“Waiting for Time Capsule to Restart” when Using Time Capsule to Extend a Wireless Network   - 3,635 Views, 1 Comment

If so, you’re not alone.

If you are getting the dreaded unending “waiting for Time Capsule to restart” message while trying to get Time Capsule to add itself to your already existing wireless network (as compared to having Time Capsule be your primary wireless router) here are a couple of things you can do (in our case, both were necessary - fortunately both are very easy).

First, if your original wireless router (not the Time Capsule) is using WEP, you need to change it to WPA2. Actually, with our Qwest wireless router we needed to change it to a setting which was both WPA and WPA2 (called, in our modem software, “WPA-PSK and WPA2-PSK”). Then, of course, let Time Capsule know about that change, by telling it to use WPA2 in the Time Capsule set-up. You’ll find that Time Capsule gives you a choice of “WPA2 Personal” or “WPA2 Enterprise” - we used WPA2 Personal, and it worked well.

This change is necessary, however it was not enough to actually get the Time Capsule set up, even though some material we’d found online had indicated that it should be.

Here is the secret key to getting your Time Capsule to work - at least it was for us. Listen closely, because this is so non-intuitive - in fact, seemingly so nonsensical, that you’d never guess it:

After changing to WPA2, and during the Time Capsule set-up, when the Time Capsule set-up routine asks whether you want to use the Time Capsule as your wireless router, or to have it add itself to an existing wireless network, select the “use it as a wireless router” option even though that’s not what you want! (Trust us here - and even if you don’t trust us, you can always reset the Time Capsule by pushing in the little dot of a reset switch on the back with the point of a pen or pin until the light on the front blinks rapidly.)

Then, and here’s the really non-intuitive part (even more than the above) - when the set-up routine asks you what wireless device you’d like the Time Capsule to replace - select the Time Capsule!

That’s right, you read that right. Instead of selecting your existing wireless router for the Time Capsule to replace (because that’s not what you want), select that you want the Time Capsule to replace itself!

THAT is what will make the software see your Time Capsule on the wireless network, as just another wirelessly accessible device on your already existing wifi network!