rudy1073 wrote:
I am interested in what you finally do. I also have the AirPort Time Capsule and rely on it to manage various wifi cameras around my home. most of the simpler wifi cameras won't consider connecting to new router bands. I have a ton of photos, music, etc stored in the time capsule. the whole reason I got the AirPort Time Capsule was because of its simplicity. I'm not too interested in creating a new network that might or might not interface with current equipment. I use 6 or more Macs in my home, the capsule has been my cloud for years. Let me know, thanks.
I’ve replaced some Time Capsule networks, where the Time Capsules were comfogured as access points and NAS behind a dedicated box. The gateway boxes have been Zyxel or Ubiquiti.
What I usually install (recently) is a mix of Ubiquiti networking gear and Synology NAS gear.
Ubiquiti is reminiscent of what Apple was offering for clarity and plug-and-play, and an Apple-like hardware esthetic, though with a far broader selection of Wi-Fi and gateway gear, as well as many products and options Apple never offered including switching, firewalls, cameras, and other gear.
I expect to prototype the UniFi UNAS Pro at some juncture, and there are rumored to be NAS models beyond the first UNAS Pro model arriving this year.
Synology NAS works well with Time Machine, and they have options from Wi-Fi connected gear to dual-bay entry-level gear and mid- and upper-end NAS arrays, and with many additional network-related capabilities available.
As a close-to-Time Capsule configuration to consider, I’d probably look at Ubiquiti UniFi Express 7 (Wi-Fi mesh capable, though with no camera or other app support) or Cloud Gateway Max (this gateway needs added Wi-Fi access points, but has support for cameras and other Ubiquiti features), with a Synology DS124 single-bay or DS223 dual-bay for Time Machine.
Ubiquiti access points work well wired or mesh, and which helps with coverage particularly when wired backhaul is not available.
If you want an all-on one option, a Synology mesh (or maybe router) Wi-Fi box with an add-on USB hard disk drive.
If Wi-Fi is already available with an RJ45 network jack, then a Synology NAS box can be added to the existing network.