764      iPhone_iPad_Mac_apple

Eero and Time Machine

Does anyone know if it’s possible to perform Time Machine back ups with to a hard drive connected to an Eero (or any other non Apple WiFi router) without doing any hacky nonsense?

It's possible.....if the Time Capsule is always connected to a LAN <--> Ethernet port on one of the Eero wireless access points.

The downside.....although things will probably work OK, this type of setup will not be officially supported by Apple if there are any problems.

The reason....Apple expects you to use the Time Capsule wireless (or the wireless from another Apple router) for backups, so there will be no help from Apple Support if you have difficulties using the Eero wireless for backup purposes.

In addition to Bob Timmons' comments:

Basically, no. As far as "network" drives, Time Machine supports the following network destinations:

• To an internal drive of a Mac server.
• To an external drive directly attached to a Mac server.
• To a NAS which has built-in Time Machine support.
• To an Xsan storage device.
• To a Time Capsule's internal drive.
• To an external drive directly attached to the Time Capsule's or 802.11ac AirPort Extreme's USB port.

There are a couple of routers (non-apple) that do support Time Machine.

eg Some of the top end Netgear and Asus routers.

See for example.

https://www.asus.com/support/FAQ/1004458/

However they don't tend to be that reliable. The issue is Apple uses special disk format, HFS+ and the backup must be stored in that format. Very few routers can support HFS+ disks.. the ones that do support Time Machine do it via virtual disk.. which is HFS+ formatted but that is adding trouble on top of issues.

Stick to known Apple supported methods or a NAS with known good compatibility .. eg synology are excellent.

Remember a backup that doesn't actually work is worse than useless.. because you actually think you are safe.

And can the Time Machine simply be connected to the Ethernet port on my Mac, taking it off the wi-fi network entirely?

In theory yes......assuming that the Time Capsule (Time Machine is software) will be connected to your wireless router using a permanent, wired Ethernet cable connection.

So, the Time Capsule will connect to the Eero access point using an Ethernet cable connection, and then the Mac will connect to the Time Capsule using an Ethernet connection.  Be sure to turn off the WiFi on the Mac so that it will use the wired connection for its Internet connection and Time Machine backups.

All things considered, if it were me, I would sell the Time Capsule and simply connect a USB drive directly to the Mac. Backups will be simpler, faster and more reliable this way.

Thanks Bob. The set-up I was assuming was:

- Eero creates wifi network.

- Mac accesses internet via the wi-fi network.

- Time Capsule attached to Mac via ethernet cable purely for purpose of Time Machine back-ups.

That type of setup would be a lot more complicated since you will have to manually turn off the wireless on the Mac and then manually connect an Ethernet cable when you want to back up. Then, reverse the process again when you want the Mac to connect to the Internet over wireless.

Connecting the Time Capsule to the Eero access point using an Ethernet connection and then connecting the Mac using Ethernet will allow the Mac to use the wired connections for both the Internet and backups at the same time.....so you don't have to do anything for backups to occur automatically.  And....as you are aware....the Ethernet connection will be faster than wireless, so you will have maximum performance that way.

最後更新：2017-09-14 02:29:59

  上一篇： What are some files having a .icloud extension ...

  下一篇： Chase credit card notifications in Apple Wallet