Hello,
My current Hardware is a mac mini G4 (soon to be a 1.83 C2Duo), a powerbook 1.67 and an airport express connected to my stereo. I have a printer connected by usb to the mini which is shared with the powerbook through airport express. When I upgrade to the C2Duo mini I will need an external modem as we only have dial up internet. Currently we have no external hard drives for backing up and I would like to get something to take advantage of time machine and start keeping back-ups. I would also like to have a wireless connection from my printer to my mini to cut back on wire mess. Both computers only use wireless G.
Idea 1
Purchase apples usb modem for my modem, purchase a refurbished airport extreme N and a separate usb hub to connect an external hard drive to be shared and for the printer.
Idea 2
Purchase the older airport extreme with 56k modem (ufo model), connect printer to airport extreme, use airport for modem and purchase an ethernet hardrive such as, http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/NASP7500GB16/, to share with the computers.
Idea 3
Purchase the older airport extreme with 56k modem (ufo model), connect printer to airport extreme, use airport for modem and connect a hardrive to the mini, leave mini on and share with powerbook.
Idea 1 seems the least appealing as it would be the most expensive and cluttered with the external modem on usb hub. Idea 2 is the most appealing as it would have least amount of clutter (all peripherals centralized together) and the hard drive would be independent of either computer. I suppose if i purchased the above ethernet hard drive it has a usb port so I could connect it to the mini if the NAS option wasn't working out. The advantage of option 3 would be I could get a firewire drive which would probably give the best performance.
The one big question I have is how realistic is it to use time machine to make wireless backups over a g network. I will wait until after leopard is released before purchasing a drive to make sure my set-up will work with time machine.
Any thoughts?
My current Hardware is a mac mini G4 (soon to be a 1.83 C2Duo), a powerbook 1.67 and an airport express connected to my stereo. I have a printer connected by usb to the mini which is shared with the powerbook through airport express. When I upgrade to the C2Duo mini I will need an external modem as we only have dial up internet. Currently we have no external hard drives for backing up and I would like to get something to take advantage of time machine and start keeping back-ups. I would also like to have a wireless connection from my printer to my mini to cut back on wire mess. Both computers only use wireless G.
Idea 1
Purchase apples usb modem for my modem, purchase a refurbished airport extreme N and a separate usb hub to connect an external hard drive to be shared and for the printer.
Idea 2
Purchase the older airport extreme with 56k modem (ufo model), connect printer to airport extreme, use airport for modem and purchase an ethernet hardrive such as, http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/NASP7500GB16/, to share with the computers.
Idea 3
Purchase the older airport extreme with 56k modem (ufo model), connect printer to airport extreme, use airport for modem and connect a hardrive to the mini, leave mini on and share with powerbook.
Idea 1 seems the least appealing as it would be the most expensive and cluttered with the external modem on usb hub. Idea 2 is the most appealing as it would have least amount of clutter (all peripherals centralized together) and the hard drive would be independent of either computer. I suppose if i purchased the above ethernet hard drive it has a usb port so I could connect it to the mini if the NAS option wasn't working out. The advantage of option 3 would be I could get a firewire drive which would probably give the best performance.
The one big question I have is how realistic is it to use time machine to make wireless backups over a g network. I will wait until after leopard is released before purchasing a drive to make sure my set-up will work with time machine.
Any thoughts?