Time accuracy and network performance
Does an inaccurate clock on an router, modem, affect network performance?
Today I was troubleshooting videos loading poorly on my PC. During this I decided to look at the statistics on my modem and saw the current time it reported was slow by about four minutes and a uptime of 100days. Resetting the modem gave it the correct time and in turn videos started loading fine. This made me question why this modem does not routinely update its clocks via NTP?
networking router modem time ntp
asked Jan 31 at 18:05
jake9wijake9wi
82
add a comment |
Does an inaccurate clock on an router, modem, affect network performance?
Today I was troubleshooting videos loading poorly on my PC. During this I decided to look at the statistics on my modem and saw the current time it reported was slow by about four minutes and a uptime of 100days. Resetting the modem gave it the correct time and in turn videos started loading fine. This made me question why this modem does not routinely update its clocks via NTP?
networking router modem time ntp
asked Jan 31 at 18:05
jake9wijake9wi
82
1
"After" (or "when") do not mean "because of".
– Akina
Jan 31 at 18:14
2
On consumer-level equipment it probably had more to do with full logs and memory leaks using up all the memory on the device.
– music2myear
Jan 31 at 18:32
What is the brand and model of the router you are using and what is the throughput of your internet (WAN) link?
– Caine Kiewit
Jan 31 at 19:19
add a comment |
Does an inaccurate clock on an router, modem, affect network performance?
Today I was troubleshooting videos loading poorly on my PC. During this I decided to look at the statistics on my modem and saw the current time it reported was slow by about four minutes and a uptime of 100days. Resetting the modem gave it the correct time and in turn videos started loading fine. This made me question why this modem does not routinely update its clocks via NTP?
networking router modem time ntp
asked Jan 31 at 18:05
jake9wijake9wi
82
Does an inaccurate clock on an router, modem, affect network performance?
Today I was troubleshooting videos loading poorly on my PC. During this I decided to look at the statistics on my modem and saw the current time it reported was slow by about four minutes and a uptime of 100days. Resetting the modem gave it the correct time and in turn videos started loading fine. This made me question why this modem does not routinely update its clocks via NTP?
networking router modem time ntp
networking router modem time ntp
asked Jan 31 at 18:05
jake9wijake9wi
82
asked Jan 31 at 18:05
jake9wijake9wi
82
asked Jan 31 at 18:05
jake9wijake9wi
82
asked Jan 31 at 18:05
jake9wijake9wi
82
asked Jan 31 at 18:05
jake9wijake9wi
82
82
1
"After" (or "when") do not mean "because of".
– Akina
Jan 31 at 18:14
2
On consumer-level equipment it probably had more to do with full logs and memory leaks using up all the memory on the device.
– music2myear
Jan 31 at 18:32
What is the brand and model of the router you are using and what is the throughput of your internet (WAN) link?
– Caine Kiewit
Jan 31 at 19:19
add a comment |
1
"After" (or "when") do not mean "because of".
– Akina
Jan 31 at 18:14
2
On consumer-level equipment it probably had more to do with full logs and memory leaks using up all the memory on the device.
– music2myear
Jan 31 at 18:32
What is the brand and model of the router you are using and what is the throughput of your internet (WAN) link?
– Caine Kiewit
Jan 31 at 19:19
1
1
"After" (or "when") do not mean "because of".
– Akina
Jan 31 at 18:14
"After" (or "when") do not mean "because of".
– Akina
Jan 31 at 18:14
2
2
On consumer-level equipment it probably had more to do with full logs and memory leaks using up all the memory on the device.
– music2myear
Jan 31 at 18:32
On consumer-level equipment it probably had more to do with full logs and memory leaks using up all the memory on the device.
– music2myear
Jan 31 at 18:32
What is the brand and model of the router you are using and what is the throughput of your internet (WAN) link?
– Caine Kiewit
Jan 31 at 19:19
What is the brand and model of the router you are using and what is the throughput of your internet (WAN) link?
– Caine Kiewit
Jan 31 at 19:19
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
No. Absolute time error or drift is not an issue. Networking is very picky about the relative passage of time (event happen 3 seconds ago, this data is 2 hours old, this event happened before that event, etc.), but the absolute time is really only used for logging. As long as your router's clock is monotonically increasing at even vaguely the right rate, you don't need to worry about time problems.
If you are super paranoid about accurate time in your log files, you should look into Network Time Protocol (NTP) support on your router. You might also be interested in time smearing, which is particularly important for networking. I do not know if your router will take kindly to the time changing when doing NTP updates.
More likely you are just seeing issues with consumer grade equipment on a 100 day uptime. The software isn't superbly robust and lots of things can go wrong over time, such as the router accumulating massive logs files that are so huge they eat up all the CPU time to modify and/or a software bug (i.e. memory leak) has finally gotten out of hand.
answered Jan 31 at 19:15
AndyAndy
1,024311
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No. Absolute time error or drift is not an issue. Networking is very picky about the relative passage of time (event happen 3 seconds ago, this data is 2 hours old, this event happened before that event, etc.), but the absolute time is really only used for logging. As long as your router's clock is monotonically increasing at even vaguely the right rate, you don't need to worry about time problems.
If you are super paranoid about accurate time in your log files, you should look into Network Time Protocol (NTP) support on your router. You might also be interested in time smearing, which is particularly important for networking. I do not know if your router will take kindly to the time changing when doing NTP updates.
More likely you are just seeing issues with consumer grade equipment on a 100 day uptime. The software isn't superbly robust and lots of things can go wrong over time, such as the router accumulating massive logs files that are so huge they eat up all the CPU time to modify and/or a software bug (i.e. memory leak) has finally gotten out of hand.
answered Jan 31 at 19:15
AndyAndy
1,024311
add a comment |
No. Absolute time error or drift is not an issue. Networking is very picky about the relative passage of time (event happen 3 seconds ago, this data is 2 hours old, this event happened before that event, etc.), but the absolute time is really only used for logging. As long as your router's clock is monotonically increasing at even vaguely the right rate, you don't need to worry about time problems.
If you are super paranoid about accurate time in your log files, you should look into Network Time Protocol (NTP) support on your router. You might also be interested in time smearing, which is particularly important for networking. I do not know if your router will take kindly to the time changing when doing NTP updates.
More likely you are just seeing issues with consumer grade equipment on a 100 day uptime. The software isn't superbly robust and lots of things can go wrong over time, such as the router accumulating massive logs files that are so huge they eat up all the CPU time to modify and/or a software bug (i.e. memory leak) has finally gotten out of hand.
answered Jan 31 at 19:15
AndyAndy
1,024311
add a comment |
No. Absolute time error or drift is not an issue. Networking is very picky about the relative passage of time (event happen 3 seconds ago, this data is 2 hours old, this event happened before that event, etc.), but the absolute time is really only used for logging. As long as your router's clock is monotonically increasing at even vaguely the right rate, you don't need to worry about time problems.
If you are super paranoid about accurate time in your log files, you should look into Network Time Protocol (NTP) support on your router. You might also be interested in time smearing, which is particularly important for networking. I do not know if your router will take kindly to the time changing when doing NTP updates.
More likely you are just seeing issues with consumer grade equipment on a 100 day uptime. The software isn't superbly robust and lots of things can go wrong over time, such as the router accumulating massive logs files that are so huge they eat up all the CPU time to modify and/or a software bug (i.e. memory leak) has finally gotten out of hand.
answered Jan 31 at 19:15
AndyAndy
1,024311
No. Absolute time error or drift is not an issue. Networking is very picky about the relative passage of time (event happen 3 seconds ago, this data is 2 hours old, this event happened before that event, etc.), but the absolute time is really only used for logging. As long as your router's clock is monotonically increasing at even vaguely the right rate, you don't need to worry about time problems.
If you are super paranoid about accurate time in your log files, you should look into Network Time Protocol (NTP) support on your router. You might also be interested in time smearing, which is particularly important for networking. I do not know if your router will take kindly to the time changing when doing NTP updates.
More likely you are just seeing issues with consumer grade equipment on a 100 day uptime. The software isn't superbly robust and lots of things can go wrong over time, such as the router accumulating massive logs files that are so huge they eat up all the CPU time to modify and/or a software bug (i.e. memory leak) has finally gotten out of hand.
answered Jan 31 at 19:15
AndyAndy
1,024311
answered Jan 31 at 19:15
AndyAndy
1,024311
answered Jan 31 at 19:15
AndyAndy
1,024311
answered Jan 31 at 19:15
AndyAndy
1,024311
1,024311
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1
"After" (or "when") do not mean "because of".
– Akina
Jan 31 at 18:14
2
On consumer-level equipment it probably had more to do with full logs and memory leaks using up all the memory on the device.
– music2myear
Jan 31 at 18:32
What is the brand and model of the router you are using and what is the throughput of your internet (WAN) link?
– Caine Kiewit
Jan 31 at 19:19