+1. I backup only my personal files and not my installed applications or other stuff on my hard drive. Dropbox is $200/year for 100 GB, unlimited bandwidth -- about 2x as expensive as just going directly to Amazon S3 storage, but Dropbox's software layer is worth the expense, plus they cover the BW costs.

So all my computers are in-sync, plus I have access via the web interface to revision control (prior versions, or deleted files).

Dropbox has really changed my backup strategy. As in, I don't, anymore.

It's completely changed the way I work. No more mailing files to myself every night. :)

If only it were a bit cheaper.

I think it depends on what kind of stuff you work on. On a one day photo shoot I can generate several gigs of files. I think uploading this much stuff every day could be really painful. For me, it's about being backed up. It's not as though I'm going to be doing Photoshop on my netbook while sitting in an airport lounge. I do like the idea of an offsite backup though.

Not for everyone, but I am using an infrant readynas...this is a more expensive solution than a time capsule but does have hot swappable drives and raid to allow replacement of failed drives with no loss of data size expansion..the latest firmware supports time machine with no tricks necesary. before that I was using a USB drive, but the convenience of having timecapsule on a network drive is awesome.

as others point out, using a wireless n router is huge...I have no problems with my d-link dir655.

I used to have a ReadyNAS. Actually, still do. An old one, before they had their X-raid system implemented. But have gone through three of their cross-flow fans and it's still dead now. Turn it on and it overheats in an hour. Good idea, but didn't work out for me.

What is the ulimate objective here? TC has some real benefits, in that it is all in one, and the current models offer multiple radios for either protocol segregation or security segregation. Of course, they have build in storage and can be used as a print server. There are of course, very good wireless routers, with gige connections. One can simply add a network storage device, many types of NAS devices in various capacities, which would provide not only cost savings, but redundancy across devices.

Personally, I use a linksys router, with gige connections, and a couple of NAS devices from westerndigital and buffalo and iomega (and HD HomeServer products) and I use TimeMachine backup for three macs across the network for this. The first one is fairly slow, but subsequent backups are pretty fast and reliable.

If you're not backing up multiple macs, why not get (a) a hard drive and (b) an airport express. The great thing about the express is you can take it on a trip and create your own wireless network if the hotel has only a wire.

Will an Airport Express or any Airport model support E-SATA or some other super-fast data transfer protocol? Since the Airport has the printer support, I could just add an external E-SATA or similar drive and not risk losing the whole contraption if one item failed.

I just answered my own question - all of the Apple-branded routers support USB only, and have one port which means no printer+drive, just one or the other and nothing close to the transfer speed of E-SATA or even Firewire.

the airport extreme has a usb port for attaching a hard drive. you'd need a usb enclosure.

The USB transfer speed is a fraction of E-SATA, and a fraction of a dedicated internal drive (like the Time Capsule). The performance would be dog slow in comparison.

I looked around and was unable to find any wireless router that offered an E-SATA or fast Firewire connection, so my complaint is probably moot.

if you're using 802.11g, the wireless link is going to be the bottleneck. if it's 802.11n, then the drive speed might make a difference, but i'd be surprised if it was all that much, if anything, in typical real world use.


that's why they make usb hubs. :) i think you can even attach multiple hard drives.

The idea of untethered backups is appealing, especially for laptops.

But I just attach a Firewire drive periodically and let TM backup.

Of course, sometimes I go weeks or even months and if a hard drive fails and it's been a couple of months since the last backup ...

Yes, and the airport express does not (I believe) support a hard drive on the USB port.

Anyway, FW and ESATA are far faster than wireless speeds you're likely to achieve, so isn't that speed pretty irrelevant? The fastest connection will be with a FW or ESATA cable direct to the computer.

FWIW, with Time Capsule one can, at least in theory, set it up for WAN access with backups even from the road. I got that to work, so I could use Time Machine to back up a laptop to my Time Capsule. The limitation is that upload speeds on most internet access points are extremely slow, so the backup can take way too long (even when it's just a couple of MB).