SR and SC Series NTP Servers Help and Support: Incorrect or ‘Bad’ Time on Power-Up
Models that this article applies to:
SR Series: SR7110, SR9210, SR9750, SR9850, SR9860D
SC Series: SC7105, SC9205, SC9705
Summary
When the time server is powered up, an incorrect time is displayed on the LCD display. GPS or LF ‘Bad’ is displayed. The time servers system time may have drifted too far from the correct time in order to synchronize correctly.
Tips
If the time server has been powered off for an extended period of time, the real-time clock may have drifted too far away from the correct time for the device to synchronize correctly. Alternatively, in older devices, the battery used to power the real-time clock may have lost charge, so that the clock longer maintains time when powered off.
In this instance the time servers system time needs to be corrected manually to within 10 minutes of the correct time in order for the device to synchronize correctly. This can be achieved very easily, as follows:
From a PC on the same network as the time server, open a ‘telnet’ session to the time server. In Windows, this can be achieved by executing ‘telnet 192.168.0.2’, where 192.169.0.2 is the IP address of the time server, from a command prompt.
Alternatively, if telnetting is disabled on the time server, use the supplied console serial cable to connect to the time server via a PC serial port. Use a dumb terminal emulator, such as ‘Hyper-Terminal’ to communicate to the device using the following settings: 9600 bps, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit, no parity, no flow control.
Login to the device using username ‘admin’, password ‘admin’ (default password, this may have been changed locally).
From the command prompt, enter:
> date
> setclock mmddHHMMyyyy
> restart
# display the current system time and date. If the system time is incorrect, it needs to be corrected in order for the device to synchronize correctly.
# Reset the system time. Where: ddmmyyyy is the current date, HHMM is the current time.
# Restart the device
IMPORTANT: Set the system time to UTC time – not local time !
NTP always works using UTC time – it knows nothing of time zones or daylight saving time. Time zone and daylight saving offsets are a function of the time client, not the server.