Time Capsule configuration nightmare

Josey Wales

I got a Time Capsule over a week ago now and have been trying unsuccessfully to set it up ever since. I've been so surprised how difficult it is to set up as I've always found Apple products to be very intuitive.

What I would like to do is set up a Wireless Network with the Time Capsule and use it to access the internet. I have the TC connected via an ethernet cable to my BT Zxyel router through the WLan Port. However with this setup I get two wireless networks, my original one I set up with BT and the new one I created with the TC.

I can't find a way to turn of the wireless signal from my BT router. I have read on forums that you have to put the router into bridging mode but when I tried that I lost all the settings in the router and had to contact BT support. When I do have the wireless turned on in the TC I get errors saying that the DHCP address conflicts with devices already on the network and when I change the DHCP address I get a 'Double NAT' error.

I did manage to do the initial backup of my MacBook via a wired connection but it has not managed a successful incremental backup wirelessly since last Saturday.

Is there anyone here who has set up TC with a BT router? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Greentree_uk

yes these devices are simple. but most people don't have a basic understanding of network topology to understand exactly what they are doing. there are two ways to setup this router and easy way and the hard way. I don't have the bt modem so I don't know the settings for the hard way. the easy way is probably the way to go for you. launch airport utility and select manual setup under internet there is a setting for connection sharing. turn this off. and voila your router is configured.

if you want the better way, the hard way..., you can try the following. set your router to bridged rfc1483 I think then in airport utility change your internet connection to connect using pppoe. you then need username and password. I think you can use eircoms username and password eircom and eircom or eircom and broadband1 I think they authenticate to aid people switching. but not sure. if you get stuck then revert back to the easy mode.

Josey Wales

I've set the connections sharing to off for the moment. I have the green light back on my Time Capsule now. I'll leave it like this for the moment.

buragoed

I'm having a similar issue with my TC set-up. I'll admit to not being that comfortable with networking termanology so I took the easy route of turning wireless off on my Eircom supplied Netopia router. I then connected the TC via ethernet to the router and followed the Airport Utility. Everything worked fine but I noticed that my PS3 (wired to TC) could only get NAT 3 and PS3 media server stopped working.

The connection which was rock solid before the TC is now flakey. Could anyone who has a similar set-up please advise me of the best method to get everything working properly? I presume I need to use the Netopia router in bridge mode but I'm a little lost after that. Help would be much appreciated! Thanks

buragoed

I seem to have answered my own question. I reset the router and the TC, I opened the router control panel, turned wireless off and bridging on. Then hooked everything back up and started the Airport utility. I set up TC using PPoE with the Eircom login details. Once everything had saved the connection now works perfectly. I thought I had done it this way before but I obviously missed something. I think the hard reset of both devices was the key.

I now have a NAT type 2 connection on the PS3 but media server is still not working. This is the only issue I can't resolve and it seems to be down to port forwarding. Once I figure it out I'll post it here.