Apple Time Capsule MB276LL/A (AirPort Extreme Plus 500 GB Storage)
by Apple Computer
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List Price: Our Price: $169.99 You Save: $129.01 (43%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Apple Time Capsule MB276LL/A (AirPort Extreme Plus 500 GB Storage)
Customer Review: Got backup?
Summary: 4 Stars
One day, after looking through all my photos, I got really paranoid about losing them, my iTunes and everything. After all, hard drives all fail, right? And I have been lucky for a long time, so the laws of averages were clearly catching up with me.
The Time Machine promised automatic back-ups, speedier wireless connection to the internet and even wireless printing. This is all good stuff and so in a short time the UPS guy came and I went about installing it.
If you are going to use it as an internet connection, not just a back-up, get all that UP, IP, PPP nerdy stuff written down somewhere. For some reason, TM substituted some random numbers and I couldn't get it to connect.
Similarly, if you want wireless printing, and you do as it is sooo cool, you have to make sure you have already downloaded and installed the latest driver for your printer. Even so, there is the usual problem with too many places to locate printers, select them and all that. I ended up going through the installation procedure several times and then, click-click, it just worked. I don't know why I had a problem or how I fixed it.
The whole printer preferences thing is so much better than it was years ago, but still needs simplification.
I did my initial back-up wirelessly. It took a few hours, but went smoothly.
Time Machine works perfectly, the interface is easy and subsequent back-up are very quick and behind the scenes. Totally unobtrusive. It looks very nice.
It does run quite warm, even when nothing is happening. This seems like a waste of electricity to me, and perhaps a shorter life than it should have. Set-up could be easier, perhaps even automatic for simple installations. These are the reasons why I took off a star.
Time Machine is, I think, the best choice for most people and I recommend it. Note that a lot of the complaints involve complex environments, so if you have a bunch of computers of different kinds, mixed operating systems and various networks going it will not be easy. This has to be expected.
Customer Review: Great, with only a few exceptions...
Summary: 4 Stars
I am not disappointed with the Time Capsule, but am disappointed with some of the consequences associated with having it. First, let me say that it offers a lot more customization than most people are willing to admit. The network settings and ability to customize your network are just as good if not better than every other router I have owned.
-The USB sharing works like a champ. I am currently sharing two hard drives and a printer from the USB port. I don't like that the drives won't mount to the desktop, but rather just show up like a shared folder. It works though, so I have no real complaint.
-Time Machine works well, although you can't transfer a hard drive with an existing TM backup to the Time Capsule. You have to format and start over, which sucks.
-The TC is a bit noisy, but no more than the quietest hard drives I have used. It is definitely not as noisy as a Lacie or similar.
-As of right now, I cannot connect my XBOX 360 to the TC. I suspect that this is a flaw in the XBOX wireless adapter, and not in TC. I will try hooking up an old router in bridge mode and see if I can get it to work that way. I have also heard that there is a Linksys Wireless-N Gaming Adapter that works both with XBOX and with Airport Extreme
-It is a bit large, but looks great. I have heard others say it gets hot, but mine hasn't become anything more than warm.
-I have experienced what others say is slow performance, but I have been told that the Time Capsule regulates network traffic depending what it is, which usually only applies to Time Machine. It won't allow Time Machine backups slow down your network, which I like. I haven't confirmed whether this causes problems with media and other files, but I did notice that certain files were accessed faster than some, and it seemed to back up the claim regarding network control. If that makes sense...
Overall, I think it is a great deal, and I would recommend it to anyone that needs NAS and a solid router.
**UPDATE: I have solved the XBOX problem. Read the comments to see how.
Customer Review: WORKS OK, UNTIL IT DIES
Summary: 1 Stars
It was a reasonable product while it was working. Although there are few benefits to this over an airport base station with an external drive attached, which is cheaper and is upgradable. Mine did what it was supposed to do. It took me a while to configure it correctly with my Mac and PC but generally I had few issues. It would sometimes need to be reset and a lot of the firmware updates from Apple caused it to fail for short periods. It didn't really do anything exceptional considering the price when it first came to market.
Sadly, it only gets 1 star as there is no way to perform diagnostics when it fails. Mine failed last week, and Apple refuse to even try to figure out why, and will not replace it as my serial number is a couple of digits outside of the recall for the power supply problems.
I was amazed at Apples attitude. I tell them it died, first of all they say we'll send you a new one. I don't want a new one, I want my "server grade" back up source to be reliable. A new one means all of my back ups are gone. Luckily I don't need them right now, but that's not the point. So a diagnosis or attempt at repair would be more fitting, but they aren't interested, they will just send a new one. Then when they see the serial number is out of range, they won't even do that. So Apple think a two year old "server grade" back up solution should die with no explanation. They are sorry, but electrical devices sometimes break.
I N C R E D I B L E A T I T U D E
So as with the many hundred other people online with similar problems, the option seems to be to "open" the time capsule yourself, remove the drive, use an enclosure to get to your data, and then toss the white case in the trash. And they expect me to buy another one?
Now I'm in two minds about buying more Apple, which is a real shame.....
Customer Review: Absolutely outstanding experience!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll make this short... I just got my 500GB Time Capsule and, so far, it's been an absolutely outstanding experience. I was already on a wireless network and was a little confused about how well this thing would go in. So, followed the simple instructions that came with the AirPort Setup Utility and, voila, I was talking to the Time Capsule (TC). I decided to stand the TC up as a separate, Apple only wireless network, and to connect (specifically, bridge vs. Double DHCP) the TC up to my existing router. The installation took about five minutes and was absolutely flawless (I now have an Apple-only 802.11n network, and my original 802.11g network for guests). Oh, and did I say the 802.11n wireless is bloody FAST?!
As soon as I specified the TC as my Time Machine backup server, two minutes later the initial backup was cranking away. No false starts, no crazy configuration management or Regedit blah blah blah -- I plugged it in, gave it a couple of key data points, and it was up and working!
Only gripe I have is that I couldn't migrate my existing Time Machine backups to the new TC -- a minor inconvenience, but one I can live with...
THIS is the reason that I buy and use Apple products. I am exceptionally happy with this purchase. Three thumbs up!
Update 2008-03-20: I had some limited drop-outs of the wireless, but it wasn't a "killer" issue. Last night, Apple issued a Time Capsule update, and I'm happy to report the service has been absolutely flawless, and bloody fast -- the wireless function feels like it is orders of magnitude faster than before... Again, this has been an excellent experience, and I'll be purchasing my second Time Capsule for my daughter in the next couple of weeks.
Customer Review: Time Capsules are dying - Check Apple Support forums
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought a Time Capsule in March, 2008. 500GB. The first one I got at the Apple Store in NYC did not work. I brought it back to the store about two days later and they replaced it, no questions asked.
Since then the Time Capsule has been functioning well. There was one point where it would not back up and after trying a few fixes I had to erase the entire drive and start over. I was not thrilled, but I understand that with computers, there are hassles from time to time.
For the past few weeks the connection would drop at random times and the Time Capsule would reboot. Annoying, odd, but I was not certain about what to do.
Yesterday it died. Fully dead. I brought it to the Apple Genius Bar today and they told me, "Sometimes things break." Nonsense. These are not supposed to have an 18 month shelf life.
If you go to the Apple Support forums you will see loads and loads of people reporting this exact same issue. There are two threads of about 12 pages each. CNet, tuaw, etc. have now all taken notice and written about the plague of dying Time Capsules.
It seems the units run hot and after a while the electrics are cooked and the power source fails. As I understand it, the drive is still fine, but the electrics are shot.
Until Apple publicly addresses and solves this problem do not buy this or any Time Capsule product. In 18 months you will be looking a a very expensive, very white paperweight, and Apple will 'fix' this for you by encouraging you to buy a new one.