WNDR3700 and Time Capsule Together...

[pehrlabel]

Hello, our office has had only 3 mac laptops up until this week. we are about to get 5-10 more people and laptops (macs), so i'm upscaling.

I am setting up a new network for the larger group. some g and some n. we have 3 printers: one ethernet and two wifi.

right now the time capsule is taking care of everything, wifi, backups, printing. i'm going to switch it out for the wndr3700, though, and you smallnetbuilders probably know why.

the wndr3700 will be the main router, assigning the dhcp. two of the laptops want to back up to the time capsule.

so we don't need the "airport extreme" part of the time capsule anymore, we just need it to back up those two laptops wirelessly.

okay so now what? i can follow all the router setup instructions for both routers, i know how to do that, but does anyone have a good idea of the "best" way to set this up?

i was going to add the time capsule as an ethernet network client of the wndr3700. do you all agree or do you have a better setup idea?

i could also add the time capsule wirelessy in another room, maybe it will help extend the signal. i've heard this can dreadfully slow things down.

thanks!

 

[thiggins]

I think the best way is to shut off the Time Capsule's DHCP server and assign it a static IP outside the WNDR3700's DHCP server range. Then connect one of its LAN ports to a WNDR3700 LAN port. You can either shut off the Time Capsule's wireless or use it as another AP.

I would not connect the Time Capsule via wireless, since, in that mode, throughput to wireless clients connected to it will drop by at least half.

 

[pehrlabel]

Thanks Higgins! I'm going to try this Saturday morning and I'll let you know how it goes...

 

[pehrlabel]

Well the new router is, of course, way better. The only problems I realized I had are that the wireless printers are only G, and all the laptops were on N. So I had to switch the printers to wired. The HP printer worked instantly just by plugging it in to the new router. Easy. As for the Brother printer, I attached it to the time capsule as a USB printer. All of the N laptops were able to print to it. I just doubt that any older G laptops will be able to use it. Oh well, those laptops can use the HP.

I would have just made the Brother printer wired, but I didn't want people tripping over the Ethernet cable, and I couldn't change the locations of the printer or the router.

So that brings me to my only concern. I DID end up adding the time capsule to the WNDR3700's N-only network wirelessly, in Bridge mode. Will it really slow the network down by half? I thought as a bridge, it would use the WNDR's settings and only use N, not G. Hmm...

 

[Sevenfeet]

Well the new router is, of course, way better. The only problems I realized I had are that the wireless printers are only G, and all the laptops were on N. So I had to switch the printers to wired. The HP printer worked instantly just by plugging it in to the new router. Easy. As for the Brother printer, I attached it to the time capsule as a USB printer. All of the N laptops were able to print to it. I just doubt that any older G laptops will be able to use it. Oh well, those laptops can use the HP.

I would have just made the Brother printer wired, but I didn't want people tripping over the Ethernet cable, and I couldn't change the locations of the printer or the router.

So that brings me to my only concern. I DID end up adding the time capsule to the WNDR3700's N-only network wirelessly, in Bridge mode. Will it really slow the network down by half? I thought as a bridge, it would use the WNDR's settings and only use N, not G. Hmm...

Well, that should work but it'll probably be better for throughput if you just hooked up the Time Machine to the wired network and shut off the wireless functions of the device. But what you have should work anyway.

 

[thiggins]

The wireless bridge to the Time Machine will not slow down the network. Throughput will be reduced only to wireless clients that attach to it.

You didn't really have to move your printers to wired either, unless they are constantly in use. B/G clients mixed with N clients will slow down performance only when both flavors of clients are active at the same time.