NTP Sync issues

[#1]

On and off on the Hub One under Parental Controls it says it is trying to retrieve the current time which sometimes can take days if at all.  This has been going on a for a few weeks now but really causes issues with parental controls.  When the router can't get the current time and parental controls are enabled it applies all the rules whether they are in time or not.  As you can imagine this causes a lot of grief ending up with me disabling parental controls.

The error log has the following:

( 3886.340000) NTP synchronization failure!

which won't go away even on a reboot.

[#2]

i have been having NTP failures for last 3 days, even though time is correct give or take 3 seconds it really seems to be playing havoc with parental controls and event log.

i am hoping it is just a server issue that will be sorted very soon 

[#3]

I have my crappy hub set to restart on a timer switch in the early morning as I cannot rely on it.  Today after the power cycle NTP is syncing.

It is really is rubbish that this hub that I had to pay for on top of my monthly subs does not allow me to:

1) point at an NTP server of my choosing

2) 3rd party DNS servers

3) granular parental controls i.e. 7 day rather than 24 hour.  I use it to enforce screen time which will vary on school and non-school nights.  My young teenagers will use their phone as long as they can unless I exert some control.

[#4]

i didnt think of putting a timer in. good idea

not being able to select a different NTP server is a pain but not too bad, 

i have my own DNS server set up using PiHole, i only had to disable DHCP on router and now i route all DNS traffic through my PiHole, for other upstream DNS providers i just set them up in PiHole too.

the parental controls are useless, but they can be useful when it comes to my kids who will as you said just stay on devices until the power runs out. 

unfortunately i am still not syncing up but i will reboot again soon and hopefully sort the problem

[#5]

I've had this problem on and off throughout this year.  I've currently got a ticket open, pointing out it looks like a repeat of this problem that your Networks team fixed:
https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Plusnet-Hub-one-router-issue/m-p/1456205#M3572

However I've only got as far as getting the line tests done confirming my broadband was working ok, good to check the basics I assume.  Previously I've had a replacement router, but that's made no difference.

I suspect this is the same problem affecting everyone.  It renders Plusnet Access Control useless if/when the router loses the time, e.g. after a router reboot.

[#6]

None of the reports in this thread are from customers being routed via the part of the network that caused us problems last time.

Assuming you're using a Windows machine, do you see anything suspicious returned if you run something like this from a command line (you'll need to hold Ctrl and 'C' to exit after it's been running a while):

w32tm /stripchart /computer:ntp.plus.net /dataonly

All being well, I'd expect to see something like this:

Tracking ntp.plus.net [212.159.13.49:123].
The current time is 29/12/2017 11:21:49.
11:21:49, -00.3003229s
11:21:51, -00.2983505s
11:21:53, -00.3011604s
11:21:55, -00.3006223s
11:21:57, -00.3003993s
^C

[#7]

Hi Bob, thanks for your prompt reply, here's the output:

Command prompt:

w32tm /stripchart /computer:ntp.plus.net /dataonly

Returns:

Tracking ntp.plus.net [212.159.13.50:123].
The current time is 29/12/2017 11:39:58.
11:39:58, +08.7560278s
11:40:00, +08.7567331s
11:40:02, +08.7565843s
11:40:04, +08.7560034s
11:40:06, +08.7559401s

(Control C to quit)

I've then waited 10 mins and checked the router logs, wasn't expecting any change, so just to confirm there isn't.

21:47:12, 11 Apr.	(74832.520000) NTP synchronization failure!
21:38:02, 11 Apr.	(74282.490000) NTP synchronization failure!
21:28:52, 11 Apr.	(73732.460000) NTP synchronization failure!

[#8]

Thanks, that proves a machine behind your router can negotiate with the time server, so it's a bit of a mystery why the router itself can't (it should be trying to talk to the same server).

21:47:12, 11 Apr. (74832.520000) NTP synchronization failure!
21:38:02, 11 Apr. (74282.490000) NTP synchronization failure!
21:28:52, 11 Apr. (73732.460000) NTP synchronization failure!

I assume the date is wrong because your router has the wrong time/date configured, and that these are actually recent entries?

A router hooked up to a test line here can negotiate with the time server perfectly fine. It doesn't have access control enabled though, so I'll do that now and see if it makes any difference...

Edit: No difference, still works 

[#9]

Yes, the 11-Apr entries are from today.  They were the last few NTP entries when I posted the previous message.

After a reboot, the router sometimes defaults to 11-Apr.  Sometimes (days / maybe weeks) it then corrects itself if / when it establishes a NTP connection.

I was sent a replacement router earlier this year.  It took me a while to getting around to replacing it, which I did on 17-Nov.  Running fine for a while and then losing NTP is similar to what the previous router done.

Besides the log entries, the tell tale sign that all is not well is Current time: retrieving... on the Access Control page. 

Plusnet Access Control

Use Access Control to set times when specific devices will be prevented from connecting to the internet.

This can be useful if you'd like to control the amount of time your children are online. This means the Plusnet Hub will block all incoming and outgoing traffic to specific devices between the hours you select.

Access Control feature enable:	YesNo
Current time:	Retrieving...

Other tell tale is Access Control kicking in when you don't expect it.

On a different angle, is this relevant?  Troubleshooting / Event Log / All - does not show the recent (every 10 mins or so) NTP entries, yet when I filter by NTP instead of All, the "NTP synchronization failure!" messages are there.  In very general terms, could there be a problem with the event logs wrapping?

[#10]

---

@Bramley wrote:

On a different angle, is this relevant?  Troubleshooting / Event Log / All - does not show the recent (every 10 mins or so) NTP entries, yet when I filter by NTP instead of All, the "NTP synchronization failure!" messages are there.  In very general terms, could there be a problem with the event logs wrapping?

Hard to say if that's indicative of a problem or some inherent behaviour of the software. When things are working, there only seems to be a daily NTP event. I assume the retry frequency in your case is due to the failures.

Is the router running in its default config, or have you changed anything else aside form the Access Control settings?

It would be worth a factory reset if you haven't tried that already.

[#11]

The NTP sync issue appears to persist even on a default configuration and after a factory reset.
NB a factory reset also seems to keep the log, I don't think it is a complete reset.

[#12]

Just for the record, last few NTP entries before the reset:

23:25:50, 14 Apr.	(339950.390000) NTP synchronization failure!
23:16:40, 14 Apr.	(339400.360000) NTP synchronization failure!
23:07:29, 14 Apr.	(338850.330000) NTP synchronization failure!

and from the ALL log (not seen Port 2 this noisy... could be a PS3 on/off?):

23:28:11, 14 Apr.	(340091.830000) Admin login successful by 192.168.1.81 on HTTP
22:50:53, 14 Apr.	(337853.760000) Wire Lan Port 2 down
22:50:45, 14 Apr.	(337845.770000) Wire Lan Port 2 up
22:50:42, 14 Apr.	(337842.770000) Wire Lan Port 2 down
22:50:39, 14 Apr.	(337839.770000) Wire Lan Port 2 up
22:49:38, 14 Apr.	(337779.040000) Wire Lan Port 2 down
20:56:37, 14 Apr.	(330997.610000) Wire Lan Port 2 up
13:59:39, 14 Apr.	(305980.010000) Wire Lan Port 2 down

Reset it is... (from the GUI - Advanced Settings / System / Reset).  And a quick check to make sure I've got the logon card new router (admin password), and my "old" SSID / password as I'll be changing to that.

After the reset (only takes 4/5 mins), NTP works right away:

13:33:58, 01 Jan.	( 143.150000) NTP synchronization success!
13:33:54, 01 Jan.	( 139.200000) NTP synchronization start
22:35:00, 14 Apr.	(340500.580000) NTP synchronization failure!
22:25:50, 14 Apr.	(339950.390000) NTP synchronization failure!

So only changes after the reset are to the SSID, and to the Admin password.

Let's see how this goes for the next month or two.

[#13]

@Bramley - If you can change the NTP server then can I suggest you use pool.ntp.org (Helps if the domain is right!).

[#14]

This is exactly the same issue I get though it has b been okay this week.

[#15]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

@Bramley - If you can change the NTP server then can I suggest you use pool.ntp.org (Helps if the domain is right!).

---

I don't believe you can.

Worth bearing in mind that access to external NTP servers is typically blocked when connecting using the default 'setup' PPP username/password. Neither will TR069 negotiation work if the time isn't correctly configured.