Confused about new Airport

Hey all. Just got my new 2TB eXtreme, and am a little confused about what its supposed to do.

First, I got it thinking it was a router/external HD combo that would allow me to save my Macbook backups as well as all of my movies and pictures, etc. for easy viewing through my Apple TV. Google searches have not found what I'm looking for, so maybe someone can explain it a little better for me.

What I found was that I am able to share my files through the Airport by plugging in my external hard drive to the USB drive in the Airport, and the Airport would then share all my files with my devices. I don't want this, it's just adding more wires and cables. I tried to move some of my files from my Mac so I can clear my HDD space, and it says:

"Moving this file requires administrator name/password. To move this file, click Authenticate."

But there is no Authenticate button.

So. Long story short, am I able to use this as I thought I was supposed to? Move all my files to the Airport, clear my HDD space and use this as an external HDD/Router combo?

Thanks in advance!!

Your idea that it is a router with a built-in hard disk is spot on.

You can do time machine backups to it and copy files to and from the disk. Although for AppleTV to pull files from it either needs to be jailbroken or you need to have home sharing iTunes content on there managed by your Mac.

Have you setup the extreme using Airport Utility?
How is it connected to your existing network?
When and what gives you the error you see?

mrplow said:

Your idea that it is a router with a built-in hard disk is spot on.

You can do time machine backups to it and copy files to and from the disk. Although for AppleTV to pull files from it either needs to be jailbroken or you need to have home sharing iTunes content on there managed by your Mac.

Have you setup the extreme using Airport Utility?
How is it connected to your existing network?
When and what gives you the error you see?

Click to expand...

Thanks. I configured the extreme with airport utility.
It is setup as the direct replacement for the router. i am online, and speeds are actually quite faster than my Linksys.
I have iTunes and the Apple TV setup with home sharing turned on. The thing I wanted to avoid was having to put my movies into iTunes and on the HDD of my macbook to view it on Apple TV.

The error comes up when i try to drag and drop files from my macbook to the Finder window when i open the Shared Devices Airport in a Finder window. Is there a specific way I need to do this instead?

That's all you need to do, depending on how you configured it.

If you're going to be using Home Sharing the content will have to be in the iTunes library. But you can move you're library onto the Extreme.

Does it happen for every file? If you try and drag an image, a text document a pages document a movie....do they all behave the same?

I'll have to figure out how to transfer my itunes library to the AEBS then.

Yes, it happens for every file. I have two tabs setup for my Finder window. One for the file directory i'm trying to move files from, and the other tab is the AEBS, which i selected from the sidebar of the Finder window.

Before you can re-locate the library we need to resolve the permissions issue. I'm presuming you can move the same files around to different folders on your Mac? If this is the case it's the permissions to the Extreme that's the issue.
I'm guessing it's something that was setup when you first configured it in Airport Utility. Not in front of mine so can't go in and check settings at the moment I'm afraid.

Can you post a screenshot of the authentication window that pops up? obviously you might want to obscure usernames etc.

Figured it out, I went into the Sharing preferences and clicked something with the network for the extreme, and now I can send my files to the "data" folder on the Extreme.

Which begs another question, is the "data" folder (the only folder on the extreme when i click on it) where I put all the files I want, and my backups?