10-06-2009, 07:51 AM

I have mac mini and powerbook G4 on Airport extreme network with adsl modem providing internet. I also want to connect both machines to ethernet to back up to network drive quickly. I have an ethernet switch and an Airport express which i can use as a router for the ethernet network if necessary. The express could be stand alone or a relay for the extreme on WDS but i'm worried that may affect download speed? I cannot run an ethernet line to the extreme base station.

I want the network to automatically access the internet through wireless and the network disk through ethernet, without having to manually switch off the wireless.
The backup uses Intego backup assistant which seems to talk to network drives differently from the host machine. So, for example, i have had the ethernet up and supporting file transfers between the machines and network drive but the Intego automatic backup still failed to establish a connection.

Happy to play with subnets if required.

Grateful for any suggestions on what must be a common problem people face.

10-06-2009, 04:27 PM

what sort of backup system are you planning to use? server, shuttle?

10-06-2009, 06:26 PM

I was planning to backup data on both machines, and on two firewire drives connected to them, onto the network disk using Intego Backup Assistant running scheduled overnight automatic backups. I would run the software on each machine. Not sure if this answers your question though? If you can recommend a better backup system let me know.

10-06-2009, 06:38 PM

that depends on which OS your running, wether its Mac OS Tiger or Leopard(s), Windows ore Linux,

for leopard or snow leopard my recomandation is really Time Machine.. or else apple automator scripts (I'll explain if needed)
For windows a third-party application but I'm not into windows, so can't help you with that, same goes for Linux.

Here's Leopard or snow leopard situation (on mac mini)
if you have an airport extreme, buy a simple USB-hub, just make sure its high speed!
connect all the HD's, Sticks or whatever you desire to the HUB
from there,
On your Mac mini go to finder, open a new screen, in the left column select your airport extreme, the plugged in data locations become visible
connect the one you desire to use for backup on your mac mini.
the drive schould connect now.
open time machine preferences, select the connected disk.
that's your mac mini configured.

for your powerbook G4, you need applescript (or automator in newer os)
you can use automator to very easily write folder-actions, there should already be an automatic backup script.
However, if you need more help on the apple scripting bit, i can walk you trough it.

hope it helps for you.

10-06-2009, 06:52 PM

my disks are firewire and run off the mini. i have found time machine too slow over my wireless network, hence the desire to use ethernet. My main question is still how to set up the wireless and ethernet networks so one is automatically used for internet and the other for whatever backup mechanism i use.