Hi,

I'm sure this is a very simple query for the knowledge base out there, I'm just re-deploying an old 2860n as an access point, following some of the great discussions on the topic, set up the configuration with 3 VLAN's all sharing port 2 on the router which is connected to my main router. As such the 2860 has no WAN connections configured therefore the date & time on the router is set to the base date and time upon reboot. As I want to check logs for the hotspot access etc. I really want to sync the router date and time to a ntp service so I have an accurate record of events on the 2860.

Can anyone suggest a way to do this? Tried using the WAN port and defined WAN2 in bridge mode to LAN1, however the config failed due to SSID's being defined on VLAN's hosted off the shared port (port 2).

As mentioned suggestions greatly welcome.

D3009 wrote:
I really want to sync the router date and time to a ntp service so I have an accurate record of events on the 2860.

In the past when I've had this issue, I've just manually set the time on the Router (from the Browser time) ... it does slowly drift away from reality, but it's better than nothing

Any efforts to 'loop' the WAN port back to the LAN (by whatever means) are somewhat fraught with difficulty ... even with all the Firewalling / Vlan'ing that might be put in place (the odd 'broadcast' or some such, always seems to tip it all out of stability. (Just when you think you've got it sussed, you find you can't reboot until you unplug something or other similar nonsense!)

Let us know if you suss it

Hi Hornbyp,

I'm somewhat relieved by your post, I really thought I was missing something incredibly obvious. Sounds like you've been through the same ritual, and yes I found the same when trying different permutations of connecting the WAN with different firewall/VLAN settings it was becoming far too convoluted which is against my principle of 'keeping things simple', and again like yourself have found drifts in time or delays post reboot in picking up the time when set to browser time, however this will as you say be better than nothing.

I mirrored port 2 and was surprised to see that there was no NTP request at all when hitting the 'inquire time' while using the pool.ntp.org time service.

Will have a play around to see if I can find any other solutions and keep you posted.

I have my own ntp server on my LAN, but my Draytek router, a 2862, will not use it for time, unless the WAN is up.

Hi Colin,

Interestingly I tried exactly the same last night, just in case I could inspire the time settings from a local NTP service. Just not seeing anything on the wireshark logs at all in with respect to NTP requests from the router. So I believe it is the case that you need the WAN configured and 'UP' before that option is available.

Thanks for your interest in this.

colinjmair wrote:
I have my own ntp server on my LAN, but my Draytek router, a 2862, will not use it for time, unless the WAN is up.

D3009 wrote:
So I believe it is the case that you need the WAN configured and 'UP' before that option is available.

Now I thought it was the case, that the NTP request would only go out via the WAN...

if the WAN simply needs to be 'up', that might be as simple as giving it a dummy static IP address (1.2.3.4) and setting it to 'always on' (or plug it into something that makes the Ethernet link light come on)...