[quiklee]

So, I bought the wireless-n extreme base station last year thinking that i could back up my laptop wirelessly, but then they took that feature out right before delivery . . .

so now, they come out with this new apple extreme base station with built in hard drive . . . my question is . . . is there a software upgrade where i can wireless backup my macbook now through the previous AEBS?

[mduell]

"Haha, no, pay up."

There may be a firmware/software update for the old one, but nothing announced yet. It's not clear if external storage attached to Time Capsule can be used as a Time Machine target.

[Donny]

An external HD attached to the old AEBS is pretty much the same as the new AEBS. I was very disappointed when I got Leopard and couldn't wirelessly backup.
Would be interested if anyone has any insight into this.

[ghporter]

For what it's worth, I don't like backing up across ANY type of network, at least for the initial backup. Even gigabit can get to feel slow when you're backing up that much stuff. Using a wireless system that's "only" as fast as 802.11G feels like slow torture, especially when compared to USB or Firewire.

[Stizo99]

Originally Posted by mduell 

"Haha, no, pay up."

There may be a firmware/software update for the old one, but nothing announced yet. It's not clear if external storage attached to Time Capsule can be used as a Time Machine target.

Quite possibly...the input diagram in the Time Capsule storefront from Apple's site states the USB port as "USB port for printer or hard drive". You can probably physically connect your target HDD to the computer for its initial backup, then plug it into the Time Capsule for all future backups. Makes it nice for the portable HDD's.

[jcarr]

I have an older 802.11g AEBS and a G4 tower running Leopard server.

When we upgraded, I connected my wife's MacBook to the ethernet for the initial Time Machine backup, but subsequent backups seem to work fine over the air.