{"id":1374,"date":"2009-11-25T22:12:17","date_gmt":"2009-11-25T13:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2009-11-25\/1374"},"modified":"2009-11-25T22:12:17","modified_gmt":"2009-11-25T13:12:17","slug":"apple-time-capsule-be-sure-to-use-good-cabling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2009-11-25\/1374","title":{"rendered":"Apple Time Capsule: Be Sure To Use Good Cabling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\nNOTE<\/b>: Images with an icon next to them have been artificially shrunk to better fit your screen; click the icon to restore them, in place, to their regular size.\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Along with my new\nMacPro<\/a> I also<\/span> picked up one of the new-generation dual-band (whatever\nthat is) Time Capsules<\/a>,\nwhich is like an Airport\nExtreme<\/a> (router plus dual-band wireless base station) with a 1TB<\/span> backup\ndisk tacked on. I'll use the backup disk for Fumie's MacMini, and perhaps\nmy old MacBook.<\/p>\n\n

I became interested in it after getting an Airport Extreme for Fumie's\nfolks when I set<\/span> them up with an iMac, and it was so amazingly simple to\nset up (with dual networks, a secured<\/span> one for them, and an open one for\nguests), that I wanted<\/span> one to replace whatever old\/slow 802.11b wireless\nbase station I was<\/span> using.<\/p>\n\n

Anyway, after setting it up (which indeed was simplicity incarnate), I ran into<\/span> two problems:<\/p>\n\n

  1. Wireless connections generally worked, but were occasionally spotty,\n and not just when running the microwave oven.<\/li>\n\n
  2. Fumie's MacMini could not get an IP address if I plugged<\/span> it directly\n into one of the unit's three LAN connectors, but it had no troubles\n when connected through a switch<\/span> (itself connected to one of the unit's three LAN connectors).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

    That second one is really odd. I talked<\/span> to Apple Support over the phone,\nand we tried the standard stuff like resetting it, etc., and in the end\nthey sent me a new<\/span> one, which arrived today.<\/p>\n\n

    The wireless connections seem much better, but issue #2 still happened,\nand after futzing around, I think<\/span> I figured<\/span> it out: I think<\/span> the Time\nCapsules have “weak” LAN ports.<\/p>\n\n

    From my data closet (where the Time Capsule sits) to the wall socket in\nthe living room is perhaps 20m of Cat-5E cable, and then I had<\/span> a 7m<\/span> Cat-5\ncable to her computer. That's well<\/i> within spec for 100baseT\nconnection, and indeed, in every other configuration I checked,<\/span> it worked\nfine. For example, connecting Fumie's computer directly to the incoming WAN\nwith the same wiring worked fine, and placing the Time Capsule at Fumie's\ndesk and connecting it to the WAN there (then via its LAN to Fumie's\ncomputer with a short<\/span> Cat-5 cable) was also good.<\/p>\n\n

    Back with the Time Capsule in the data closet, replacing the 7m length\nof Cat-5 with a 5m<\/span> length of Cat-6A and suddenly it was getting a 1000baseT<\/span>\nconnection, as it should.<\/p>\n\n

    I'm no expert in this stuff, but it seems to me that the only\nexplanation that fits is that the Time Capsule's LAN ports are underpowered\nin some way.<\/p>\n\n

    Not having paid much attention to cabling, I checked<\/span> the cabling to the\nMac Pro and found that it was Cat-5 and I was<\/span> getting the 100baseT\nconnection one would expect from Cat-5. I replaced<\/span> that with a Cat<\/span>-6 cable\nI had<\/span> lying around, and now have a 1000baseT<\/span> connection. That'll make\nconnecting to Fumie's computer faster, though I still<\/span> have only a 100Mbit<\/span>\nfiber connection to the outside world (which goes to show that we all must\nsuffer in our own ways :-D).<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Along with my new MacPro I also picked up one of the new-generation dual-band (whatever that is) Time Capsules, which is like an Airport Extreme (router plus dual-band wireless base station) with a 1TB backup disk tacked on. I'll use the backup disk for Fumie's MacMini, and perhaps my old MacBook.<\/p>

    I became interested in it after getting an Airport Extreme for Fumie's folks when I set them up with an iMac, and it was so amazingly simple to set up (with dual networks, a secured one for them, and an open one for guests), that I wanted one to [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}