Alternative to Time Capsule?

[vnangia]

Hi folks,

Any suggestions for an effective Time Machine target for two laptops? We used to use HP's WHS-based backup system, but (a) HP has abandoned the market and software support for 10.7+; and, (b) it never really worked effectively any way.

We're not interested in spending princely sums for the Time Capsule (quite aside from being happy with our current router), and are open to suggestions. A pre-built and well-supported system would be infinitely preferable to tinkering with software and hoping for the best. Any thoughts?

Cheers!

 

[PigeonF16]

Seagate Backup Plus 3TB

I bought a 3TB Seagate Backup Plus from Best Buy, $165 including tax. We have an iMac, old MacBookPro and newer MacBookPro. Total HD space on all three is about 1.7 TB. I recall having to format the drive so I could connect it via USB, but it connected individually to each MBP and Time Machine did its backup. I'm looking for a router with USB that I can set up the backups wirelessly. The Seagate advertises that it can handle both PC and Mac, but to use Time Machine you have to reformat, making it incapable of working with PC.
I'm considering the ASUS RT-N66U since it has 2 USB ports. I can't figure out whether I can put the Seagate in one USB and a PC-formatted HD in the other for my PC backups.
If you google "make your own time capsule", you'll find several sites with detailed instructions. I think you just need a wifi router with USB that you can plug any hard drive into, and Time Machine will configure the backup. With the Seagate and a $100 router, you can build your 3TB Time Capsule for about half Apple's price.

Any idea if the ASUS or Linksys EA4500 work with Mac? One of the big routers out there says it won't work with Mac, but I don't remember which.

 

[vnangia]

Thanks for the suggestion, PigeonF16, but that is precisely the kind of roll-your-own solution I am trying to avoid. This needs to work perfectly 100 percent of the time, and I'm very much afraid that roll-your-owns rarely "just work"

In any case, Best Buy had a refurb current gen Time Capsule on sale today, so I bought that. Just need to figure out how to turn off all the routing features I don't need...