notes and contacts, a thesis project or an annual report with the "fleeing" device may not be possible. At this point, thinking about the safety and protection of data will be irretrievably late. Therefore, let's think about this topic in advance, preventing such losses in the future.

What the owners are waiting electronic devices From operations to protect data from loss? First of all, the completeness and ease of recovery in case of unexpected situations. As well as an uncomplicated data storage algorithm. Ideally, if the operation is automatically executed, without constant actions from the user.

Some may think that the output is element, not in vain. Flash drives and removable media with a huge space storage space are invented. But not everything is so simple. Human forgetfulness, the vulnerability of the devices themselves - these are the factors that all your efforts will be reduced. After all, just once to forget to throw the necessary document, pour the external hard drive with water or lose it - and you will remain without valuable information.

Is there a way out? Yes, Time Capsule from Apple will solve your problem.

Apple Time Capsule - a mechanism to which connects network cable With the Internet, which then begins to break through the room. It is important that the created Wi-Fi network allows access to the hard disk with files. A temporary capsule works like this: via a wireless connection you drop the document to the Hard disk capsule, after which the file becomes available to all the gadgets connected to this wireless Internet. Now it can be used directly in Apple Time Capsule or download to your PC or laptop.

Even more benefits will bring Time Capsule, if you have an Apple laptop at home, operating system Which has a Time Machine function. In a nutshell, this program itself monitors the changes in the data on the computer and automatically duplicates them to the device selected in advance. Thus, you do not need to spend time on recording new files to backup machines. However, if necessary, you can roll back this system for a couple of steps back, returning to the state of the files that you want to see. So, if heviar or hollows delete the necessary information, select the previously deleted day and restore the system to this date. Couple clicks - and files Again with you.

In a word, once and for all, exclude from your life with the loss of the necessary information simply. First: Acquire Apple Time Capsule. Second: we turn on it at home, connecting to nutrition and the Internet. Third: We go to the MacBook Pro or Apple Mac to configure Time Capsule and Time Machine to redund data when changing.

Do not be afraid of the failure of Apple Time Capsule. The device is different high quality The materials used and the reliability of the assembly. Cases when repairing the capsule is required, very little, and most of them are only on the usual setting of parameters. With the most severe damage, a hard disk breaks, but such a breakdown is easily eliminated in service centerWhere you, at the same time, can put a component with big storage facilities. Sometimes a similar "extension" of memory is required, since the standard Time Capsule often has at its disposal no more than 1 terabyte when home computers are equipped with 2 or more. It is better to equip the Time Capsule with a disk space with a margin than a little bit off. So, if, for example, on a laptop, you can save terabyte information and additionally use an external 750 gigabyte hard drive, then 2 terabytes in Time Capsule - what you need. This volume ensures the safety of the entire amount of data.

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

Supplies and appearance

The device packaging is even more than that Mac Mini. last generation - 23 × 23 × 10 centimeters. Therefore, despite similar with the younger representative of the Apple desktop PC sizes, the box more reliably protects Time Capsule during transportation.

Judging by the facial side of the package, Time Capsule is positioned as a hard drive with wireless interface 802.11n. On the one hand, this, of course, is true, but from the point of view of the possibilities of the device - the characteristic is clearly not complete. In Russian there is only a small sticker, already correctly describing specifications Models. The package includes a drive, a power cable, installation manual (in Russian) and a warranty card. No programs or network cables are provided.

In appearance, the device is very similar to the AirPort Extreme, but noticeably larger in size. Another difference is the company's mirror logo on the upper lid. Case - white glossy plastic. Its dimensions - 19.7 × 19.7 × 3.7 cm, projection - coincidence with the latest Mac mini, however, the radius of "rounding" corners are less than that of the computer. On the front side there is a multifunctional indicator, along the contour - the ventilation slot, from the back - all connectors. Here you can detect the power cable input (the power supply is built into the device), USB 2.0 port, four gigabit network ports (one WAN and three LANs) with indicators, hidden reset button, Kensington Castle.

Despite the outer case from plastic, the device is quite heavy, its mass is 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 the AirPort Extreme and on its filling. Inside the plastic case hides the WESTERN DIGITAL WD30EZRS volume of 3 TB (in the model under consideration, there are also modifications and 2 TB). It is connected by interface SATA, has a buffer with a volume of 64 MB 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 at the router: the Marvell 6281 processor, 256 MB (at the airport is two times less) of RAM and 16 MB flash, the MARVELL 88E6350R switch, the two-band wireless controller BCM94331 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 case of the device decreased significantly, so that the power supply was decided to place inside. Also note the cooling system is a large aluminum radiator for a special form for large chips and a small fan for a hard disk. What concretely pass the air flow is quite difficult to understand. However, it is clearly not to close the ventilation grille present on the housing. The fan operation algorithm completely disables it if the disc temperature is within up to 50 degrees (a separate remote sensor is used for verification, and not built into the hard drive). Next, the speed of operation increases with increasing temperature, but even in this case the noise level is relatively low.

The device was tested with the firmware version 7.5.2.

Assembly and configuration

To collect in this case there is nothing to collect - just connect the power cable and optionally - a network cable. Time Capsule Setup is performed using a special program that has in versions for Mac OS X (built in OS) and Windows (you need to download from Apple site). In the first case, the Russian version of the interface is also provided.

Providing access to the built-in hard disk, Time Capsule can operate in router mode, extend the existing wireless network, access point, wireless client. In the latter case, you can arrange Apple Time Capsule anywhere without tosing to the network wires, which is interesting enough. Although, of course, it is necessary to understand that the speed of working with the disk will be significantly less than on the wires.

The device completely repeats the capabilities of the AIRPORT EXTREME reviewed by recently on working with networks, so that we will not stop here in detail. Interested readers can refer to the past material. We describe only a few differences in the configuration program interface associated with the presence of an embedded hard disk.

Access to shared folders is provided by SMB / CIFS and AFP protocols. Of course, there is support for Time Machine backup brand program. The network interfaces of the device are represented by a gigabit port and two-band bands 802.11n with a speed of up to 300 Mbps (2T2R).

For the built-in hard drive, the system checks the SMART state and allows you to additionally perform two operations - delete data and backup to external disk. Erase information can be useful if you plan to give the drive to another user. Moreover, besides the quick option to clean the catalog there are three guaranteed from the recovery of the option, including 35-fold rewriting data. Of course, this operation, especially on Winchester 3 TB, will require a significant time for execution. Archiving data may be useful in terms of enhancing the reliability of storage of documents. The speed of copying on HFS + USB disk in our case was about 20 MB / s. Launches archiving only in manual mode, During its operation, the reconfiguration / restart device is not possible. Copy all the contents of the internal hard drive, including common folders users. A small problem is that after this operation you can access backup Only from the computer, but not through the Time Capsule itself, since data copying is carried out in the root of the external volume.

Recall that settings network access Allowed to choose one of the access control options - on the general password to the device / disk or by the username and individual password (the user's database will need to be created in the drive itself). The use of a second variant with external hard drives leads to the fact that the volume automatically creates a new directory ("Shared") for shared access and individual folders for each user. At the same time, you will not have access to the previously posted on disk files (unless you take them into one of the new folders). Rights to users are issued from the usual list "Reading and writing" or "Only reading". It is possible to establish guest rights and provide access to WAN port disks.

To safely disable USB drives or shutdowns, it is desirable to pre-disable all users from network resources through the setup program by pressing the appropriate button.

As you can see, the possibilities of the storage device meet the standard network drives and are quite sufficient for ordinary home users or small working groups, but they are significantly lagging behind the majority of "real" network drives.

External devices

USB port can be used to connect external drives and printers that will be available over the network. Using a USB hub to increase the number of simultaneously working devices is allowed. The disks support FAT32 and HFS file systems and several sections. Resource access rights are configured similar to the embedded disk - for each user it can only be the right to access all the volumes at once.

Multifunction devices operate only in print mode. Communication with printers is traditionally one-sided.

Additional features and empowerment

Of additional options When working with the drive, we note only the support of the Mobile Me service, which allows you to get remote access to documents. True, it should be noted that the service itself is now in a state of transformation and the registration of new users is impossible. Currently, the device is fully closed from modifications, there are no installation options in it. additional programs or utilities. It is unusual that there is no mediaservice that Apple loves so much.

Routher performance

Since the model under consideration has physically different from the AirPort Extreme antenna, it was interesting to look at how it affected the speed of operation in the wireless access point mode. We did not use a complete set of adapters for checking, and compared only the two most productive.

It is difficult to choose the explicit winner, but most configurations with Mac turned out to be more productively Time Capsule. With the second participant, not everything is so simple - the numbers for a frequency of 2.4 GHz have grown, but for 5 GHz - decreased.

The speed of operation in the mode of the wired router is practically no different from the predecessor, which is visible on the second graph.

Network drive performance

We spent the performance measurement in two programs - the traditional Intel Naspt and the DISK Speed \u200b\u200bTest utility from the BlackMagic Desktop Video. The second of them is interesting in that there are versions for Windows and Mac OS, which will allow us to check the work in the profile scenario of use. We have already used for a long time, the NASPT test could not pass all the tests, "stumbling" on a pair of templates with a large number of files. It is difficult to say how this will affect the actual work of users, but the sign is not very good. On the other hand, it is still synthetics. The graph provides the results of measuring the speed of operation with a built-in disc and external with two options for file systems - HFS + and FAT32.

According to modern standards, the numbers are not very high. Even the youngest NAS models today show noticeably more numbers. It seems that for PC users with Windows, this model is not very suitable.

Disk Speed \u200b\u200bTest You can download free from the manufacturer of equipment for video capture. The program is used to quickly determine the capabilities of the disk system, which is very important in the tasks of recording and playing the unpacked video. Speed \u200b\u200bMeasurement Operation - Sequential read and write file 5 GB. Unfortunately, the results are not very stable, so for definiteness we took the numbers of the fifth test launch. Work under Mac OS X was checked on Mac Mini 2010 with wired network connections. Moreover, both available network resource connecting options are considered - by the AFP brand Protocol and inherited from Windows - SMB / CIFS.

It can be seen that the AFP brand protocol to access network files is noticeably faster than SMB. The latter shows almost the same results for different OS on the client and, most likely, its speed is limited to the implementation in Time Capsule.

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

Having at hand a high-performance network drive from one of the leaders of this market, we checked using Disk Speed \u200b\u200bTest the speed of its work with Mac. The results have shown that for the AFP protocol, the recording is carried out at a speed of about 64 MB / s, and reading may be slightly faster than 80 MB / s. So it turns out that for mAC users The considered branded device is not much lagging behind alternative options.

conclusions

Like the Airport Extreme, the device considered today includes a modern wireless router, capable of working simultaneously immediately in two ranges of 802.11n standard. At the same time, the speed directly Wi-Fi at Time Capsule is very high and makes up with good adapters on the client side up to 100 Mbps by 2.4 GHz and 125-200 Mbps per 5 GHz. The support of guest wireless networks looks interesting. If we talk about the possibilities of providing access to the Internet, then for the domestic user this model It may not come up - it supports only direct connection and PPPoE, which may not be enough. Routing speed in direct connection mode is very high and is at the level best models home level.

The Time Capsule is installed in the inner hard drive of a large (2 or 3 TB) capacity, which allows the device to use the device as a simple network drive to store network data data. Speed \u200b\u200bof work on the SMB protocol and with windows clients Not very high and does not exceed 30 MB / s. At the same time, if you have Mac, you can use the Network Access Brand Protocol for this OS and get higher numbers.

Availability uSB ports Allows you to expand the disk capacity by external hard drives, but you need to be prepared for use for them. file System HFS that Windows users can be difficult to implement.

Nic additional Servicescharacteristic of modern network drives, in this model there.

Do not forget that Time Capsule is very high quality and styled corresponds to other Apple products. This device You can recommend a user of Apple products that need a quick access point and / or external network drive large tank For storing archives and backups. If you use Windows PCs, then it may be more interesting to use AirPort Extreme in combination with an external USB disk. At least from the point of view of speed you will not lose anything.

It is perfect for at least the fact that it has a built-in power supply, as well as a very decent and also long cord included. True, that's all that the creators put in a box with a device, not counting paper instructions and warranty coupons. There is no patch-cord, since, apparently, it is understood that the user will necessarily find a MacBook or at the thin end of the iPhone / iPad. And there there is a special utility to configure the router.

The housing is a massive piece glossy whiteplastic in the form of parallelepiped. On top view, this is a square with rounded edges. On the case there is a logo in the form of an apple. Even two - on the top cover and below. Moreover, it is also covered with a protective film. The bottom of the black color, but it is unnoticed, since it is just a little bit out. Thus, the hull turns out to be a little raised above the surface, which provides air access to a few ventilation holes on the bottom.

It is curious that the device has active cooling, but in fact, the most noisy element was the built-in hDDBut you can only be seen during the "promotion". However, there is one unpleasant moment. No way of "soft" shutdown of the router is not, and in the settings you can only disable forcibly active users File server, however, whether the disk stops - not very clear. It is clear that it's just that way to pull out the power cable is unlikely to come to mind someone, but frequent interruptions with electricity in theory can be pretty stabbed the health of the drive.

On the back of the bottom up, the following connectors are very free: the power socket, WAN-port, uSB connector 2.0 and three more LAN ports. All network ports are gigabit. Next to the power socket is hidden a soft button for forced resetting settings. On the front panel there is a terrible indicator of the state of the router. If it burns green, then everything is in order. If some problem has been found with the device itself or in its settings, it lights up orange. The indication is very unobtrusive and simple.

"Capsule" has dimensions of 98 × 98 × 168 mm and weighs as much as 1.5 kg, which played their evil pieces. In theory, when unpacking, it is enough to grasp the upper cover of the packaging and pull it up, and the lower stand with the router will be beautiful and slowly to leave. The main thing is that it does not work like this ! Otherwise, no complaints about the appearance of packaging, nor for the design of the router itself - everything is fine. Beauty, of course, terrible force, but one is not enough, so let's see what Apple Airport Time Capsule is able to do.

Apple Airport Time Capsule A1470 router (RU)
Standards	IEEE 802.11 A / B / G / N / AC (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz)
Chipset / controller	Broadcom BCM53019A1 (ARM Cortex-A9 1 GHz x 2) + BCM4360 x 2
Memory	RAM 512 MB / ROM 32 MB; hDD drive 2 or 3 TB
Antennas	6 x internal; 3 x 3: 3 for 2.4 GHz, 3 x 3: 3 for 5 GHz
Encryption	64/128-bit WEP / WPA / WPA2 (Enterprise), 802.1x, WPS; guest network
Maximum speed	802.11ac: up to 600 Mb / s, 802.11n: up to 216 Mbps, 802.11g: up to 54 Mbps
Interfaces	4 x 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet, 1 x USB 2.0
Indicators	condition
Hardware buttons	Reset
Sizes (SHHDHV)	98x98x168 mm
Weight	1480
Food	AC 100-240 V, 50-60 Hz, 1.5 A
Price	12,300 rubles (2 TB) 16,300 rubles (3 TB)
Capabilities
Access to the Internet	Static IP, DHCP, PPPoE
Services	AFP / SMB file server; Print server; IPv6 (DHCP, STATIC, 6TO4); Time Machine; IgMP Snooping; DDNS.
Sprinkle ports	Virtual Server, Nat-PMP, DMZ
VPN timing	PPTP, L2TP, IPsec

It should be immediately noted that the "capsule" is not familiar with the realities of Russian Internet providering and is not very friendly to Windows users. All configuration is carried out not through the web interface, but using the AIRPORT UTILITY Special Utility, the version of which under Windows has not been updated for more than two years. There is no Russian localization, as well as fairly complete reference materials. Apparently, it is understood that everything should work "out of the box" and that the developers know better what the user needs. The approach is clear, but, alas, in our case there is a slightly flawed. The utility is the function of diagnosing some "faults" and showable ways to correct them, however, a set of situations with which Airport Utility is familiar, is very limited, and the easiest way to solve the problem, if it is insignificant - it is ignoring it, that is, just disabling notifications About her presence. Including with the help of the indicator on the device body, the color of which will be changed from the "alarming" orange to the "soothing" green.

When you first connected, the AirPort Time Capsule setup wizard starts. At the end of work, he will check again, if there are any problems, and will offer them to correct if they are. Further, several partitions of the router settings are available - on them and go. First of all, the user is available for brief information about the state of the device. The next tab is configured by the network name of the router, the password for accessing its settings, and synchronizes the NTP server. There is support for DDNS, but there is no list of supported services. IN wi-Fi settings Selecting the operation mode (A / B / G / N), channel, encryption type (no / WPA / WPA2 / WPA2 Enterprise), region. Separately include an access point for 5 GHz and the use of "wide" channels, and the signal power is adjusted. Supports access control over MAC addresses using a RADIUS server or manually asked the schedule. The latest option proposed in this section is the creation of a guest network that can be made open and isolated.

Apple Airport can be connected to either directly or via PPPoE. No support for L2TP / PPTP is not here. Also, the router can work simply in the access point mode or used to expand the coating already available wi-Fi network. For local network You can choose one of three ranges of addresses: 10.0.xx.xx, 172.16.xx.xx and 192.168.xx.xx. A binding of IP addresses to the client MAC address or ID, as well as a similar DMZ similarity for one machine. Automatic port forwarding is available via NAT-PMP, but you can manually patch TCP / UDP for a specific machine. There is also support for IPv6 connections, including 6TO4 tunnels, and firewall for them. By default, all incoming from the outside connection of this type is blocked, but you can separately allow Teredo and IPsec support. However, for a number of subsystems, it is possible to enable remote access (via bonjour).

To the USB port, you can connect printers and drives with volumes FAT16 / 32 or HFS +, but our standard test epson printer SX125 was not recognized. Data from an internal drive can be transferred to an external disk or simply be lost, including in a safe way. Network access is carried out using AFP / SMB. The Windows utility allows you to automatically mount network drives. It is possible to access the drive to guests to guests, as well as make your own account list, where you can specify read and write rights. Default is given full access By password from the device itself or on a predetermined password to drives. In the absence of activity, the disk "falls asleep". Of course, the most useful option for Mac OS X owners is support for Time Machine. However, on this description of the main features of Apple Airport Time Capsule A1470 ends.

Of additional features Available: Creating a backup of settings with the ability to protect it password, restoring factory settings, sending logs to a remote server and their local view, automatic check Updates software and firmware. There is also a mysterious wizard adding new wireless customers / guests through WPS with the possibility of limiting the connection time to one day. And in the Windows utility it is said about any clients, and the MAC version focuses on printers. There are no differences from the utilities. For example, in the Mac OS X program, you can enable IGMP Snooping, but you cannot adjust the power Wi-Fi or turn on "wide" channels. But on Mac OS X, you can configure the remote access function by the "Access to My Mac" function, although it is not necessary for its work. In general, which is surprising, the Windows version has more available settings. Also available utility for iOS devices.

Total: on the set of functions in front of us the initial level router! And it's not modern, and the form of five years ago, if for a while forget about IPv6, which is still not very relevant. Moreover, it is surprising that such a kutsai firmware works on a very decent "hardware". According to the data on the network, the device uses SOC Broadcom BCM53019A1: two Cortex-A9 kernels with a frequency of 1 GHz, built-in USB 2.0 controller and a gigabit ethernet switch. The operational memory of entire polgabyte, and constant - 32 MB. Inside the IFIXit device, the seagate ST2000DM001 rigid disk found. By the way, you can at the same time see how everything is arranged inside. The speed of access to the wired network disk is not very high according to modern standards - reading and writing at 27 MB / s. When accessing through Wi-Fi 5 GHz, the speed drops by about twice, and after 2.4 GHz - almost three.

The local radio module is a pair of Broadcom BCM4360 - we have long known for a long time. However, there is a small nuance. Apple has the law of the Russian Federation, and therefore there are no "wide" channels and technologies for the formation of the beam. For the usual AirPort Extreme without internal HDD, the same rules apply. Devices intended for other regions, these restrictions may not have, although they are still on the program level. In fact, on three threads of 5 GHz, we obtain a maximum of a "clean" channel speed of 600 Mbps, and 2.4 GHz - 216 Mbps. Do not forget that smartphones and laptops are now able to work only with one or two threads. However, even in such a configuration, there are no special claims for the actual data rate. But the access point of 5 GHz stubbornly did not want to turn on while the main home TD was worked in the same range. What was it, Holmes? Yes, the autolation of the channel of both networks coincided, but so that like this? In addition, there are many directly opposite reviews on the quality of the coating of a wireless network - someone is fine, and someone is not enough.

Apple Airport Time Capsule router (A1470)
The average speed of Wi-Fi 802.11ac (5 GHz), Mbit / s
Threads	1	2	4	8	16	32	64
A → R.	239	293	297	314	359	336	325
R → A.	260	370	399	463	464	469	462
R ↔ A.	340	384	388	399	394	362	349
The average speed of Wi-Fi 802.11n (2.4 GHz), Mbit / s
A → R.	119	135	140	137	138	137	131
R → A.	112	135	143	139	138	140	132
R ↔ A.	138	139	140	143	140	134	126

So, what about Internet connections? Everything is predictable not bad. The direct connection was issued in an area of \u200b\u200b900 Mbps, and through PPPoE - up to 300 Mbps. During work, despite good system cooling, the device still heated very noticeably. Still hard disk, powerful CPU and both wi-Fi module make yourself felt. For tests used our standard stands. First - PC with Intel Core I7-2600K, 12 GB RAM, KILLER NIC E2200, Windows 7 SP1 x64. Second - laptop asus N750JV with Intel Core i7 4700HQ, 12 GB RAM, REALTEK RTL8168, Windows 8.1 x64. Test packets - IXIA IXCHARIOT 6.7 with High Performance ThroughPut and Iperf profile. Wireless connections Clarified with WPA2, the guest network was not used, the ability to extend the network is disabled, and all other settings remained unchanged. As the main client, an ASUS PCE-AC68 (A) adapter was used with an external antenna block. Router (R) was connected to a laptop by patch cord. Stands were in direct visibility at a distance of four meters from each other.

In general, it turns out a rather strange picture. Apple Airport Time Capsule A1470 is quite good as a normal access point, even taking into account regional restrictions. In the home router mode, you will receive the minimum possible features and settings. As an Erzats-NAS, in principle, it will come down. And now about the most interesting - about prices. "Capsule" with a disk for 2 TB in the official Russian online store costs 12,300 rubles (well, no price for prices). The totality of all functions it turns out that pleasure is not from cheap. On the other hand, a bundle of a decent router and a network storage with the same disc for a comparable amount is not very simple. In the case of a model for 3 TB, you can already turn around, but the usual Airport Extreme for 8,300 rubles looks a bit strange against the background of other models. However, if you are still full of Apple's techniques, and your provider is not attached to a VPN, then the "capsule" will ideally fit into the already existing structure.

We look forward to comments of creative people who do not need universal support for IPTV, parental control, media server, cloud services And other excesses.

Update: Apple has updated prices for their devices. Now in the official online store "Capsule" for 2 TB costs 18,000 rubles, with a disk capacity of 3 TB - completely crazy 24,000 rubles, and the usual Airport Extreme is sold "only" for 12,000 rubles. As they say, no comment.