Airport Extreme, simultaneous G & N

J

jhd

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I currently have a wireless G network, used by a NAT drive (which has an additional USB drive plugged into it), an iPod Touch, an Airport Express, a MacBook Pro and an AppleTV. Both the AppleTV and the MacBook Pro are capable of 802.11N, and it would be advantageous to use N because of syncing with the Apple TV and my iTunes library is saved on the USB drive plugged into the NAT...

My question is, what are my options for upgrading to wireless N? My concerns are:
(1) only the Airport Extreme supports Time Machine
(2) the airport Extreme does not have a built in modem - if i get an Airport Extreme, should i plug my existing router in (Netgear 834g) using a network cable, or could it use the wireless network?
(3) i have 2 devices using the network that don't support N - what effect will this have on performance?

Any thoughts? Thanks.
 
Well I'm not sure what you are trying to say with #1, but what I can say is that any drive that can be mounted can be used for Time Machine, it might take a small step of tweaking, but it is possible. However, NATs are generally able to work with Time Machine flawlessly without tweaking, so have you tried do so? Also you could buy a Time Capsule with a drive built in to the Airport Extreme, so it's all ready to go out of the box. You can also hook up a USB drive to the Airport Extreme and then use that for Time Machine (meaning you can use your USB drive connected to your NAT).

#2 Yes, there is a separate connector on the Airport Extreme for connecting a modem through ethernet.

#3 Well if you need to connect the the wireless G computers to the Airport Extreme, then you will need to set it up for wireless N and G. Unfortunately, this will limit your computers to transferring at around 130mbps back and forth on the Airport Extreme (but that's still a lot faster than 54mbps). If you want run at 300 mbps then you will have to set it up for wireless N only, which won't allow your wireless G computers to connect to it. Although, maybe you could connect your existing wireless G router up to the Airport Extreme, and have it running as an access point and have that serve the wireless G computers, so that you can have the Airport Extreme running at full N.
 
Thanks for the advise icemanjc. I had tried and failed to set up time machine on my NAS (Buffalo Linkstation), and i obviously came to the conclusion too quickly that Apple had restricted the ability to use timemachine over the network to their devises only... i shall give it another go!

The idea of having the wireless G router running as an access point sounds like a good idea. I'm not experienced enough with wireless networks to fully understand how that might work in practice, but i'll google it and if i'll be back if i get stuck...
 
What version of Mac OS X do you have? The earlier version of 10.5 did not support Time Machine on the network. What type of router do you currently have?

It appears though that other people have the same problem that you are having, so maybe Buffalo just says they support Time Machine, but really don't? This is how to get it working if you want to spend 10 minutes or so. However, sometimes if you do things slightly wrong it'll mess things up, so if it doesn't work correctly, let us know (this is what I did to set up a Mac OS 10.4 computer as a Time Machine server).
 
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The new dual-band Airport Extremes have the ability to create two separate networks -- one for 802.11n only (on a 5GHz band) and a separate network with a separate SSID for 802.11a/b/g (on a 2.4GHz band).

Devices can "see" each other across these networks as well. Works a charm in my house.
 
jhd said:
I have a Linkstation GL series. Unfortunately, the link you gave me is a for a CH/CL Linkstation - not that you could have known! However, i did find this:
http://buffalo.nas-central.org/wiki/Time_Machine_%26_Time_Capsule_support_on_your_LinkStation
which i will have a go at when i've got a little more time. I'll let you know how i get on.

I'm running 10.6 on my mac, and i have a Netgear DG835g router.
Click to expand...
Well I don't think that when it comes down to it, it doesn't really matter what model you have. I'm glad though that you did find something that suits your needs.


ElDiabloConCaca said:
The new dual-band Airport Extremes have the ability to create two separate networks -- one for 802.11n only (on a 5GHz band) and a separate network with a separate SSID for 802.11a/b/g (on a 2.4GHz band).

Devices can "see" each other across these networks as well. Works a charm in my house.
Click to expand...

Wow! I didn't know that, that is really awesome! Unfortunately I only have the old school Airport Extreme, but luckily I don't use G so it works fine.
 
Does using the dual band function of the Airport Extreme slow it down, or do the wireless devices using N on your network still work at full speed?
 
Apparently it does not slow the Airport Extreme down at all because it runs as though it is two separate routers, and thus apparently can have two different network. Which having two in one is always a very nice feature.
 
It depends on how you configure it -- if you allow devices other than 802.11 on a network, then yes, it will slow down.

The dual-band AirPort Extreme is basically like having two, separate wireless routers running. I have mine configured to only let 802.11n devices on the 5GHz network and all other devices (802.11a, 802.11g, 802.11b) on the 2.4GHz network -- that way, all my 802.11n devices are on their own network and will not be slowed by devices on the other, mutually exclusive and separate network.
 
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