Setting up Time Capsule was much more difficult than any Apple product I had ever used before. Unlike most routers, there is no web based interface to use. Instead an application called AirPort Utility is needing to configure the Time Capsule. The entire process wouldn't be too bad if less technical jargon was used, and small changes didn't require a reboot of Time Capsule. However, once everything was setup and I could get to the Manual Setup interface, administering the device became much easier.

As expected, Apple has put a lot of thought into the design of Time Capsule. A white plastic box with a silver Apple logo and some ports in the back is all you see when it's turned off. Plug it in to see the status light will glow through the white plastic on the front, a staple of recent Apple designs. There are no antennas sticking out the side, and the fan inside is super quiet (I haven't really heard it at all). Just looking at the device, you would never guess it has a bunch of cool features packed inside.

Arguably the most important feature is the built-in Airport Extreme base station. This provides includes 802.11 a/b/g/n capabilities, for the fastest current wireless access (as long as your computer supports the n 2.0 draft). The security minded will be happy to hear Time Capsule provides enterprise level security features including WEP, WPA, WPA2, MAC Address filtering, NAT firewall, RADIUS authentication, 802.1X, PEAP, LEAP, TTLS, TLS, FAST, and even Time based access control. Furthermore, all the networking standards are supported: DHCP, PPPoE, VPN Passthrough (IPSec, PPTP, and L2TP), DNS Proxy, SNMP, IPv6 (6to4 and manual tunnels).

The aforementioned Airport Utility is used to configure all of those settings. It can be used from any wired or wireless Mac or PC (software included on CD). Looking into all of the options can be pretty daunting, but luckily Apple has provided some pretty good help files, which come in handy needed when checking out some of the advanced features. Digging around this utility will even reveal some pretty in depth log files and logging features, in case something needs to be troubleshoot. However, one thing that is fairly annoying is that upon changing any setting, Time Capsule must be restarted for the change to take effect.

Along with the wireless capabilities, Time Capsule has a three port 1 Gbit switch built-in, allowing for wired computers to be connected at blazing speeds. The network is fast enough that hard drives may not be able to keep up with the data transfer. Unfortunately, only three ethernet ports can be fairly limiting; a fourth would have been a nice addition.

What really makes the Time Capsule special is the built in 500 GB or 1 TB hard drive. It takes only seconds to setup a Mac to back up via Time Machine to Time Capsule, but that initial back up will take quite a long time. In my case, over 45 GB needed to be transferred, which took just under three hours via 1 Gbit ethernet. However, once the initial backup is complete, subsequent backups will be fast. Beyond just using the internal hard drive to perform backups via Time Machine, it can also be used to share files across all the computers in your household (Windows PCs need to have Bonjour for Windows installed).

1 Terabyte of space is a lot of storage (as is 500GB), but what happens when that space gets filled up? For those who are fairly adventurous, it's possible to pull apart the Time Capsule to install a new hard drive. For the less adventurous out there, Time Capsule provides a USB 2.0 port which allows connecting of hard drive enclosures. These "AirPort Disks" can be used as file servers, or to archive Time Machine backups to free up space on the internal hard drive. Moreover, Apple provides multiple levels of security (including individual accounts) to keep everyone's data their own.

The USB port not only provides a way to expand storage capacity. Most USB printers can also be connected and used as networked printers. Hooking a printer up to Time Capsule allows it to be printed to from any Mac or Windows PC (again with Bonjour for Windows). No longer will it be required to manually hook up a printer to a laptop or keep a computer running as a printer server. Again a limited number of ports becomes an annoyance. However, by adding USB hubs to the mix, potentially up to 127 printers and/or hard drives could be connected to the Time Capsule for near limitless expansion.

I haven't encountered any problems to date (besides some dropped wireless connections, but at least those didn't require a reset of Time Capsule like my old router did).

Without Time Capsule, my backup schedule was somewhere around once ever 2-8 months, depending on when I plugged in my Firewire hard drive and copied the home folder. Now I have hourly backups that happen automatically, an always on Print Server, a NAS server for USB drives, and a superb wireless router. All these features at a price point that is definitely on par with less elegant solutions.

Pros	Cons
Built-in AirPort Extreme base station 500GB/1TB hard drive can be used for Time Machine backups, or simply sharing files 1 Gbit ethernet ports make transferring files via wires super fast 802.11n capabilities make transferring files via wireless super fast USB port for printer/hard drive sharing (supports hubs) Hard drive is reported to be easily replaceable Windows support for Printer and Hard Drive sharing through Bonjour for Windows High level of wireless network security and shared drive security	Initial Setup is fairly difficult Initial Time Machine backup is slow Could use an extra USB and Ethernet port
9.5/10 stars