Hi.

I have to get the wireless home network and back-up set up.

I want to stay around the $500 I have saved.

Would appreciate feedback, experience/s and suggested pros and cons of either using the 500GB TM or an Airport Extreme and Firewire 400 HDD before I go out this w/e.

Cheers!

If your going to use Time Machine, then the TC is the only way to go. Airport Extreme won't do Time Machine over wireless. Also there aren't FW400 ports on an Airport Extreme, only USB.
I currently use a Drobo with 4 x 500GB drives plugged into an Airport Extreme and I use the Airdisk function to copy data to it (not Time Machine). This is what Airdisk is Apple - AirPort Extreme - Features - Hard Drive Sharing

Thanks leon.

I suppose I could've been a bit clearer... was interrupted from my lunch by work...

My scenario is;

I want a wireless network at home for guests hardware to share ADSL2 etc as well as push/pull any data on my iphone without the need to use plan data allowance.

I thought I could create one directly via the iMac but every time a try to create it, nothing picks it up and it seems to go away...???

SO... My plan was to set up a base station for the new printer, the iMac, iphone and guests to share/swap photos and files and browse the 'net when visiting.

I know that this could be done with either TC or AP Extreme, I'm just not sure whether to go for the simplicity of the TC or get the AP-E for the base station and connect the HDD directly to the iMac via FW?

Just seen/heard a few horror stories about the TC. I don't churn masses of data at home so I though it might be okay for our lighter usage / application...

Only issue I see with the planned setup, is that the iMac has to be turned on if you want to access the HDD. If you leave your iMac on all the time then that won't be a problem, but if you turn it off all the time then it will be a pain.
The other issue will be speed. In your planned setup it will go Laptop > Airport Extreme > iMac (FW400HDD). If you plugged the HDD directly into the Airport (or used a TC) then you will just be going Laptop > Airport/TC. Speed will be approximately 2x that of your planned setup as you won't have to make that extra jump to the iMac.

I'd probably say go for a TC. From memory I think you can also stick an external USB drive into it as well and that it will also run Time Machine to this drive as well (something the Aiport Extreme won't do).

Thanks leon.

Appreciate the advice.

I've decided against a TC. Read plenty of horror stories on the Apple Support forums about the sluggish speeds when backing up, or wireless speeds degrading over time. Apparently it hasn't been fixed or acknowledged by Apple.

I think it's a pretty neat device, because it's wireless. But I've just purchased an AirPort Extreme Base station and will hook up my current WD 250GB HDD in it's USB port. You will be able to mount and access the external drive wirelessly (AirDisk) and also allow TM to back up to it if you please.

I am hoping it will replace my current NETGEAR wireless modem/router, free up space on my MB HDD and hoping to God that I can "stream" all my iTunes music from the external HDD wirelessly from my MB to my speakers connected to AirPort Express without too much lag in connection and minimal drop outs.

This is not recommended, nor a supported feature by Apple. If you want to do Time Machine wirelessly, you need a Time Capsule. There is a chance of losing data if you use an Airport Extreme Airdisk as a Time Machine drive.

Cheers. Well I don't really need TM to back up my files. I got everything on my external HDD. When Apple fixes up TC, then I will consider it.

In trying to Time Machine backup all my Macs, I bought an AEBS and a 1TB HDD instead of a 1TB TC as I had read that the TC got really hot.

I found out later that I couldn't use this setup for TM a la TC. Bummer!

I, too, am patiently waiting for this to be fixed.

I read that this can be done.

Of course it's not supported as leon mentioned before, but this guy managed to get it working using that exact same setup - which I will try in a weeks time (when all my gear is delivered).

Apple - Support - Discussions - External HDD connected to AEBS but TM ...

Are you sure? I am using Time Machine over my AEBS 802.11n to an external USB HDD - both my wife's Macbook and mine are backing up to it wirelessly. Works, but does slow down the network when we're both doing it. Maybe the TC is better for multiple Macs.

Erwin you are correct. I also have a AEBS and a 1TB external USB drive. I have 2 MacBooks in the house and Time Machine backs up flawlessly over wireless. It's supported by Apple, no hacking required.

That is what I want to hear! I am glad that I've gone with this option - and cannot wait to start afresh a new network/wireless system when my MacBook Air arrives later this week!

Airdisk works as a Time Machine drive, but the integrity of the backup process is not guaranteed, therefore I wouldn't trust it as a proper backup strategy.
There are threads on Mactalk somewhere which explain exactly what the TC does that the AEBS doesn't regarding the integrity of your data. Something to do with AEBS not being able to handle signal dropouts or something during a backup, leading to corrupt data/sparseimages.

Your all free to continue using your AEBS + HDD as a Time Machine, but there are many horror stories out there regarding this set up. As far as I know this is still an Apple unsupported procedure. I can't understand why you would want to trust your data to something that Apple does not support - there must be a reason for this (and I don't believe it is to sell more TC's).

Apple - Support - Discussions - Avoid Time Machine via Airdisk - ...