mbames wrote: it should pick up the time automatically

I'm not sure... as it's a router, possibly it will always expect NTP on its WAN (unless you know otherwise), though maybe a static route would help..

I've dug out an old 2820, applied the latest firmware.

Reset it, given it an IP address on my LAN, and set DNS to point to my "real" router, but I can't see how to set a default gateway, so I don't think it knows how to find the internet from a LAN only connection.... and thus the time doesn't update. I stand corrected. Newer devices may behave differently.

Thanks for the replies. I've set it up as a second router, using Wan port. That's the best I can do for now. It certainly does not seem to get any sort of time update from a lan only connection. I just wondered if there was a way round this.