quadra2030
Regular Contributor
Probably old news, but anyway..
I had a chance to get NOS Apple Time Capsule (AC version) basically for free few months ago, so I put it to the test, how it's going 6 years after release.
I have about 20 Apple devices on network (iMacs, Macbooks/Pros, iPads, iPhones, Apple TV) and some guest Android or Windows devices, is about 1100 sqft apartment in 100+ year old building, thick brick walls
I upgraded the HDD inside Time Capsule to 8GB WD Red Helium drive (funny thing is, has lower power consumption on both 5V/12V rails than original Seagate Desktop 2GB inside), everything went smoothly (no need to cut rubber cushions for new drive), upgraded firmware to latest 7.9.1.
I was surprised how good is the 2,4 GHz/5 GHz coverage through all rooms (but the Airport has a good central position in the apartment, I have 250/25 internet connection via cable (ISP modem is in bridge mode), most of the stationary equipment is connected via gigabit Ethernet, fairly crowded in both bands (about 10 networks in 2,4 GHz, 5 in 5 GHz.. but Time Capsule selected DFS channels automatically).
I had 1000/50 internet for a month (trial), was surprised that Time Capsule handled it on wired connections without a sweat - was getting 930+ on ethernet connected devices.
Stability is perfect - no dropouts, single SSID for both bands works very good (at least on Apple devices), definitely better than on Netgear or Asus routers, Time Machine is reliable (which can't be said of netatalk/samba 4 vfruit reversed clones, which all other vendors are using) after months, just set and forget, no errors (tested few days ago when restoring backup to previous version from Catalina).
I'm impressed of 6 year old device - sure, it's 802.11 AC wave 1 Broadcom device (same like R7000 or RT-AC68U).. and had all those routers in the past years (Asus RT-AC1900, Netgear R7800, R7000p - have to say, R7000p had the best 5GHz coverage and throughput), but stability was another matter (and many little bugs like Bonjour/Airprint printing couldn't wake up sleeping HP LaserJet printer, with Time Capsule it just works).
Just one more thing - the guest network on Airport is on separate IP adress range (default internal network is 10.0.1.x, guest is 172.16.x.x), something I see very rarely in soho routers (except OpenWRT/Lede, which can be configured that way), all others have guest network in the same range, just some firewall blocking (which is not perfect and many network tools can work around).
I had a chance to get NOS Apple Time Capsule (AC version) basically for free few months ago, so I put it to the test, how it's going 6 years after release.
I have about 20 Apple devices on network (iMacs, Macbooks/Pros, iPads, iPhones, Apple TV) and some guest Android or Windows devices, is about 1100 sqft apartment in 100+ year old building, thick brick walls
I upgraded the HDD inside Time Capsule to 8GB WD Red Helium drive (funny thing is, has lower power consumption on both 5V/12V rails than original Seagate Desktop 2GB inside), everything went smoothly (no need to cut rubber cushions for new drive), upgraded firmware to latest 7.9.1.
I was surprised how good is the 2,4 GHz/5 GHz coverage through all rooms (but the Airport has a good central position in the apartment, I have 250/25 internet connection via cable (ISP modem is in bridge mode), most of the stationary equipment is connected via gigabit Ethernet, fairly crowded in both bands (about 10 networks in 2,4 GHz, 5 in 5 GHz.. but Time Capsule selected DFS channels automatically).
I had 1000/50 internet for a month (trial), was surprised that Time Capsule handled it on wired connections without a sweat - was getting 930+ on ethernet connected devices.
Stability is perfect - no dropouts, single SSID for both bands works very good (at least on Apple devices), definitely better than on Netgear or Asus routers, Time Machine is reliable (which can't be said of netatalk/samba 4 vfruit reversed clones, which all other vendors are using) after months, just set and forget, no errors (tested few days ago when restoring backup to previous version from Catalina).
I'm impressed of 6 year old device - sure, it's 802.11 AC wave 1 Broadcom device (same like R7000 or RT-AC68U).. and had all those routers in the past years (Asus RT-AC1900, Netgear R7800, R7000p - have to say, R7000p had the best 5GHz coverage and throughput), but stability was another matter (and many little bugs like Bonjour/Airprint printing couldn't wake up sleeping HP LaserJet printer, with Time Capsule it just works).
Just one more thing - the guest network on Airport is on separate IP adress range (default internal network is 10.0.1.x, guest is 172.16.x.x), something I see very rarely in soho routers (except OpenWRT/Lede, which can be configured that way), all others have guest network in the same range, just some firewall blocking (which is not perfect and many network tools can work around).
